Lecture 6: The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was an unprecedented expansion in the capabilities of man in manufacturing and in a great variety of endeavors from transport to environmental control. Man’s creativity and inventiveness, coupled to an ability to utilize insights into nature and natural laws and to exploit the Earth’s resources, resulted in enormous increases in the production of material goods and influenced almost every aspect of everyday living.
This was a revolutionary change from living with and coexisting with nature to an increased capacity to bend nature to man’s will.
Lecture Outline
1. Introduction
2. Start of the Industrial Revolution
3. The steam engine
4. Cotton production
5. Assembly line manufacture
6. Robotics
7. Making iron
8. Cement
9. Other advances
Coal gas
Glass
Paper
Machine Tools
Mining
Transportation
10. Summary
11. Fossil fuels
12. Endnote
Concepts introduced in the sixth lecture:
Next week we’ll talk about shared beliefs and their role in cooperative living and working.
The Industrial Revolution was an unprecedented expansion in the capabilities of man in manufacturing and in a great variety of endeavors from transport to environmental control. Man’s creativity and inventiveness, coupled to an ability to utilize insights into nature and natural laws and to exploit the Earth’s resources, resulted in enormous increases in the production of material goods and influenced almost every aspect of everyday living.
This was a revolutionary change from living with and coexisting with nature to an increased capacity to bend nature to man’s will.
Lecture Outline
1. Introduction
2. Start of the Industrial Revolution
3. The steam engine
4. Cotton production
5. Assembly line manufacture
6. Robotics
7. Making iron
8. Cement
9. Other advances
Coal gas
Glass
Paper
Machine Tools
Mining
Transportation
10. Summary
11. Fossil fuels
12. Endnote
Concepts introduced in the sixth lecture:
- The industrial revolution depended the creativity of individuals for ideas but on cooperative action of larger groups to achieve significant results
- Many of the major changes that were part of the industrial revolution involved the use of machinery to replace actions that had previously been dependent on man’s individual effort
- At least initially the changes in manufacturing required the increased use of labor to perform repetitive tasks, resulting in the growth of a localized labor force
- Advances in manufacturing led to the growth of factories, of population, and of cities
- Initially coal, and later oil and gas, fueled the advances that began in the industrial revolution
- All areas of life have been affected by the changes initiated in the industrial revolution; these have led to major improvements in standards of living for the bulk of the population
- the industrial revolution has never stopped, and the pace of change has accelerated in recent times
- the industrial revolution, with the expansion of man’s creativity and capability, fostered the concept of a malleable better future
Next week we’ll talk about shared beliefs and their role in cooperative living and working.