British industrial performance between 1870 1914 essay

Bring fact-checked results to the top of your browser search. Revolution and the growth of industrial society, — Developments in 19th-century Europe are bounded by two great events. The French Revolution broke out inand its effects reverberated throughout much of Europe for many decades. World War I began in

British industrial performance between 1870 1914 essay

It followed on from the First Industrial Revolution that began in Britain in the late 18th century that then spread throughout Western Europe and North America. It was characterized by the build out of railroadslarge-scale iron and steel production, widespread use of machinery in manufacturing, greatly increased use of steam power, widespread use of the telegraphuse of petroleum and the beginning of electrification.

It also was the period during which modern organizational methods for operating large scale businesses over vast areas came into use. The concept was introduced by Patrick GeddesCities in Evolutionbut David Landes ' use of the term in a essay and in The Unbound Prometheus standardized scholarly definitions of the term, which was most intensely promoted by Alfred Chandler — However, some continue to express reservations about its use.

Vaclav Smil called the period — "The Age of Synergy " during which most of the great innovations were developed since the inventions and innovations were engineering and science-based. Railroads allowed cheap transportation of materials and products, which in turn led to cheap rails to build more roads.

Railroads also benefited from cheap coal for their steam locomotives. This synergy led to the laying of 75, miles of track in the U. Hot blast was the single most important advance in fuel efficiency of the blast furnace as it greatly reduced the fuel British industrial performance between 1870 1914 essay for making pig iron, and was one of the most important technologies developed during the Industrial Revolution.

The early technique of hot blast used iron for the regenerative heating medium.

British industrial performance between 1870 1914 essay

Iron caused problems with expansion and contraction, which stressed the iron and caused failure. Edward Alfred Cowper developed the Cowper stove in The Cowper stove was also capable of producing high heat, which resulted in very high throughput of blast furnaces.

The Cowper stove is still used in today's blast furnaces. With the greatly reduced cost of producing pig iron with coke using hot blast, demand grew dramatically and so did the size of blast furnaces. Air blown through holes in the converter bottom creates a violent reaction in the molten pig iron that oxidizes the excess carbon, converting the pig iron to pure iron or steel, depending on the residual carbon.

The Bessemer processinvented by Sir Henry Bessemerallowed the mass-production of steelincreasing the scale and speed of production of this vital material, and decreasing the labor requirements. The key principle was the removal of excess carbon and other impurities from pig iron by oxidation with air blown through the molten iron.

The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten. The "acid" Bessemer process had a serious limitation in that it required relatively scarce hematite ore [10] which is low in phosphorus. Sidney Gilchrist Thomas developed a more sophisticated process to eliminate the phosphorus from iron.

In America, although non-phosphoric iron largely predominated, an immense interest was taken in the invention. The next great advance in steel making was the Siemens-Martin process.

The furnace operated at a high temperature by using regenerative preheating of fuel and air for combustion. Through this method, an open-hearth furnace can reach temperatures high enough to melt steel, but Siemens did not initially use it in that manner.

The Siemens-Martin process complemented rather than replaced the Bessemer process. Its main advantages were that it did not expose the steel to excessive nitrogen which would cause the steel to become brittleit was easier to control, and that it permitted the melting and refining of large amounts of scrap steel, lowering steel production costs and recycling an otherwise troublesome waste material.

It became the leading steel making process by the early 20th century. The availability of cheap steel allowed building larger bridges, railroads, skyscrapersand ships. With large amounts of steel it became possible to build much more powerful guns and carriages, tanks, armored fighting vehicles and naval ships.

Rail[ edit ] A rail rolling mill in Donetsk The increase in steel production from the s meant that railroads could finally be made from steel at a competitive cost.

Being a much more durable material, steel steadily replaced iron as the standard for railway rail, and due to its greater strength, longer lengths of rails could now be rolled.

British economic development between and - Assignment Example

Wrought iron was soft and contained flaws caused by included dross. Iron rails could also not support heavy locomotives and was damaged by hammer blow. The first to make durable rails of steel rather than wrought iron was Robert Forester Mushet at the Darkhill IronworksGloucestershire in The first of his steel rails was sent to Derby Midland railway station.

They were laid at part of the station approach where the iron rails had to be renewed at least every six months, and occasionally every three. Six years later, inthe rail seemed as perfect as ever, although some trains had passed over it daily.

Steel rails lasted over ten times longer than did iron, [15] and with the falling cost of steel, heavier weight rails were used. This allowed the use of more powerful locomotives, which could pull longer trains, and longer rail cars, all of which greatly increased the productivity of railroads.

Electrification and Electricity The theoretical and practical basis for the harnessing of electric power was laid by the scientist and experimentalist Michael Faraday.

Through his research on the magnetic field around a conductor carrying a direct currentFaraday established the basis for the concept of the electromagnetic field in physics. Issued January 27, Revolution and the growth of industrial society, – Developments in 19th-century Europe are bounded by two great events.

The French Revolution broke out in , and its effects reverberated throughout much of Europe for many decades. - Europe, in the late ’s, was starting for a land grab in the African continent. Around , most of Africa was unexplored, but by , most of Africa, with the lucky exception of Liberia and Ethiopia, was carved up between European powers.

The Age of Imperialism (–) Although the Industrial Revolution and nationalism shaped European society in the nineteenth century, Joseph Lister (British, –) Infections connected to filthy conditions; he insisted that staff keep hospital clean.

When assessing the various intricate denouements of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods of the British political history, one must stop and wonder about the performance of the Conservative party as one of the protagonists of the parliamentary struggles and changing social and demographic scenarios.

Industrialization and Long-Run Economic Growth in Comparative Perspective

D. Edgerton, Science, Technology and the British Industrial ‘Decline’, () M. Wiener, English Culture and the Decline of the Industrial Spirit () W.D. Rubinstein, Capitalism, Culture and Decline in Britain, ().

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