Questions tagged [industrial-revolution]
Questions about the transition to new manufacturing processes and technologies that occurred in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
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How has mother/ child mortality evolved from pre industrial era?
I came across a surprising claim: that child and mother mortality was lower in pre industrial societies than in industrial ones.
I guess it might have some merit, if we compare pre industrial ...
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What heavy industrial work, if any, was done in USSR 1923-1927?
In the USSR, the first five-year Plan began in 1928. The Revolution and Civil War ended in 1922 Oct (the "main phase" according to wikipedia). That's, coincidentally, a five-year gap.
So I ...
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What were "prison-bars" (some sort of "amusement" or "athletic exercise")?
Richard Guest, A Compendious History of Cotton Manufacture (1823):
The amusements of the people have changed with their character. Athletic exercises of Quoits, Wrestling, Foot-ball, Prison-bars and ...
user54367
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What was the dominant government system in the 1600s~1800s?
I'm making a game where the player begins with small tribe in Ancient Era and for each era there are government systems to choose. They are very similar to the ones from the Civilization series. Below ...
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In which way are the industrial revolution and the famine during the first years of Soviet rule comparable? [closed]
The other day, I was having a conversation about corruption in Russia under Putin rule, and his use of 'altered' historical narratives according to what would more beneficial to his rule as Russia's ...
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Was a drop in standards of living a significant factor in the revolutions of 1848?
A lot ink has been expended discussing the revolutions of 1848 and their causes, only a small fraction of which I have read.
From my point of view, there seem to be two main schools of thought in ...
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How was sugar consumed by industrial revolution workers?
I seen several times the claim than sugar was an essential nutrient for industrial revolution workers (for example this blog) and even that sugar availability made possible the industrial revolution, ...
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Did Industrial Revolution economic systems rely on colonies? [closed]
I have read in the Economic Nobel's prize Thomas Piketty's book the following sentence (translation is mine):
"The Enlightenment movement and the Industrial Revolution were partially based on the ...
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How Heavy was a Spinning Jenny or Spinning Mule?
The spinning jenny, water frame and spinning mule were textile spinning frames used during the industrial revolution.
Approximately how heavy were these machines?
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Why do historians distinguish two Industrial revolutions, instead of just one?
There was a 40 year gap between the two revolutions. Ending in 1830 and starting in 1870. However, why did historians distinguish two revolutions, instead of merging them together?
First Industrial ...
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Why did the First and Second Industrial Revolutions start in Europe?
Why did the First and Second Industrial Revolutions start in Europe?
Both revolutions were very similar, or at least they were connected. They weren't very far apart (1st: 1760 - 1860 | 2nd: 1870-...
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Was the Second Industrial Revolution directly related to the first?
Was the Second Industrial Revolution merely a continuation of the first, or did it happen based on separate and unrelated means?
First Industrial Revolution: 1760 - 1830
Started in England, spread ...
user41226
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How was the linen weaving trade learnt in 18th century Scotland?
In the 18th century, the linen weaving industry began to form a significant part of Scotland's economy and workforce, with towns like Forfar employing 500 hand loom weavers at the end of the century, ...
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Which historical developments led to mankind becoming ingenious towards todays exponential growth? [closed]
I want to ask pretty much the question in the title with some side notes/hints for the context:
I don't mean first tools created by homo sapiens, I mean which societal or geographical developments ...
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Did Friedrich Engels support the Chartist movement?
Does anybody have primary sources of Friedrich Engels explicitly supporting the Chartist movement? (Chartism was a mid-19th century political movement)
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European Life Expectancy Comparable? Now or When? [closed]
Question:
Was their ever a people in European history where life expectancy was similar to Now? 21st century? 70+ years of age? Average or Median?
I realize conventional wisdom would inform us ...
user27618
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Is there any economic history account of the role of Japan's precious metal deposits in the roles of the country's early industrialization?
The Japanese archipelago is generally scarce in natural resources, but Japan has a large deposit of precious metals in the Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine, and a few other mines, to a smaller extent. Japan ...
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What do historians mean when they talk about "supply side" and "demand side" explanations of the industrial revolution?
Joel Mokyr writes in Demand vs. Supply in the Industrial Revolution that
The determination of 'when,' 'where,' and 'how fast' are to be sought first and foremost in supply, not demand-related ...
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What was horse population & growth in Northern UK 1500 to 1850?
I would like any statistics or estimates of horse population growth in Europe after 1500. I am especially interested in the northern UK and areas that industrialized first. I have a hypothesis that ...
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Are we now living in an Automation Age? [closed]
Background
Historians have grouped epochs of human technological advancement into various "Technology Ages" (characterized by the predominant types of tools and weapons used by humans) including the ...
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For steam trains, what kind of deaerator was used, if any?
Deaerators are things that remove dissolved gasses in water. Dissolved O2 and CO2 in water will result in boiler corrosion.
So I'm wondering how this was done back in the old days of steam trains, ...
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How the average female body used to be before the industrial revolution? [closed]
I have this curiosity for several reasons.History articles says that before the isdustrial revolution most people used to be quite poor and most of the population were peasants. In other words, most ...
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Did quantum theory originate as pure research? [closed]
Recently I've read a debate over the futility of demanding "usefulness" from research endeavors, since the potential outcome is unpredictable. As evidence for this statement, a list of random papers ...
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What was the biggest shipbuilding centre in Europe during the Second Industrial Revolution?
I'm specifically interested in the United Kingdom, though I'd love to get a comparison between countries.
I would like any answer to cite records of number or tonnage of ships built. I'm interested ...
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Were high wages the root cause of the industrial revolution?
I was listening to a (German-language) podcast where this argument was made (translation into English courtesy of Google translate):
The decisive change came in [...] 1760 in England. And that is ...
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Was it widespread during the 17th and 18th Century for British country people to be evicted and replaced with more profitable agriculture?
We can read about the Scottish Highland clearances. It does appear that the driving motivation was that sheep pastures were more profitable.
This was the time of the Industrial Revolution, when many ...
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Is the concern about automation costing jobs a recent one only, or are there other examples from the past?
Jobs always have been replaced. Were people in the past concerned about how technology might deprive them of their jobs?
To make the question less broad: Were people at the time of the industrial ...
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What percentage of the British Empire's economy was profits from the opium trade?
Between 1820 and 1840 the British sold a lot of Opium in China. Compared with the total size of the British Empire's economy, how big was the Opium trade?
I have an old friend who maintains that even ...
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Did the ancients or other pre-industrial civilisations engage in unsustainable practices?
A popular rhetoric we hear regarding sustainability is that modern life after industrialization and arrival of plastics and hydrocarbon fuels have led to environmental degradation on Earth and our ...
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How did people apply for university in the 18th century?
Universities have been around for a while.
I am reading a book called Frankenstein.
One of the main characters, Victor Frankenstein, attends the University of Ingolstadt in Germany.
Now, it makes ...
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Why did it take so long for humans to utilise fossil fuels? [closed]
While our ancestors have been around for about six million years, the modern form of humans only evolved about 200,000 years ago. Civilization as we know it is only about 6,000 years old, and ...
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What role did 17th c. luxury manufacturing play in the industrialization?
The luxury industry boomed with Louis XIV and his heirs. He made it mandatory for the nobles to invest their fortunes in the French luxury industry by following the latest fashion that the king ...
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How to find the image of a 17th century music instruments manufacture?
How to find on Goolge Images search an image of 17th or 18th century manufacture? The drawing (or lithography) was showing a hall with people sitting around and building music instruments. I have seen ...
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Why was the Aeolipile not put to practical use in classical antiquity?
The Aeolipile was a simple mechanical device that generated kinetic energy from steam. Its invention is attributed to the Hero of Alexandria in the 1st century AD.
Source: Aeolipile
With the ...
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Why did workers in the Industrial Revolution accept submission? [closed]
I've read that during the Industrial Revolution many workers abandoned their jobs as farmers or artisans to sell their labor to the new industrialists. The factory jobs were exhausting and the quality ...
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Index of importance / economic value various minerals during the Industrial Revolution
I am looking for an indication, possibly an Index, as to the value or importance of common minerals for the Industrial Revolution. So, for example how important was Manganese (or Lead, or Zinc..) ...
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Was there a president that wanted to "Make America Farm Again"?
There seems to be a lot of push back as the US employment markets move toward knowledge work and away from more traditional industrial roles.
I'm sure there was a similar time in history when moving ...
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What percentage of British people during the industrial revolution were rich?
I am doing some research for school and I was wondering what was the percentage of British people during the industrial revolution (The 1760 to 1840 period) were rich? By 'rich' I mean a person that ...
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What name was given to Victorian era of confidence?
When considering the Victorian era there is a typical reference to the zeitgeist that thought that human society and technology were inevitably progressing for the better, a sort of manifest destiny ...
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Early Telegraph Systems
My understanding of telegraphs is that you can only send one message at a time over one cable, if that is not accurate then this question is pointless.
I am curious how telegraph communication was ...
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Was knowledge derived from the scientific method required to build commercial steam engines? [closed]
Historically steam engines got developed in England after the introduction of the hypothetico-deductive scientific method. Was the hypothetico-deductive method or knowledge about thermodynamics or ...
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Japan allying with Germany in WWII [duplicate]
So I've been studying imperialism. Focusing on Japan, Japan's imperialism is a result of its modernization which is a result of Matthew Perry's siege (not a good word). After the treaty of Kanagawa, ...
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Book about Glorious Revolution
I am currently reading Acemoglu, Daron & Robinson, James: Why Nations Fail, which made me want to read more about the Glorious Revolution of 1688. I am particularly interested in an economic ...
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How much resemblance did the industrialization of the Soviet Union bear to those of the rest of the world?
I was thinking about the industrialization of the Soviet Union, most notably the death toll involved. The policies (such as forced-labour, prison camps for those who under performed, extremely poor ...
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Did Watt or another inventor have a dream about ball bearings?
I have put in a fair amount of searching for this but have come up empty. I specifically remember the story printed from my childhood like 30-40 years ago, but I wanted to see if there's any source ...
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River transportation before steam- did it always require beasts of burden?
Today, it takes gasoline or diesel fuel. Prior to that and thanks to Mr. Fulton, there was steam.
I want to learn more about even earlier river transportation systems, focusing on the Ohio and ...
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Where did the demand for textiles during the industrial revolution come from?
A lot of the technological developments in the early-ish industrial revolution in Britain were about increasing the rate and efficiency of textile manufacture. It's easy to find material about what ...
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How effective was child labor legislation in Victorian Europe? [closed]
How effective was child labor legislation in Victorian Europe?
Effectiveness being counted in 'percent of working environments that actually complied', with 'Effective' being... 50% compliance? Or ...
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What did farmers/laborers use for boots before modern rubber existed?
The need or usefulness to protect one's feet while doing certain duties in farming, heavy labor, and the like (such as construction with pointy things and hard edges everywhere), I am assuming has ...
user2151
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Why did textile mill owners during the industrial revolution keep their factory windows closed?
This is an excerpt from Harbinger, published in 1846 on the working conditions of mills in Lowell, MA and Manchester, NH:
The atmosphere of such a room cannot of course be pure; on the contrary it ...
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