It's not possible to pin down an exact date for the start of the Industrial Revolution. Rather it involved a gradual introduction of new mechanical methods for agriculture and manufacturing, which led to an economic boom during the 1700s.
At the time, many people didn't realise they were in a boom. Indeed they thought the economy was in decline and that they were in the middle of a worrying recession. This illustrates the fact that those living in a particular period often can’t fully appreciate what it represents in the bigger picture of human history. What will our age be called in 400 years? The 'Computer Age', or the 'Space Age', or something else altogether? There have been lots of developments during our time that are worthy of having a period named after them.
The importance of new mixed farming techniques was well understood by the middle of the 18th century. The agricultural surpluses they generated made it possible to exploit the new industrial techniques as people moved away from (or were forced off) the land and into the growing towns and cities. This led to increased production and more demands being placed on the infrastructure of the country. For example, many of the roads were not in a suitable condition to cope with the growing traffic and so we see the first 'Turnpike Trusts' introduced at this time. These charged tolls in order to raise funds to repair the roads. The economy quickly benefited as journey times were shortened between centres of manufacturing and demand. The waterways also grew in importance as significant trade routes, and the modern canal network dates from this period.
London lost some of its importance as cities like Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham became the new centres of industrial production. These and other towns and cities experienced phenomenal growth in association with the boom in manufacturing. There were often violent protests against the introduction of new machinery by workers who lost their employment or saw their wages cut as a result of it, but the new methods were to prove unstoppable. Not until trade unions and the labour movement gathered strength in the 19th century did the balance of power begin to shift back from the new industrialists.
The overall pattern of development during the Industrial Revolution is one of ‘boom and bust’. Areas with ready access to good supplies of natural resources (such as iron ore or clay) were rapidly developed and enjoyed a thriving economy. Often, though, when the resources were used up (or became too costly to exploit) these settlements went into decline as the manufacturing companies moved on. Many of these important areas survive today due to programmes to preserve our historical heritage.
Before the Industrial Revolution most power sources were water-based or driven by animals. The introduction of steam power enabled the use of fast and efficient machines, yielding huge increases in output. In the home, coal replaced wood as the most common fuel. Innovations revolutionised the production of textiles and pottery, while the use of iron (both in construction and brilliant new techniques of working the raw material) gave impetus to what was sometimes referred to as the 'New Age of Iron'.
Britain took full advantage of the resources at its disposal and became not only the first great industrial nation but the ruler of what was to become the biggest empire the world has ever seen.
How a furnace works
A furnace for casting iron is made up of several components and requires three ingredients to produce the pure liquid metal. The actual construction of a standard furnace resembles a bulbous brick chimney stack. The whole furnace sits on the casting floor of the foundry. The bottom of the furnace contains a walled hearth with a tapped dam. Just above the hearth a tuyere, or wind pipe, inlet is positioned which is powered by mechanical bellows. Above the hearth the main chimney consists of three levels. The ‘boshes’, at the bottom, open the width of the chimney above the hearth and have a funnel profile. This creates the bottom of the bottle shaped chimney. The main stack runs to the top of the chimney getting gradually smaller the higher it goes. At the very top of the chimney there is the tunnel head and charging level.
The furnace has two working levels: the casting floor at the bottom and the charging level at the top. The raw materials of coke, limestone and iron ore are tipped into the chimney stack from above. The ratio of each component often varies depending on the quality of the ingredients but an example would be, two barrows of coke, one barrow of limestone and seven barrows of ore.
Once a furnace is fired the process is continual. Many industrial period examples ran for months on end through manufacturing ‘campaigns’. If a brick furnace is allowed to cool it is damaged by temperature change and solidifying raw materials. The charging of the furnace is a particularly nasty job as the fumes at the top of the stack are highly poisonous.
The smelting of the iron took place within the stack and the liquid metal settled down through the system. Once the quality of the liquid metal was judged good enough by the chief founder the dam was untapped and the iron poured into various moulds to create cast iron products.