What five revolutionary innovations made possible the Industrial Revolution? Give one example of each of these innovations, and describe how each was adapted

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

ANSWER:
The five innovations were (a) mass production through the division of labor; (b) new machines and mechanization; (c) an increase in the supply of iron; (d) the steam engine; and (e) the electric telegraph. Josiah Wedgwood and the porcelain industry were one example of applying mass production techniques originally developed by the Chinese. Wedgwood broke down the work into individual steps, maximizing the use of labor and other resources within each step. The cotton industry exemplified the role of machines in the Industrial Revolution. Machines such as the spinning jenny, the mule, and the power loom produced cotton textiles at lower costs. Watermills improved both production and quality. As for the enormous increase in iron production, it allowed great expansion and improvement of transportation through the building of bridges, railroads, and steamships. More iron also meant that more machinery could be built more cheaply, and larger factories were constructed to accommodate those machines. Iron production was boosted by the innovation in removing impurities from both iron and coal. Coke production allowed Britain to produce iron without depending on dwindling charcoal supplies, as other nations did. The most important innovation, however, was in energy. James Watt's improvement of the steam engine made available cheap and portable energy sources--and insufficient energy seemed to have been the only constraint on rampant industrialism. Power for pumping water from mines, operating mills, and driving ships and trains let the Industrial Revolution careen forward. Finally, the telegraph significantly advanced communication and aided the operation of such things as railroads. The development of the electric telegraph after 1837 greatly improved global communications, first along railway lines and, after 1851, across oceans.