I

THE
Learning A–Z level Z Multi-level N/A
Grade
Lexile
5
1010L
Word Count
Nonfiction • Informational
1,521
The Industrial
ndustrial
RRevolution
evolution
Refer to the Focus Question on page 2 of this title to guide
discussion and support additional learning connected to the text.

The world as we know it today is a direct result of

the Industrial Revolution, a time of great change and
innovation. While the Industrial Revolution improved the
standard of living for many people around the world,
it also had negative effects, including an ongoing
dependency on fossil fuels and poor work environments.
The Industrial Revolution introduces students to a
detailed history of this monumental era. This book can
also be used to teach students how to identify cause-and-
effect relationships as well as identify and use root words.

Photo Credits:
Front cover: Album/Alamy Stock Photo; title page, page 3: The Keasbury-Gordon Photograph Archive/KGPA Ltd/Alamy Stock Photo; page 4:
© De Agostini Picture Library/De Agostini Editore/age fotostock; page 5: © British Library Board. All Rights Reserved/Bridgeman Images;
page 7: © iStock.com/CaronB; page 8: © Hulton Archive/Getty Images; page 9: © Science & Society Picture Library/SSPL/Getty Images;
page 11: © Rischgitz/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; page 12: © Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images; page 15:
courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, National Child Labor Committee Collection, [LC-DIG-nclc-01581]

Written by Lorraine Freeney

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Industrial
THE
Focus Question
What were the causes and effects

Revolution
of the Industrial Revolution?

Words to Know
advancement outrage
efficient reluctant
industrialization revolutionized
inhabitants technology
literacy toiled
mass-produce wages

Connections
Above: Workers take their places on a production line in
a linen factory in the late 1800s. Writing
Cover: This engraving shows a steam engine—which
revolutionized coal mining—at work in England in 1850.
Create an idea web to show some of the ways the
Industrial Revolution changed people’s lives. Use the
information in the idea web to write a detailed essay
Written by Lorraine Freeney
about the impacts of the Industrial Revolution.
Science and Art
Research to learn more about a machine mentioned
in the text. Create a diagram of the machine and
describe what it was used for.
 The Spark
Around 1764, Scottish inventor James Watt was
hired to repair a Newcomen steam engine . Miners
used these engines, invented decades earlier, to
pump water out of
flooded mines . Watt
improved the steam
engine’s design,
making it much
more efficient and
affordable .
A woman works at a roving frame to produce linen in an English factory in
the late 1800s.
In the following
Table of Contents years, Watt and other
inventors made even
The Spark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
more improvements The Newcomen steam engine laid the
The Roots of Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 to the steam engine . foundation for the Industrial Revolution.
For the first time, steam could be used to power
Rise of the Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
all kinds of machines, from weaving looms to
The Factory System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 locomotives . Watt’s steam engine was one of many
advances that sparked the Industrial Revolution .
Child Labor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
From the mid-1700s to the mid-1800s, new
Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
technology transformed Great Britain and,
Innovation Leads to Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 eventually, the world . The Industrial Revolution
influenced every part of people’s daily lives . It
Beyond Great Britain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
changed how people worked, where they lived,
Legacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 how far they could travel, what they wore, and
even what foods they ate .
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

The Industrial Revolution • Level Z 3 4

 THE BRITISH EMPIRE IN 1815
The Roots of Revolution
The development of new technology was one
United Kingdom
of the most important causes of the Industrial of Great Britain
Revolution, but there were others . The East India 2 ASIA
NORTH 1 EUROPE
Company, a trading company formed in England in AMERICA 3 8
ATLANTIC
1600, was one of them . It had grown into a military 6
4
OCEAN 9
e
and political power with a large private army . 5
7 0
AFRICA
a f
The East India Company imported cotton PACIFIC SOUTH
b d
OCEAN
products from India . The products were cheap AMERICA c INDIAN AUSTRALIA
OCEAN
because Indian laborers weren’t paid much for their g
1 Canada 7 Trinidad # Cape Colony
work . Cotton goods became extremely popular in 2 Newfoundland 8 Gibraltar $ Mauritius
h
3 Bermuda 9 Malta % India
Britain . In the mid-1700s, the East India Company 4 Bahamas ~ Sierra Leone ^ Ceylon
5 Jamaica ! Ascension Island & New South Wales
took control of territories in India . Britain now 6 British Honduras @ St. Helena * Tasmania
had direct access to India’s supplies of raw cotton .
Britain began to import cheap cotton from India in
By the late 1700s, British control of overseas
order to produce finished goods even more cheaply
territories had expanded to include colonies in the
at home .
West Indies, North and South America, and Canada .
These territories provided other raw materials,
including wool, silk, and lumber . Britain also
had large supplies of natural resources important
to industrialization, such as coal and iron .

Britain’s population had grown as farmers

found new ways to produce more food . At the
same time, wealthy lords bought large amounts of
public land once worked by small farmers . People
Soldiers working for the British East India Company battle local troops
who could no longer grow their own food had
in the Kingdom of Mysore, India, in 1799. to move to cities to find work .

The Industrial Revolution • Level Z 5 6

 Rise of the Machines
Textile production—the making of cloth and
clothing—was the biggest industry in the 1700s .
It was also the first to be revolutionized by new
inventions . Before the Industrial Revolution,
clothing was usually made at home or in village
workshops . Making cloth was often a family
business . Family members divided the tasks of
spinning yarn—from cotton, flax, or wool—and
weaving cloth on a hand loom . The process was This engraving shows Bridgewater Factory as it appeared in 1840.
slow and tedious, even for skilled workers .
The Factory System
In the late 1700s, spinning and weaving became
Factories not only changed how goods were
more efficient thanks to a series of new inventions .
made, but also the nature of working life . The first
Richard Arkwright, an industrialist and inventor,
factories were water-powered and needed to be
developed a way to use a waterwheel to drive
located close to rivers . Steam-powered factories,
a spinning machine that produced strong cotton
however, could be built almost anywhere . Many
thread . Arkwright’s invention was too big for any
were built around Manchester, in the north of
workshop, so he built a large mill in Cromford,
England . Manchester had access to cheap coal via
Derbyshire . Cromford Mill soon employed
the Bridgewater Canal . Manchester’s location near
hundreds of workers .
the coast made it easy to import raw materials and
Arkwright eventually
export finished products overseas .
built several more
factories, and other The new mills and factories led to a population
textile manufacturers boom . In 1773, Manchester had a population
followed his example . of about 25,000 . By 1802, it had fifty-two mills
and about 95,000 inhabitants . By 1851, it was
Cromford Mill is widely considered
a sprawling city of over 300,000 with a new
to be the first modern factory. nickname: Cottonopolis .

The Industrial Revolution • Level Z 7 8

 Inside, factories were usually noisy, cramped, Child Labor
dimly lit places where workers toiled between Children as young as four often worked full-
twelve and sixteen hours per day, six days a week . time in factories alongside their families . In the
There were no paid vacations or sick days and early 1800s, more than half of the workers in some
no safety regulations . Factory owners enforced British factories were under the age of fourteen .
strict rules and sometimes beat or whipped their Factory owners paid children as little as one-tenth
employees—especially children . Workers could of what adults made . Sometimes children did not
be fined for offenses such as whistling or opening receive any wages at all, working instead for room
a window . and board . Children could do jobs that adults
were too big to do, such as crawling under textile
Factories used a process known as “division of
machines to pick up fallen thread . Injuries were
labor,” with each part of the manufacturing process
common for both adults and children .
performed by a separate person . The system sped
up production and allowed factory owners to pay Children also worked in coal mines, where
low wages because workers needed little skill . there was constant danger from gas explosions
and collapsing mine shafts . Children as young
as five served as trappers in mines, opening and
closing doors to let in fresh air . Older children
and women pushed and pulled heavy tubs of coal
through dark, narrow tunnels .

The British Parliament was forced to react to

public outrage at these terrible working conditions .
It passed a series of laws reducing the number
of hours that children could work and raising the
minimum working age . However, these laws were
difficult to enforce . For many children, working
in factories and mines was the only way they
During the Industrial Revolution, factories became increasingly complex, could earn money for food and housing .
with huge pieces of machinery that were dangerous to operate.

The Industrial Revolution • Level Z 9 10

 Education Innovation Leads to Innovation
Before the 1800s, school was not free in Advances in one area led to advances in others .
Britain . Wealthy children were educated at home For example, the availability of cheap coal led
by governesses and tutors . Poor children could to faster methods of producing cast iron . As iron
attend Sunday schools organized by churches became more affordable, it was used to make
or pay to go to small, informal private schools even more powerful tools and machines .
held in teachers’ homes .
Businesses needed better means of
In 1833, the Factory Act ruled that children transportation . They built canals and improved
working in factories should receive two hours of roads to carry heavy raw materials and import
education per day . Charities set up free schools, and export finished goods . Engineers developed
known as “ragged schools,” in working-class steam locomotives to haul coal . In 1825, British
areas . New printing and papermaking techniques engineer George Stephenson and his son, Robert,
made books and newspapers more available and built a railway line 25 miles (40 km) long between
affordable, and literacy increased . Stockton and Darlington . It was the first railway
to include a passenger car . Locomotive travel
was one of the most exciting developments of the
CHARLES DICKENS Industrial Revolution . For some, though, it was
Charles Dickens (1812–1870) was the most popular
terrifying . A few critics believed that the human
British writer of his time. When Dickens was twelve years
old, his father was sent to prison for debt. Dickens, as the body might melt at high speeds!
oldest son, was forced to work at a blacking, or shoe polish,
factory. After three years, Dickens
was able to return to school. His
novels and stories, including Oliver
Twist, Hard Times, and A Christmas
Carol, are still beloved today. He
highlighted the challenges of the
Industrial Revolution, especially
for children, and the urgent need
for social reform. Members of the general public ride in a train for the first time
on the opening day of the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825.

The Industrial Revolution • Level Z 11 12

 Many industries benefited from new Beyond Great Britain
developments in chemical production . Scientists The Industrial Revolution gradually spread, first
developed ways to mass-produce chemicals such to mainland Europe and then to North America .
as sulfuric acid and sodium carbonate (soda ash) . The British were understandably reluctant to share
The textile industry used sulfuric acid to bleach their inventions, wealth, and power . Although
and dye fabric . It was also used to remove rust exporting machines and techniques was forbidden,
from iron and to make fertilizer . Soda ash was there was too much money to be made to keep the
needed to make glass, soap, and paper . new technologies secret for long .

Portland cement, developed in 1824, was an English-born William Cockerill, an expert iron
important advancement in building, construction, maker, brought new technology to Belgium, and
and transportation . Portland cement was used his son opened an ironworks there . From Belgium,
to build the Thames Tunnel, the world’s first the new methods spread to France, Germany,
underwater tunnel, which opened in 1843 . and the rest of Europe . Samuel Slater studied the
designs of textile machines before he moved from
COAL PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM, 1800–1900 Britain to the United States, where he built these
250 machines from memory . This earned him the
nickname “Slater the Traitor .” In 1793, he built a
200
spinning mill in Rhode Island and helped launch
coal output in millions of tons

150
the American Industrial Revolution .

100
SLAVERY AND THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
50 Much of the financing for early factories and technological
improvements came from wealthy traders in enslaved people.
0 Many British port cities grew powerful by shipping enslaved
1800 1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860 1870 1880 1890 1900 people and processing the raw materials—including cotton,
Source: Stevenson & Cook, The Longman Handbook of Modern British History, 1714–1980 sugar, and tea—that came from plantations in the Americas.
Coal production grew rapidly in the 1800s to fuel the needs The British abolished such trade by law in 1807.
of the Industrial Revolution.

The Industrial Revolution • Level Z 13 14

 Legacy Glossary
Many historians agree that most people’s overall advancement (n.) page 13 outrage (n.) page 10
standard of living improved during the Industrial an improvement upon an a reaction of extreme
Revolution . Average income increased, and for existing thing, idea, or anger or shock
the first time people could choose from a selection body of knowledge
reluctant (adj.) page 14
of affordable, mass-produced clothing, household efficient (adj.) page 4 unwilling or hesitant to
items, and other goods . making good use of time do something
or resources
There were many negative effects, though . revolutionized (v.) page 7
Fossil fuels and chemicals used in manufacturing industrialization (n.) made enormous changes
polluted the air and water . Poorer people— page 6
technology (n.) page 4
especially children—lived and worked in harsh the process of a society
machines or tools that
conditions . Big cities became overcrowded and changing due to the
are developed through
filthy . As the Industrial Revolution progressed, widespread use of
the use of scientific
some of these problems improved . Cities machines, automation,
knowledge
developed better sanitation and sewage systems . and technology to create
Governments passed laws to better people’s goods toiled (v.) page 9
working lives . Workers joined together to worked on something
inhabitants (n.) page 8
difficult or unpleasant for
form unions, and their fight for fair treatment people or other animals
a long time
eventually extended to other groups, including that live in a certain
women . Ultimately, the location wages (n.) page 9
Industrial Revolution laid the regular payments earned
literacy (n.) page 11
groundwork for modern society by a worker that are
the ability to read and
as we know it and for all the based on the amount
write
conveniences—from phones of time worked
to cars—that we rely on today . mass-produce (v.) page 13
to make or create on a
large scale, usually using
Young boys climb on machinery to do their work
machines
in a textile mill in Macon, Georgia, in 1909.

The Industrial Revolution • Level Z 15 16