1 00:00:04,400 --> 00:00:07,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from I Heart Radio. 2 00:00:11,920 --> 00:00:14,440 Speaker 1: Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, 3 00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:17,160 Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with I Heart Radio 4 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:20,000 Speaker 1: and how the tech are you? It is time for 5 00:00:20,040 --> 00:00:23,239 Speaker 1: a tech Stuff classic episode. This week we are wrapping 6 00:00:23,400 --> 00:00:26,400 Speaker 1: up a three part series. So the first two parts 7 00:00:26,520 --> 00:00:29,040 Speaker 1: published on the previous two fridays. If you have not 8 00:00:29,160 --> 00:00:31,880 Speaker 1: listened to them, I recommend you check those out first. 9 00:00:32,159 --> 00:00:35,879 Speaker 1: This is How the Industrial Revolution Worked, Part three It 10 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:41,480 Speaker 1: originally published on December two, two thousand fifteen. In this episode, 11 00:00:41,479 --> 00:00:45,280 Speaker 1: we'll cover everything from transportation to what it was like 12 00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 1: to be a member of the working class at that time, 13 00:00:48,600 --> 00:00:52,199 Speaker 1: and how we started to see some new lines dividing 14 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:54,279 Speaker 1: different classes. It used to be that it was the 15 00:00:54,320 --> 00:00:58,400 Speaker 1: nobles versus the peasants, with clergy in the middle, really 16 00:00:58,400 --> 00:01:01,680 Speaker 1: clergy off to the side on their own kind of ladder. 17 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:06,880 Speaker 1: But things changed in the Industrial Revolution. So during this 18 00:01:06,959 --> 00:01:09,960 Speaker 1: period in Britain's history, which as you may remember, is 19 00:01:10,200 --> 00:01:13,640 Speaker 1: in the mid eighteenth to mid nineteenth century, so the 20 00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:16,319 Speaker 1: seven the mid seventeen hundreds to the mid eighteen hundreds, 21 00:01:16,600 --> 00:01:20,240 Speaker 1: transportation was getting a major overhaul. Roads had been in 22 00:01:20,319 --> 00:01:23,959 Speaker 1: really poor shape ever since the Romans had left Britain 23 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:28,440 Speaker 1: and they were in need of repair and redesign. Shipping 24 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:32,000 Speaker 1: by boat was really popular, and many of Britain's rivers 25 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:36,199 Speaker 1: became important conduits for trade goods. Engineers would actually start 26 00:01:36,200 --> 00:01:39,440 Speaker 1: to begin to design canals to connect various rivers together 27 00:01:39,800 --> 00:01:43,600 Speaker 1: in order to speed up transportation. And then there were 28 00:01:43,640 --> 00:01:50,080 Speaker 1: the rail systems. So railroads pre date trains and locomotives 29 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:54,320 Speaker 1: by a lot, because people figured out fairly early on 30 00:01:54,920 --> 00:01:57,320 Speaker 1: that it's a lot easier to push or pull a 31 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:00,600 Speaker 1: heavy cart that's along a set of hard rail than 32 00:02:00,680 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 1: it is to move that same cart against the ground, 33 00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:07,920 Speaker 1: that it will roll more smoothly and you have to 34 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:10,440 Speaker 1: use less effort to get it from point A to 35 00:02:10,480 --> 00:02:14,360 Speaker 1: point B. So at first wooden rails were used and 36 00:02:14,480 --> 00:02:17,919 Speaker 1: carts would have flanged wheels to allow them to stay 37 00:02:17,960 --> 00:02:20,880 Speaker 1: on the rails securely. Not all carts were like this, 38 00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:22,720 Speaker 1: not all rail systems were like this, but it was 39 00:02:22,840 --> 00:02:27,919 Speaker 1: generally one of the accepted standards across the world by 40 00:02:27,919 --> 00:02:30,960 Speaker 1: this point, where people knew if you built the wheels 41 00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:32,919 Speaker 1: in this way so that they essentially kind of hug 42 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,080 Speaker 1: the rails, it's not likely to tip over, and you 43 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:38,360 Speaker 1: can move at a good clip. By a good clip, 44 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:40,840 Speaker 1: we're talking a couple of miles per hour, usually because 45 00:02:40,840 --> 00:02:45,560 Speaker 1: you're carrying so much stuff. Now, typically you'd use horses 46 00:02:45,600 --> 00:02:48,799 Speaker 1: to pull the carts along the rails. People did experiment 47 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 1: with other things, uh, But one of the pioneers in 48 00:02:52,880 --> 00:02:57,799 Speaker 1: railroads in England was Richard Reynolds. Now, Reynolds was an 49 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:02,000 Speaker 1: iron master who worked at Brookdale, and that's the iron 50 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:05,080 Speaker 1: works that was founded by Abraham Darby. You can listen 51 00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:07,480 Speaker 1: to the previous episodes on this series and you'll hear 52 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:10,960 Speaker 1: me talk about the Darby family. Well, Reynolds became friends 53 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:15,760 Speaker 1: with Abraham Darby, the second, so the son of Abraham Darby. 54 00:03:16,120 --> 00:03:20,280 Speaker 1: And in seventeen sixty Reynolds came up with the idea 55 00:03:20,440 --> 00:03:26,880 Speaker 1: of replacing wooden rails with cast iron rails. He thought 56 00:03:26,919 --> 00:03:30,400 Speaker 1: that this would be a much better use of cast iron. 57 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: It would be better than the wooden ones because the 58 00:03:33,200 --> 00:03:35,960 Speaker 1: wooden rails would break down over time. They could also 59 00:03:36,080 --> 00:03:39,640 Speaker 1: just collapse depending upon how heavy the load was, and 60 00:03:40,160 --> 00:03:43,720 Speaker 1: cast iron would last longer and be able to withstand 61 00:03:43,760 --> 00:03:47,800 Speaker 1: greater weights. Now, there's no historical record of anyone doing 62 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:50,160 Speaker 1: this before Reynolds, so he might have actually been the 63 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:54,000 Speaker 1: person to invent this, but it's not safe to just 64 00:03:54,160 --> 00:03:57,040 Speaker 1: declare it, so it's possible someone else did. We just 65 00:03:57,080 --> 00:03:59,720 Speaker 1: don't have a record of it, so I guess for 66 00:04:00,240 --> 00:04:04,200 Speaker 1: practical purposes, we can say he invented this idea before 67 00:04:04,280 --> 00:04:08,720 Speaker 1: long tramways all across Britain were following his his lead, 68 00:04:09,080 --> 00:04:12,680 Speaker 1: and so he was using rails in order to move 69 00:04:12,760 --> 00:04:17,560 Speaker 1: giant carts of coal or iron back and forth between locations. 70 00:04:18,240 --> 00:04:20,359 Speaker 1: But soon these were being used all over the place 71 00:04:20,400 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 1: for various reasons, and so they started convert wooden railways 72 00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:29,560 Speaker 1: into iron railways. This is fifty years before the invention 73 00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:33,000 Speaker 1: of the locomotive, which turned railways into a major means 74 00:04:33,040 --> 00:04:35,560 Speaker 1: of transport, not only in Britain but all across the world. 75 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:38,400 Speaker 1: And we'll get to the locomotive a bit later, but 76 00:04:38,720 --> 00:04:41,640 Speaker 1: just imagine for fifty years, this was a way of 77 00:04:41,680 --> 00:04:46,560 Speaker 1: getting heavy loads of cargo to load from location to location, 78 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:51,320 Speaker 1: but there were no trains, it was just horse drawn carts. 79 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:54,680 Speaker 1: In the last episode, I also talked about the punt 80 00:04:54,720 --> 00:05:01,359 Speaker 1: custalta aqueduct, punt consulta child mangle. Every single time I 81 00:05:01,360 --> 00:05:03,159 Speaker 1: try and say it's okay. The Welsh have trouble with 82 00:05:03,200 --> 00:05:05,880 Speaker 1: this one too. That's just one example of the innovations 83 00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:09,560 Speaker 1: and transportation that were introduced in the Industrial Revolution. Uh. 84 00:05:10,279 --> 00:05:12,159 Speaker 1: It was during this time that nations like the United 85 00:05:12,240 --> 00:05:16,279 Speaker 1: Kingdom and the United States really began to build extensive canals, 86 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:19,039 Speaker 1: roads and railways to speed up that travel. And I 87 00:05:19,120 --> 00:05:23,360 Speaker 1: mentioned Thomas Telford as the architect who designed and built 88 00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:27,919 Speaker 1: the pot Consulta aqueduct. That was the one that was 89 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:31,760 Speaker 1: a raised aqueduct made out of an iron trough that 90 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:35,599 Speaker 1: connected two rivers together, and it spanned a valley so 91 00:05:35,640 --> 00:05:40,320 Speaker 1: that the waterway actually passed above the valley. It didn't 92 00:05:40,320 --> 00:05:42,480 Speaker 1: have to descend into the valley and then go back up, 93 00:05:42,520 --> 00:05:47,000 Speaker 1: it went straight across. He made several important contributions to 94 00:05:47,040 --> 00:05:50,800 Speaker 1: England's transportation systems, not just this aqueduct, and his designs 95 00:05:50,800 --> 00:05:53,760 Speaker 1: were adopted by engineers and other countries like the United States. 96 00:05:54,080 --> 00:05:58,840 Speaker 1: So it might be worth looking into who Telford was like. 97 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:03,520 Speaker 1: Who was Thomas Telford. He was born in August of 98 00:06:03,640 --> 00:06:08,160 Speaker 1: seventeen fifty seven on the border between England and Scotland. 99 00:06:08,240 --> 00:06:12,479 Speaker 1: He's generally considered a Scottish architect. His father died when 100 00:06:12,480 --> 00:06:15,279 Speaker 1: he was just a baby, and his mother relied on 101 00:06:15,360 --> 00:06:18,760 Speaker 1: her relatives to help raise the child. Essentially, Telford was 102 00:06:18,839 --> 00:06:22,640 Speaker 1: raised by his his relatives, not by his mother, and 103 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:26,760 Speaker 1: at age fourteen he became apprenticed to a stonemason. He 104 00:06:26,839 --> 00:06:30,640 Speaker 1: was really keen to learn everything there was to learn 105 00:06:30,680 --> 00:06:34,360 Speaker 1: about construction, and so he would actually study at night 106 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:37,360 Speaker 1: after working a full day shift with the stonemason. After 107 00:06:37,760 --> 00:06:40,640 Speaker 1: learning his trade with the stonemason, and by the time 108 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:42,719 Speaker 1: he was twenty five, he had worked on several important 109 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:47,080 Speaker 1: construction projects and including some in Edinburgh, Scotland, and he 110 00:06:47,160 --> 00:06:51,640 Speaker 1: ended up picking up stakes to move to London. That's 111 00:06:51,680 --> 00:06:55,320 Speaker 1: where Telford met Sir William Chambers, who was a prominent 112 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:59,680 Speaker 1: Scottish architect, and Chambers had begun work on Somerset House 113 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:03,600 Speaker 1: or Somerset House if you prefer if you're being more 114 00:07:03,640 --> 00:07:06,440 Speaker 1: British with it, and Telford ended up joining the crew. Now, 115 00:07:06,440 --> 00:07:09,600 Speaker 1: if you're not familiar with London, Somerset House may sound 116 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:13,600 Speaker 1: like it's a quaint cottage. It's not. House is a 117 00:07:14,560 --> 00:07:18,600 Speaker 1: not an accurate word to describe this massive building. It's 118 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:23,240 Speaker 1: an enormous neo classical structure, and it was big enough 119 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:25,600 Speaker 1: so that it could house the Royal Academy of Arts, 120 00:07:25,640 --> 00:07:30,360 Speaker 1: the Royal Society, the Society of Antiquaries, and the quarters 121 00:07:30,400 --> 00:07:33,640 Speaker 1: for the Navy Board and offices for the King's Barge Master. 122 00:07:34,040 --> 00:07:38,040 Speaker 1: This is a big, big building, massive in fact, and 123 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:41,800 Speaker 1: it had a whole bunch of challenges that were associated 124 00:07:41,840 --> 00:07:44,880 Speaker 1: with it, not just because it was huge, but because 125 00:07:44,920 --> 00:07:46,600 Speaker 1: it was going to be the quarters for the King's 126 00:07:46,640 --> 00:07:49,920 Speaker 1: barge Master as well as for the Navy Board. It 127 00:07:50,000 --> 00:07:52,520 Speaker 1: had to be built up against the River Thames. There 128 00:07:52,520 --> 00:07:56,120 Speaker 1: had to be direct access to the Thames River, so 129 00:07:56,200 --> 00:07:58,880 Speaker 1: that was a big challenge. And if you're not if 130 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:01,280 Speaker 1: you've never seen it, you should look at the pictures 131 00:08:01,320 --> 00:08:04,280 Speaker 1: of the Somerset House. The middle section of the structure 132 00:08:04,320 --> 00:08:07,160 Speaker 1: is what Telford specifically worked on. If you're looking at 133 00:08:07,160 --> 00:08:09,520 Speaker 1: a modern picture, you're going to see this really big 134 00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:12,920 Speaker 1: building that has wings on either side, but those east 135 00:08:12,960 --> 00:08:15,920 Speaker 1: and west wings were actually built later in the Victorian era. 136 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:20,040 Speaker 1: It's that central structure that is what Telford worked on 137 00:08:20,120 --> 00:08:23,760 Speaker 1: as part of Chambers's crew. So Telford would go on 138 00:08:23,920 --> 00:08:26,960 Speaker 1: to work for a man named Sir William Pulteney who 139 00:08:27,000 --> 00:08:29,880 Speaker 1: was the richest man in Britain at that time, or 140 00:08:29,880 --> 00:08:34,160 Speaker 1: at least one of them. Telford became the Surveyor of 141 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:37,560 Speaker 1: public Works in Shropshire, which was a position that was 142 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:41,240 Speaker 1: created just for him. There had not been a surveyor 143 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:45,520 Speaker 1: of public works before Telford. He would become a pioneer 144 00:08:45,559 --> 00:08:48,120 Speaker 1: in a new field that would eventually become known as 145 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:53,080 Speaker 1: civil engineering. In two he designed and built the Montford 146 00:08:53,160 --> 00:08:56,200 Speaker 1: Stone Bridge across the River Severn, and that was the 147 00:08:56,200 --> 00:08:58,400 Speaker 1: one that was so important in the textile industry. If 148 00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:00,760 Speaker 1: you listen to the first episode in this series, I 149 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:04,160 Speaker 1: talked about how important seven was and uh in its 150 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:09,040 Speaker 1: association with Lancashire and the iron working and coal industries. 151 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:14,800 Speaker 1: Telford also began to build suspension bridges, which was a 152 00:09:14,880 --> 00:09:18,440 Speaker 1: new idea at the time, and folklore has it that 153 00:09:18,440 --> 00:09:21,120 Speaker 1: when Telford built his first suspension bridge he had to 154 00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:24,640 Speaker 1: study his nerves with a prayer before allowing the cables 155 00:09:24,679 --> 00:09:27,480 Speaker 1: to take on the weight of the structure, because even 156 00:09:27,520 --> 00:09:31,520 Speaker 1: though he had worked out the math, he still could 157 00:09:31,559 --> 00:09:34,240 Speaker 1: not be absolutely certain that this was going to work. 158 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:39,080 Speaker 1: And suspension bridges are actually a really cool technology. It actually, 159 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:41,959 Speaker 1: I guess will benefit us to describe how those work. 160 00:09:42,880 --> 00:09:45,520 Speaker 1: With a suspension bridge, typically, what you have are a 161 00:09:45,559 --> 00:09:51,040 Speaker 1: pair of very tall towers and uh these towers are 162 00:09:51,760 --> 00:09:54,319 Speaker 1: attached to the bridge via cables. You know, the typical 163 00:09:54,320 --> 00:09:59,120 Speaker 1: bridge has columns or pylons or piers underneath it that 164 00:09:59,200 --> 00:10:02,120 Speaker 1: holded up, but a suspension bridge doesn't. It has these 165 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:06,840 Speaker 1: towers that have cables attached from the tower first to 166 00:10:06,880 --> 00:10:12,240 Speaker 1: each other, and also there's vertical cables that attached the 167 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:16,600 Speaker 1: main cables between the two towers and the bridge. The 168 00:10:16,640 --> 00:10:21,040 Speaker 1: towers actually support most of the weight. Specifically, they support 169 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:24,400 Speaker 1: the force of compression. See compression pushes down on the 170 00:10:24,400 --> 00:10:27,280 Speaker 1: surface of the bridge. That compression is transferred to the 171 00:10:27,320 --> 00:10:29,959 Speaker 1: cables or chains that are attached the edges of the 172 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:33,319 Speaker 1: bridge the frame of the bridge, and that gets transferred 173 00:10:33,800 --> 00:10:37,640 Speaker 1: to the towers. Then you have supporting cables that connect 174 00:10:37,640 --> 00:10:41,840 Speaker 1: the towers to anchorage points on either side of whatever 175 00:10:41,880 --> 00:10:45,280 Speaker 1: you're building the bridge across, like a river, and these 176 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:49,400 Speaker 1: cables support the tension forces created by the bridge. So 177 00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:53,360 Speaker 1: suspension bridges don't need any columns or pylons under them. 178 00:10:53,400 --> 00:10:55,600 Speaker 1: That frees up a lot of the space beneath the bridge. 179 00:10:55,920 --> 00:10:59,040 Speaker 1: But engineers like Telford who were aware of how the 180 00:10:59,080 --> 00:11:03,160 Speaker 1: bridges should work. We're a little antsy about how things 181 00:11:03,200 --> 00:11:06,080 Speaker 1: actually would work once everything was ready to go, And 182 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:10,360 Speaker 1: luckily for us, physics tends to obey the law. So 183 00:11:11,200 --> 00:11:14,079 Speaker 1: the designs worked out in everyone's favor, but no one 184 00:11:14,200 --> 00:11:18,400 Speaker 1: was entirely sure at the time. Now, Telford's next project 185 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:20,920 Speaker 1: was the Aqueduct, which must not be named because I'm 186 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:23,640 Speaker 1: tired of trying to pronounce Welsh words, which was a 187 00:11:23,679 --> 00:11:26,480 Speaker 1: phenomenal success and that came as a great surprise to 188 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:29,720 Speaker 1: numerous critics who were absolutely convinced it would fall apart 189 00:11:29,800 --> 00:11:33,320 Speaker 1: as soon as water was flowing, and it didn't, stayed 190 00:11:33,320 --> 00:11:37,640 Speaker 1: together and ended up increasing the speed of transportation in 191 00:11:37,720 --> 00:11:41,840 Speaker 1: that part of England. After the aqueduct, or well Wales, 192 00:11:41,840 --> 00:11:43,840 Speaker 1: I should say England and Wales because it was connecting 193 00:11:43,840 --> 00:11:46,200 Speaker 1: the two. But after that Aqueduct, Telford became the head 194 00:11:46,240 --> 00:11:51,240 Speaker 1: engineer of the Caledonian Canal in Scotland. That's a really 195 00:11:51,280 --> 00:11:55,360 Speaker 1: big canal. It's sixty miles long and the construction was 196 00:11:55,440 --> 00:11:59,080 Speaker 1: a huge boon for Scotland at the time because many 197 00:11:59,120 --> 00:12:03,160 Speaker 1: people in Scotland had become homeless, and the reason they 198 00:12:03,200 --> 00:12:09,160 Speaker 1: became homeless is pretty dastardly. It was in the wake 199 00:12:09,200 --> 00:12:12,200 Speaker 1: of what has become known as the Highland Clearances, which 200 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:17,720 Speaker 1: is a very polite way of describing what actually happened. 201 00:12:18,160 --> 00:12:23,319 Speaker 1: So this was a period when aristocratic people, so clan leaders, nobles, 202 00:12:23,679 --> 00:12:25,800 Speaker 1: decided they would make a great deal of sense to 203 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:30,040 Speaker 1: evict Scottish families from their ancestral homes in order to 204 00:12:30,080 --> 00:12:34,240 Speaker 1: convert that land into sheep grazing territory, so converting it 205 00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:37,840 Speaker 1: from farms into gray's land. And Highlanders were forced to 206 00:12:37,920 --> 00:12:39,960 Speaker 1: leave their homes, and some of them had been in 207 00:12:40,040 --> 00:12:43,400 Speaker 1: those homes for centuries. Are the families had, I mean 208 00:12:43,440 --> 00:12:46,679 Speaker 1: only a few Highlanders are immortal. As the documentary series 209 00:12:46,760 --> 00:12:50,520 Speaker 1: Highlander teaches us, it's a really dark time in Scottish 210 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,080 Speaker 1: history and it really dealt severe damage to Gaelic culture 211 00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:57,440 Speaker 1: as a result. What what seems to have happened the 212 00:12:57,480 --> 00:12:59,360 Speaker 1: way it tends to be described, is that a lot 213 00:12:59,360 --> 00:13:03,360 Speaker 1: of clan leaders, for various reasons political reasons that were 214 00:13:03,360 --> 00:13:08,400 Speaker 1: handed down from the crown from royals, had decided that 215 00:13:08,520 --> 00:13:11,480 Speaker 1: rather than be considered a clan leader, which came with 216 00:13:11,520 --> 00:13:14,959 Speaker 1: a bunch of responsibilities, including if someone in your clan 217 00:13:15,120 --> 00:13:18,960 Speaker 1: acted up you were held responsible as leader. They started 218 00:13:18,960 --> 00:13:22,400 Speaker 1: to call themselves landlords instead, and that was a slippery 219 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:26,840 Speaker 1: slope that led to these evictions. So Telford's canal took 220 00:13:26,880 --> 00:13:30,120 Speaker 1: three decades to construct, and it meant that he had 221 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:33,120 Speaker 1: to rely heavily on a lot of labor from this 222 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:35,000 Speaker 1: part of Scotland, so it gave a lot of people 223 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:38,839 Speaker 1: work when they went home to harvest crops. He ended 224 00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:43,200 Speaker 1: up hiring Irish workers, which caused some real problems in 225 00:13:43,240 --> 00:13:48,120 Speaker 1: the area. People locals were upset at that, but Telford 226 00:13:48,200 --> 00:13:52,599 Speaker 1: was already running over budget and behind time, and unfortunately 227 00:13:52,679 --> 00:13:56,200 Speaker 1: for everybody, by the time the canal was finished, it 228 00:13:56,280 --> 00:14:01,800 Speaker 1: was actually not terribly useful, and that's because it just 229 00:14:01,880 --> 00:14:05,600 Speaker 1: took too long to make and technology had changed while 230 00:14:05,679 --> 00:14:09,000 Speaker 1: the canal was being built. It was built well, and 231 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:11,480 Speaker 1: it's considered to be a marvel of engineering, but ship 232 00:14:11,559 --> 00:14:14,559 Speaker 1: building had changed so dramatically by the time the canal 233 00:14:14,640 --> 00:14:18,840 Speaker 1: was finished. Steamships had become the new standard, and steamships 234 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:22,720 Speaker 1: needed more space than what the canal could provide. The 235 00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:25,720 Speaker 1: canal was actually too small to accommodate steamships, and so 236 00:14:26,480 --> 00:14:29,000 Speaker 1: it wasn't as used used as heavily as it had 237 00:14:29,040 --> 00:14:33,560 Speaker 1: been planned. Now Telford would go on to create super waterways. 238 00:14:34,320 --> 00:14:38,040 Speaker 1: It's kind of like super highways. There were these interconnections 239 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:43,040 Speaker 1: that uh that put various canals finally in contact with 240 00:14:43,080 --> 00:14:45,800 Speaker 1: each other, so that made shipping much more efficient. And 241 00:14:45,840 --> 00:14:49,200 Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty he became the very first president of 242 00:14:49,240 --> 00:14:54,960 Speaker 1: the Institution of Civil Engineers in Britain, so essentially kind 243 00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:58,240 Speaker 1: of invented the discipline of civil engineering, or at least 244 00:14:58,320 --> 00:15:02,840 Speaker 1: was instrumental in the mention of that discipline. Telford made 245 00:15:02,880 --> 00:15:06,280 Speaker 1: another major contribution to England's transportation system as well. One 246 00:15:06,280 --> 00:15:10,080 Speaker 1: of his most important improvements involved raising the foundation of 247 00:15:10,120 --> 00:15:13,480 Speaker 1: a road in the center of the road to aid 248 00:15:13,600 --> 00:15:17,880 Speaker 1: in draining water. So he was very good at building roads. 249 00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:21,200 Speaker 1: He used these large flat stones as the foundation, and 250 00:15:21,440 --> 00:15:24,360 Speaker 1: by raising that center, water would drain off it much 251 00:15:24,400 --> 00:15:27,960 Speaker 1: more effectively. It wouldn't pool and destroy the road over time, 252 00:15:28,680 --> 00:15:30,680 Speaker 1: and his work was so successful that it became the 253 00:15:30,720 --> 00:15:35,240 Speaker 1: standard road design in England and beyond. One of Telford's 254 00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:39,880 Speaker 1: contemporaries and rivals was a guy named Isambard Kingdom Brunel. 255 00:15:40,760 --> 00:15:43,000 Speaker 1: And if that name sounds at all familiar, what you 256 00:15:43,080 --> 00:15:46,119 Speaker 1: might remember him when we did our episode on subways. 257 00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:49,400 Speaker 1: He was very important in that episode. He was the 258 00:15:49,440 --> 00:15:53,480 Speaker 1: son of a French engineer. The French engineer had actually 259 00:15:53,520 --> 00:15:57,080 Speaker 1: fled to England during the French Revolution, so Brunell grew 260 00:15:57,160 --> 00:16:01,000 Speaker 1: up in England, although he also studied in France post revolution. 261 00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:04,640 Speaker 1: Brunell worked on many important projects throughout his career, but 262 00:16:04,760 --> 00:16:08,920 Speaker 1: he's probably best remembered for his tunnels and his underground systems. 263 00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:12,440 Speaker 1: He designed underground passages that even passed beneath bodies of 264 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:15,600 Speaker 1: water like the River Thames, and he also designed several 265 00:16:15,680 --> 00:16:20,520 Speaker 1: rail railways and steamships in his time. Speaking of steamships, 266 00:16:20,800 --> 00:16:23,840 Speaker 1: the idea had been kicking around since the days of 267 00:16:23,920 --> 00:16:27,480 Speaker 1: Leonardo da Vinci, but until the eighteenth century, no one 268 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:30,880 Speaker 1: had managed to actually make a practical steamship. People had tried. 269 00:16:31,160 --> 00:16:33,880 Speaker 1: There were several challenges that were facing engineers at the time. 270 00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:37,200 Speaker 1: A big one was to create a mechanism that would 271 00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:43,720 Speaker 1: translate the reciprocal motion of a piston into a rotary 272 00:16:43,800 --> 00:16:46,880 Speaker 1: motion that could turn a wheel. So pistons move up 273 00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:50,280 Speaker 1: and down or left and right in a cylinder, whereas 274 00:16:50,280 --> 00:16:52,360 Speaker 1: wheels turn in a circle. So you have to figure 275 00:16:52,360 --> 00:16:55,720 Speaker 1: out a way to translate one style of motion into another. 276 00:16:55,760 --> 00:16:57,800 Speaker 1: And it took a while before that happened. In other words, 277 00:16:58,040 --> 00:17:00,560 Speaker 1: how do you get that simple update own or left 278 00:17:00,600 --> 00:17:03,920 Speaker 1: right motion to become a circle? Well, Thomas Newcomin came 279 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:06,359 Speaker 1: up with that. That was the invention that he said 280 00:17:06,359 --> 00:17:09,280 Speaker 1: he was most proud of, even beyond his improvements to 281 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:13,239 Speaker 1: the basic steam engine. Uh. It was essentially kind of 282 00:17:13,359 --> 00:17:16,000 Speaker 1: a ratchet that allowed for this translation of motion. It 283 00:17:16,040 --> 00:17:19,840 Speaker 1: was the first big step to solving that particular problem. 284 00:17:19,920 --> 00:17:22,760 Speaker 1: Will be back to talk more about the Industrial Revolution 285 00:17:22,760 --> 00:17:35,600 Speaker 1: in just a second, but first let's take this quick break. Now, 286 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:37,600 Speaker 1: the other big challenge was to create a steam engine 287 00:17:37,640 --> 00:17:40,440 Speaker 1: capable of providing enough power to actually move a boat 288 00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:43,160 Speaker 1: through the water. Now, as I mentioned in the last episode, 289 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:46,560 Speaker 1: early steam engines relied on using condensation to create a 290 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:50,240 Speaker 1: vacuum and pull a piston downward. They did not use 291 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:54,480 Speaker 1: steam to create pressure and push the piston upward because 292 00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:58,040 Speaker 1: the materials they were using couldn't withstand that intense pressure 293 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:00,800 Speaker 1: that steam would create, and they were concer they're too dangerous. 294 00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:03,720 Speaker 1: It was just a recipe for disaster. You would have 295 00:18:03,720 --> 00:18:07,840 Speaker 1: a boiler explode and that could be deadly. Now, pattents 296 00:18:07,880 --> 00:18:10,600 Speaker 1: for steamboats date all the way back to six eighteen, 297 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:14,160 Speaker 1: when David Ramsey was awarded a patent for his design. Now, 298 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:16,639 Speaker 1: there's no evidence that Ramsey ever managed to actually build 299 00:18:16,640 --> 00:18:20,600 Speaker 1: anything approaching a steam powered boat, and other inventors followed suit. 300 00:18:20,720 --> 00:18:23,480 Speaker 1: There was one named John Allen who patented a steamboat 301 00:18:23,480 --> 00:18:27,600 Speaker 1: design in seventeen nine, and another one was proposed by 302 00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:32,480 Speaker 1: Englishman Jonathan Holes in seventeen thirty six. Holes approach was 303 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:37,439 Speaker 1: to use a Newcoming engine, although again he never built 304 00:18:37,640 --> 00:18:39,960 Speaker 1: such a boat as far as we can tell. For 305 00:18:40,000 --> 00:18:43,560 Speaker 1: an actual working boat, you have to actually look fifty 306 00:18:43,640 --> 00:18:52,719 Speaker 1: years later, so three that's when Cloude Francois Dorote Joefrey Dabam, 307 00:18:52,800 --> 00:18:55,080 Speaker 1: who as you can imagine from that name, was a 308 00:18:55,119 --> 00:18:59,159 Speaker 1: French nobleman, built a boat powered by a new Coming 309 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:02,919 Speaker 1: two cylinder engine, and he demonstrated on a river in 310 00:19:02,960 --> 00:19:06,080 Speaker 1: France and showed that such a boat could actually sail 311 00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:09,720 Speaker 1: against the river's current under its own power. It didn't 312 00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:14,320 Speaker 1: require manpower or animal power to turn some sort of 313 00:19:14,359 --> 00:19:17,280 Speaker 1: device in order to go against the current. It's really 314 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:21,199 Speaker 1: kind of challenging to explain how monumental this was in 315 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:25,040 Speaker 1: the transportation industry at the time, but people realize the 316 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:28,080 Speaker 1: promise of steam power would be to make everything easier, 317 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:32,640 Speaker 1: including the shipment of cargo and people. So Joe Frey's 318 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:36,240 Speaker 1: invention actually broke apart in the river. It was not 319 00:19:36,840 --> 00:19:39,200 Speaker 1: it was not designed to last very long. It shook 320 00:19:39,240 --> 00:19:42,680 Speaker 1: itself apart. Essentially, the boat began to split, the engine 321 00:19:42,720 --> 00:19:45,840 Speaker 1: began to fall apart. He was able to pilot the 322 00:19:45,960 --> 00:19:50,520 Speaker 1: boat back to the river bank before it completely disintegrated 323 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:54,359 Speaker 1: on him and got to shore safely. He would just 324 00:19:54,440 --> 00:19:57,720 Speaker 1: a few years later flee France himself because that was 325 00:19:57,800 --> 00:19:59,840 Speaker 1: just as the French Revolution was getting into the swing 326 00:19:59,840 --> 00:20:05,080 Speaker 1: of things. Now, James Watt, who we talked about in 327 00:20:05,119 --> 00:20:09,880 Speaker 1: the last episode, invented the condenser, which made it much 328 00:20:09,880 --> 00:20:12,680 Speaker 1: more efficient. It being steam engines made steam engines much 329 00:20:12,680 --> 00:20:14,639 Speaker 1: more efficient. You no longer had to heat up and 330 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:17,439 Speaker 1: cool down the cylinder that had the piston in it. 331 00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:20,160 Speaker 1: You could keep it the same temperature, and you allowed 332 00:20:20,160 --> 00:20:24,240 Speaker 1: the condenser to pull steam in and condense into water. 333 00:20:24,400 --> 00:20:28,360 Speaker 1: And water started getting a trans Atlantic accident on there 334 00:20:28,400 --> 00:20:31,480 Speaker 1: for some reason, turn into water and uh create that 335 00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:34,679 Speaker 1: vacuum pressure that would pull a piston downward. And also 336 00:20:35,640 --> 00:20:38,240 Speaker 1: as around this time when people began to experiment with 337 00:20:38,280 --> 00:20:42,760 Speaker 1: double stroke engines. That's when you use steam to provide 338 00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:46,639 Speaker 1: both the push on the upstroke of a piston and 339 00:20:46,680 --> 00:20:49,959 Speaker 1: the poll on the downstroke of the piston, and makes 340 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:53,320 Speaker 1: an engine much more efficient because it's doing work in 341 00:20:53,400 --> 00:20:57,200 Speaker 1: both ways rather than just pulling and then allowing gravity 342 00:20:57,280 --> 00:21:00,520 Speaker 1: to reset the piston. Watson's invention and we become the 343 00:21:00,520 --> 00:21:05,280 Speaker 1: foundation for working steamboats in the future. Now, I've talked 344 00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:09,080 Speaker 1: a lot about Britain in these episodes, because Britain is 345 00:21:09,160 --> 00:21:13,760 Speaker 1: the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, there's no question about that. Uh. 346 00:21:13,800 --> 00:21:16,320 Speaker 1: A lot of innovations happened in Britain first and then 347 00:21:16,400 --> 00:21:18,760 Speaker 1: eventually made their way to other parts of the world. However, 348 00:21:19,320 --> 00:21:21,840 Speaker 1: when we start talking about steamboats, we actually have to 349 00:21:21,880 --> 00:21:26,240 Speaker 1: shift our focus over to America. American engineers were facing 350 00:21:26,520 --> 00:21:30,600 Speaker 1: a pretty big challenge that the Brits weren't facing. Specifically, 351 00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:35,840 Speaker 1: they were not allowed to use British technology. Britain had 352 00:21:35,840 --> 00:21:41,240 Speaker 1: passed laws making it illegal to share trade secrets or 353 00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:46,000 Speaker 1: sell certain things like steam engines. So, in other words, 354 00:21:46,040 --> 00:21:48,879 Speaker 1: all that information got caught up and stuck and stayed 355 00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:52,359 Speaker 1: in Britain. Now, the reason for this was that Britain 356 00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:56,119 Speaker 1: was really trying to maintain trade superiority for as long 357 00:21:56,160 --> 00:21:59,080 Speaker 1: as it possibly could, and part of that was just 358 00:21:59,240 --> 00:22:02,479 Speaker 1: keeping all this this information secret so that only Britain 359 00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:05,560 Speaker 1: could take advantage of it. So American engineers were forced 360 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:09,119 Speaker 1: to design their own steam engines. Now they had a 361 00:22:09,160 --> 00:22:11,399 Speaker 1: general idea of how the British ones were working, so 362 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:14,560 Speaker 1: it's not like they were going completely from scratch, but 363 00:22:14,800 --> 00:22:17,280 Speaker 1: it still was a big challenge, and one trio that 364 00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:20,679 Speaker 1: gave it a shot consisted of an inventor named John Stevens, 365 00:22:21,400 --> 00:22:25,359 Speaker 1: his wealthy brother in law Robert Livingstone, and a machinist 366 00:22:25,440 --> 00:22:30,399 Speaker 1: named Nicholas J. Roosevelt. Their efforts were somewhat hampered by Livingstone, 367 00:22:30,720 --> 00:22:33,399 Speaker 1: who felt that since he was providing all the cash, 368 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:37,720 Speaker 1: he should have a major input into how the boat 369 00:22:37,800 --> 00:22:41,000 Speaker 1: was actually constructed, despite the fact that he didn't have 370 00:22:41,720 --> 00:22:45,880 Speaker 1: the expertise of the other two. But the other two 371 00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:48,800 Speaker 1: had very little bargaining power because Livingstone was the guy 372 00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:54,959 Speaker 1: footing the bill, So despite protestations from Roosevelt and from Stevens, 373 00:22:55,520 --> 00:22:59,800 Speaker 1: Livingstone's design was what stuck, and the resulting boat barely 374 00:23:00,040 --> 00:23:02,960 Speaker 1: moved in still water in fact, on the first test 375 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:07,600 Speaker 1: it didn't go anywhere. The second test it moved very 376 00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:10,960 Speaker 1: slowly in stillwater, something like three miles per hour, so 377 00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:14,159 Speaker 1: it could not really fight against the current, and it 378 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:17,800 Speaker 1: also shook itself apart after a short while. By the way, 379 00:23:18,480 --> 00:23:20,919 Speaker 1: I don't think that Robert Livingstone was a dummy. He 380 00:23:21,040 --> 00:23:24,520 Speaker 1: was a smart guy. In fact, he was instrumental in 381 00:23:24,520 --> 00:23:27,800 Speaker 1: in American history. He's the guy who essentially brokered the 382 00:23:27,840 --> 00:23:33,080 Speaker 1: Louisiana purchase deal between France and America. So very important historically, 383 00:23:33,400 --> 00:23:35,639 Speaker 1: just not necessarily the guy you want on your team 384 00:23:35,680 --> 00:23:40,000 Speaker 1: when you're designing a steam engine. However, Livingston met another 385 00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:42,760 Speaker 1: man who also shared an interest in steam power, and 386 00:23:42,800 --> 00:23:46,120 Speaker 1: that man was Robert Fulton. He was an American who 387 00:23:46,160 --> 00:23:48,399 Speaker 1: originally wanted to make his living as an artist. He 388 00:23:48,520 --> 00:23:52,200 Speaker 1: painted a portrait of Benjamin Franklin and felt that he 389 00:23:52,320 --> 00:23:55,159 Speaker 1: was on his way to becoming a great artist, but 390 00:23:55,320 --> 00:23:58,280 Speaker 1: his career path was cut short after he had a 391 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:01,600 Speaker 1: disappointing meeting with another Erican artist who was living in London. 392 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:06,080 Speaker 1: Fulton actually took his all of his money traveled to London. 393 00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:10,760 Speaker 1: He had a letter of invitation our introduction for this 394 00:24:10,800 --> 00:24:13,480 Speaker 1: American artist met with the American artist who is kind 395 00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:16,879 Speaker 1: but essentially said no, I don't want you as a student. 396 00:24:16,920 --> 00:24:20,720 Speaker 1: You don't have what it takes. But fortunately Fulton met 397 00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:24,200 Speaker 1: Livingstone and they began to talk, and they realized they 398 00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:27,760 Speaker 1: shared a lot of common interests, including engineering and specifically 399 00:24:27,800 --> 00:24:33,440 Speaker 1: in steam engines. Fulton had become really obsessed with ships 400 00:24:33,640 --> 00:24:37,440 Speaker 1: in general and steam engines in particular, and Fulton saw 401 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:40,760 Speaker 1: in Livingstone a potential source of funding for his work, 402 00:24:41,640 --> 00:24:45,880 Speaker 1: pretty much the same way that Stevens had seen Livingston earlier. 403 00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:49,720 Speaker 1: So Fulton and Livingston entered into a partnership in which 404 00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:53,080 Speaker 1: they would split the profits of their work fifty fifty. 405 00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:56,560 Speaker 1: That was a sore spot for Livingstone, who argued that 406 00:24:57,080 --> 00:25:00,760 Speaker 1: his money was more valuable than Fulton's work. It Fulton 407 00:25:00,880 --> 00:25:03,320 Speaker 1: was able to argue him down to the point where 408 00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:05,480 Speaker 1: they agreed, we're going to take a half share each. 409 00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:10,560 Speaker 1: So Fulton designed a steam powered, flat bottomed paddle boat. 410 00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:14,120 Speaker 1: His original model actually used something similar to a bicycle 411 00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:20,160 Speaker 1: chain to power the paddles, but he would eventually abandon 412 00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:23,360 Speaker 1: that for more of a ratchet approach like the newcoming 413 00:25:23,400 --> 00:25:27,600 Speaker 1: engine version would use. So the paddle boat itself wasn't 414 00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:30,160 Speaker 1: a new idea that had actually been around for centuries, 415 00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:32,840 Speaker 1: although of course it had been powered by either animals 416 00:25:32,920 --> 00:25:36,479 Speaker 1: or people, not by steam. But Fulton's mechanisms to provide 417 00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:39,040 Speaker 1: power gave it the new twist, and they filed a 418 00:25:39,080 --> 00:25:43,479 Speaker 1: patent for the design back in eighteen o two. Fulton 419 00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:47,800 Speaker 1: launched a steamboat named Claremont C L E R M 420 00:25:47,800 --> 00:25:50,720 Speaker 1: O N T in New York in eight o seven. 421 00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:55,120 Speaker 1: Now that would provide passage for travelers between New York 422 00:25:55,160 --> 00:26:00,320 Speaker 1: City and Albany. So it made a trip to Albany 423 00:26:00,359 --> 00:26:01,840 Speaker 1: and then made a trip back from Albody to New 424 00:26:01,880 --> 00:26:04,800 Speaker 1: York City safely, and it proved that steam power could 425 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:07,880 Speaker 1: be used to transport people in cargo, so before long 426 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:11,760 Speaker 1: shipbuilders began to rely heavily on steam power, even for 427 00:26:11,920 --> 00:26:16,240 Speaker 1: Transatlantic passages. Now I should add that the steamships traveling 428 00:26:16,240 --> 00:26:19,280 Speaker 1: the ocean, those were not the same design as the 429 00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:21,800 Speaker 1: flat bottomed boats that were meant to float on rivers 430 00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:25,960 Speaker 1: here in America. The first ship to provide regular transatlantic 431 00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:29,879 Speaker 1: service didn't come from America at all. It of course 432 00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:33,480 Speaker 1: came from Britain. So while Britain did not pioneer the 433 00:26:33,520 --> 00:26:37,600 Speaker 1: steam boat, they did pioneer the steam ship, and that 434 00:26:38,040 --> 00:26:41,760 Speaker 1: first ship was called the S. S. Great Western, which 435 00:26:41,800 --> 00:26:45,520 Speaker 1: was built by none other than is Embard Kingdom Brunel 436 00:26:45,720 --> 00:26:49,600 Speaker 1: in eighteen thirty seven. So no longer were ships reliant 437 00:26:49,640 --> 00:26:52,120 Speaker 1: on the winds, or on human powered ores or any 438 00:26:52,119 --> 00:26:55,800 Speaker 1: other mechanism. They could have a steam engine drive them 439 00:26:55,840 --> 00:26:58,359 Speaker 1: from location to location, no matter what the weather was 440 00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:01,439 Speaker 1: or which way the current were going, and travel and 441 00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:05,679 Speaker 1: shipping speeds increased dramatically, which drove up demand for trade. 442 00:27:06,960 --> 00:27:10,480 Speaker 1: While steamboats were making waves in America. See what I 443 00:27:10,560 --> 00:27:14,040 Speaker 1: did there when boats and waves. Back in Britain, engineers 444 00:27:14,080 --> 00:27:17,720 Speaker 1: were experimenting with steam powered engines designed to push or 445 00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:22,440 Speaker 1: pull carts on tracks, which were the first locomotives. We've 446 00:27:22,480 --> 00:27:24,720 Speaker 1: got more to say in this classic episode of tech 447 00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:37,240 Speaker 1: stuff after these quick messages. So there was an engineer 448 00:27:37,760 --> 00:27:42,240 Speaker 1: named Richard Trevithick who built the first full scale locomotive 449 00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:45,440 Speaker 1: in eighteen o four steam powered locomotive in eighteen o four. 450 00:27:46,400 --> 00:27:49,000 Speaker 1: But he was way ahead of his time. Uh and 451 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:53,960 Speaker 1: while he built a working model, most people weren't ready 452 00:27:54,040 --> 00:27:57,200 Speaker 1: for it. They didn't think it was a proven technology, 453 00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:00,000 Speaker 1: and so he didn't receive enough support to move forward 454 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:05,760 Speaker 1: it into production. George Stephenson succeeded where Trevithick failed, building 455 00:28:05,840 --> 00:28:09,360 Speaker 1: a successful steam engine in eighteen fourteen, and that engine's 456 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:13,639 Speaker 1: name was Blucker and it could pull thirty tons at 457 00:28:13,680 --> 00:28:16,199 Speaker 1: a speed of four miles per hour. I'm told that 458 00:28:16,240 --> 00:28:19,920 Speaker 1: the Brits actually pronounced it Blucher, which makes sense because 459 00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,480 Speaker 1: it's spelled b l u with an umalout c ch 460 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:26,679 Speaker 1: e r uh. The correct pronunciation if you're going with 461 00:28:26,720 --> 00:28:29,520 Speaker 1: the German or Prussian, as it turns out, is more blucker. 462 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:32,000 Speaker 1: But they were Blutcher. So it was named after a 463 00:28:32,040 --> 00:28:35,640 Speaker 1: Prussian general who was a war hero in the Napoleonic Wars, 464 00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:39,040 Speaker 1: and in fact, the following year, in eighteen fifteen, Blucher 465 00:28:39,160 --> 00:28:43,360 Speaker 1: would lead an army in a very hasty march to 466 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:46,960 Speaker 1: a little battleground called Waterloo, which was the site of 467 00:28:47,040 --> 00:28:50,440 Speaker 1: Napoleon's defeat. So Bluecher ended up being a great name 468 00:28:50,480 --> 00:28:52,920 Speaker 1: for a device meant to move a lot of weight 469 00:28:52,960 --> 00:28:57,080 Speaker 1: at a relatively fast pace. Now, the locomotive became a 470 00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:01,320 Speaker 1: dominant force in transportation within a couple of decades. America's 471 00:29:01,360 --> 00:29:05,840 Speaker 1: first locomotive was a British machine called the Stourbridge Lion, 472 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:08,680 Speaker 1: and it wasn't a huge success because the way of 473 00:29:08,720 --> 00:29:11,960 Speaker 1: the machine was so great that the American rails split 474 00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:16,400 Speaker 1: underneath it. They had to re engineer that. American engineer 475 00:29:16,400 --> 00:29:19,960 Speaker 1: Peter Cooper built the first steam locomotive in America that 476 00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:22,840 Speaker 1: was American made, and that one was called the Tom 477 00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:26,120 Speaker 1: Thumb and it moved at a blistering eighteen miles per hour, 478 00:29:26,200 --> 00:29:28,960 Speaker 1: which was pretty fast at the time, and carried thirty 479 00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:33,360 Speaker 1: six passengers on its first run in eighteen thirty. So 480 00:29:33,400 --> 00:29:37,240 Speaker 1: by the middle of the nineteenth century, transportation had completely transformed. 481 00:29:37,280 --> 00:29:41,800 Speaker 1: In less than a century, road systems were redesigned, steamships 482 00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:45,320 Speaker 1: were traveling across rivers and oceans, and locomotives could do 483 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:49,560 Speaker 1: the work of dozens of teams of horses. Steam engines 484 00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:53,000 Speaker 1: continued to also power the growing industries like textile and 485 00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:57,080 Speaker 1: iron working industries. They were actually powering the machinery in 486 00:29:57,160 --> 00:30:01,680 Speaker 1: those factories. So all of this industry ended up having 487 00:30:01,680 --> 00:30:04,360 Speaker 1: a big requirement. They needed people to do a lot 488 00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:06,280 Speaker 1: of this work. So let's talk a little bit about 489 00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:09,520 Speaker 1: what was like being a member of this working class 490 00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:12,960 Speaker 1: that formed as a result of the Industrial Revolution, and 491 00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:16,880 Speaker 1: these innovations. So keep in mind, all this stuff made 492 00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:22,200 Speaker 1: production cheaper and easier, and and transportation cheaper and easier, 493 00:30:22,680 --> 00:30:25,320 Speaker 1: So it meant that the price of goods was dropping. 494 00:30:25,520 --> 00:30:29,200 Speaker 1: It meant that trade was exploding. It also meant that 495 00:30:29,360 --> 00:30:33,840 Speaker 1: banks were being created in order to handle the monetary 496 00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:38,400 Speaker 1: weight of what was going on. You had the British 497 00:30:38,440 --> 00:30:43,600 Speaker 1: Empire growing as a result through both conquest and trade, 498 00:30:44,720 --> 00:30:47,480 Speaker 1: so big time of change. It also meant that you 499 00:30:47,480 --> 00:30:49,920 Speaker 1: had to have a lot of bodies in these factories 500 00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:53,720 Speaker 1: to actually make the stuff work. Um and other things 501 00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:59,000 Speaker 1: like conflicts throughout the world were creating more requirements for clothing, 502 00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:02,600 Speaker 1: for weapons, for fuel, for all that sort of stuff, 503 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:06,720 Speaker 1: so there was a high demand. It was an exciting time. 504 00:31:07,240 --> 00:31:11,560 Speaker 1: So let's talk about working. Perhaps the biggest revolution of 505 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:14,480 Speaker 1: them all really came down to how work was done 506 00:31:15,480 --> 00:31:19,080 Speaker 1: before the Industrial Revolution. Let's say you're a cloth merchant. 507 00:31:19,440 --> 00:31:24,640 Speaker 1: You're someone who sells cloth. That process is not very straightforward. First, 508 00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:28,280 Speaker 1: you would have to purchase raw wool from shepherds. Then 509 00:31:28,280 --> 00:31:30,480 Speaker 1: you would take it to spinners and you would hire 510 00:31:30,560 --> 00:31:34,120 Speaker 1: spinners to spin the raw wool into yarn. You would 511 00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:36,920 Speaker 1: then take that yarn to weavers and pay the weavers 512 00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:40,160 Speaker 1: to weave that yarn into cloth, and then you would 513 00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:44,360 Speaker 1: have to sell the cloth to customers. And that means 514 00:31:44,360 --> 00:31:46,480 Speaker 1: each time you know you're you're selling, price of the 515 00:31:46,480 --> 00:31:48,680 Speaker 1: cloth has to be great enough to cover all the 516 00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:53,360 Speaker 1: expenses leading up to creating that cloth. That's why it 517 00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:55,880 Speaker 1: was pretty expensive at the time. It wasn't until the 518 00:31:55,880 --> 00:32:00,440 Speaker 1: Industrial Revolution, where this was streamlined and the cost for 519 00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:05,000 Speaker 1: production went way down, that suddenly these these finished goods 520 00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:09,240 Speaker 1: could be of a much better price. Some people actually 521 00:32:09,320 --> 00:32:13,200 Speaker 1: called this earlier version of the way things were done 522 00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:16,640 Speaker 1: a putting out process. You had to put out everything 523 00:32:16,760 --> 00:32:19,400 Speaker 1: onto a different group of people in order to get 524 00:32:19,440 --> 00:32:22,560 Speaker 1: something finished. Some people called it the domestic system, and 525 00:32:22,600 --> 00:32:24,800 Speaker 1: some people referred to this sort of stuff as a 526 00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:27,760 Speaker 1: cottage industry, meaning that people were actually working out of 527 00:32:27,760 --> 00:32:30,520 Speaker 1: their own homes. It was a multi step process that 528 00:32:30,560 --> 00:32:33,520 Speaker 1: employed lots of people to make a relatively small amount 529 00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:38,840 Speaker 1: of product. But the Industrial Revolution changed all that. Now 530 00:32:38,840 --> 00:32:43,960 Speaker 1: it was possible to produce huge amounts a product like textiles, 531 00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:46,760 Speaker 1: but you will also needed a much larger group of 532 00:32:46,760 --> 00:32:50,360 Speaker 1: people in order to actually run all the equipment. So 533 00:32:50,600 --> 00:32:54,200 Speaker 1: while you could have one spinner run a machine that 534 00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:59,680 Speaker 1: could spend multiple spools of yarn uh simultaneously, whereas before 535 00:32:59,720 --> 00:33:01,200 Speaker 1: you would have to do it one at a time. 536 00:33:02,800 --> 00:33:05,360 Speaker 1: You could do that, but it's still meant that in 537 00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:07,840 Speaker 1: order to meet the major demand, you actually had a 538 00:33:07,840 --> 00:33:11,200 Speaker 1: lot more people in place. Now, some merchants began building 539 00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:15,240 Speaker 1: larger structures to house workers during work hours, so in 540 00:33:15,280 --> 00:33:18,960 Speaker 1: other words, you are no longer relying on people working 541 00:33:18,960 --> 00:33:22,240 Speaker 1: out of their houses. They would actually travel to a 542 00:33:22,280 --> 00:33:25,200 Speaker 1: work location and work there for a shift, which makes 543 00:33:25,240 --> 00:33:29,040 Speaker 1: sense because most of these factories were located next to 544 00:33:29,560 --> 00:33:36,120 Speaker 1: rivers or other structures other natural boundaries that gave them 545 00:33:36,200 --> 00:33:38,440 Speaker 1: some sort of advantage either in the production or the 546 00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:44,320 Speaker 1: shipping or both of the material. So this was the factory. Originally, 547 00:33:44,360 --> 00:33:47,480 Speaker 1: the word factory referred to the office of a manager 548 00:33:47,600 --> 00:33:51,640 Speaker 1: of an estate, so a state manager's office was the factory. 549 00:33:51,680 --> 00:33:54,120 Speaker 1: But by the sixteen hundreds the word had limited use 550 00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:57,760 Speaker 1: to refer to a place where manufacturing happened uh, and 551 00:33:58,040 --> 00:34:00,840 Speaker 1: the real rise of the factory was truly the nineteenth century. 552 00:34:00,840 --> 00:34:04,560 Speaker 1: The eighteen hundreds, the need for workers created opportunities for 553 00:34:04,600 --> 00:34:07,760 Speaker 1: people who otherwise would have just remained farmers, or they 554 00:34:07,760 --> 00:34:10,560 Speaker 1: would have had very little employment at all, so this 555 00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:14,280 Speaker 1: drove a migration from farmlands to cities. People were moving 556 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:17,120 Speaker 1: to where work was. If there wasn't enough work where 557 00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:19,640 Speaker 1: they were, they could go to a city and work 558 00:34:19,640 --> 00:34:24,600 Speaker 1: at a factory, and cities were growing exponentially in that 559 00:34:24,640 --> 00:34:27,880 Speaker 1: time period. Urban growth was exploding as a result of 560 00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:31,200 Speaker 1: all this. So once upon a time, farming was the 561 00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:34,760 Speaker 1: dominant occupation in all the world. But as a result 562 00:34:34,800 --> 00:34:37,520 Speaker 1: of the Industrial Revolution, the percentage of people who are 563 00:34:37,560 --> 00:34:41,120 Speaker 1: farmers compared to the overall population began to shrink, and 564 00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:44,760 Speaker 1: it began to shrink pretty drastically. At the same time, 565 00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:49,319 Speaker 1: we were making some progress in other areas like sanitation 566 00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:52,440 Speaker 1: and medicine, so we were starting to learn how to 567 00:34:53,520 --> 00:34:56,959 Speaker 1: maintain people's health, how to keep people from getting sick, 568 00:34:57,000 --> 00:35:01,160 Speaker 1: how to keep water systems clean. We began to learn 569 00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:04,120 Speaker 1: more about how to protect people when they are at 570 00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:08,480 Speaker 1: their most vulnerable, such as during the act of childbirth. Also, 571 00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:13,120 Speaker 1: lifespans were increasing because we were getting better at treating people. Largely, 572 00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:16,480 Speaker 1: lifespans were increasing simply because we're getting better and making 573 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:19,560 Speaker 1: sure people reached the age of twenty one. There's this 574 00:35:19,640 --> 00:35:22,960 Speaker 1: common misconception that the lifespan during the Middle Ages was 575 00:35:23,000 --> 00:35:26,799 Speaker 1: around thirty years old. Because people died of old age 576 00:35:26,840 --> 00:35:29,640 Speaker 1: when they were thirty. That's not the case. The reason 577 00:35:29,719 --> 00:35:35,040 Speaker 1: why the the lifespan was so short was that your 578 00:35:35,080 --> 00:35:40,000 Speaker 1: odds of making it to adulthood were pretty low. A 579 00:35:40,040 --> 00:35:43,920 Speaker 1: lot of people died either when they were infants were children. 580 00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:47,960 Speaker 1: But if you can make it too about eighteen or twenty, 581 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:50,880 Speaker 1: you had a good chance of living a nice long life, 582 00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:57,120 Speaker 1: assuming you avoid major illness or injury. Uh. This era, 583 00:35:57,640 --> 00:36:00,919 Speaker 1: the Industrial Revolution, was one where we started to get 584 00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:05,720 Speaker 1: better about the practices that could lead to illness and injury. 585 00:36:06,120 --> 00:36:09,040 Speaker 1: And because the machines were doing a lot of the 586 00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:12,759 Speaker 1: hard work, it meant that people no longer had to 587 00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:16,000 Speaker 1: do this by hand. Like the stuff that would require 588 00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:21,160 Speaker 1: a lot of repetitive, monotonous motions or carrying heavy weight. 589 00:36:21,200 --> 00:36:23,280 Speaker 1: A lot of that was being done done by machine 590 00:36:23,320 --> 00:36:25,960 Speaker 1: now not by people, though not all of it, and 591 00:36:26,040 --> 00:36:29,720 Speaker 1: monany was still a big problem. Working in a factory 592 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:33,680 Speaker 1: was not a picnic. It was hot and difficult and crowded, 593 00:36:33,719 --> 00:36:37,839 Speaker 1: and and you were dedicated to a specific task, so 594 00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:40,720 Speaker 1: you're doing that same task over and over again throughout 595 00:36:40,760 --> 00:36:45,400 Speaker 1: the entire day. Women, men, and children all worked in 596 00:36:45,520 --> 00:36:50,920 Speaker 1: factories during the Industrial Revolution. Entire families would typically the 597 00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:54,840 Speaker 1: women and men would earn a tiny amount like ten 598 00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:57,680 Speaker 1: cents an hour in the United States terms, whereas the 599 00:36:57,719 --> 00:37:01,000 Speaker 1: children would be earning a penny an hour. Uh, it 600 00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:04,160 Speaker 1: was not a way to get rich. It was and 601 00:37:04,160 --> 00:37:08,640 Speaker 1: and typically an entire family would be working, often in 602 00:37:08,800 --> 00:37:13,000 Speaker 1: the same factory because they couldn't afford to have a 603 00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:15,560 Speaker 1: single person work and someone else looking after the home 604 00:37:15,680 --> 00:37:18,760 Speaker 1: that they wouldn't make enough money. Wages were really low, 605 00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:21,880 Speaker 1: pretty much as low as business owners could get away 606 00:37:21,920 --> 00:37:25,800 Speaker 1: with in order to continue to maximize profits, and a 607 00:37:25,880 --> 00:37:29,919 Speaker 1: work week was six days long and a shift could 608 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:34,240 Speaker 1: last between twelve and fourteen hours in a day. Well, 609 00:37:34,280 --> 00:37:37,719 Speaker 1: we're almost ready to wrap up the Industrial Revolution, but 610 00:37:37,760 --> 00:37:39,680 Speaker 1: before we can do that, we need to take one 611 00:37:39,800 --> 00:37:54,120 Speaker 1: last break for ads. Meanwhile, that explosion and urban growth 612 00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:59,040 Speaker 1: did not mean suddenly all these luxurious accommodations were appearing everywhere, 613 00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:02,040 Speaker 1: and in a lot of citys we were seeing cheap, 614 00:38:02,200 --> 00:38:06,200 Speaker 1: flimsy housing being hastily constructed to take advantage of all 615 00:38:06,239 --> 00:38:09,839 Speaker 1: the incoming populations of workers. And landlords were a lot 616 00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:13,320 Speaker 1: like factory owners. They were trying to maximize their profits. 617 00:38:13,360 --> 00:38:15,640 Speaker 1: They would cram as many tenants as they could into 618 00:38:15,719 --> 00:38:19,880 Speaker 1: a building in order to get as many renters as possible, 619 00:38:20,640 --> 00:38:25,719 Speaker 1: So it was a fairly grim situation. Now, you might 620 00:38:25,800 --> 00:38:28,319 Speaker 1: think that in that situation the workers would have some 621 00:38:28,360 --> 00:38:31,760 Speaker 1: significant power because there were a lot of them. They're 622 00:38:31,800 --> 00:38:35,960 Speaker 1: way more workers than there were factory owners. So you'd think, well, 623 00:38:36,000 --> 00:38:39,920 Speaker 1: they could just band together and demand better conditions and 624 00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:42,720 Speaker 1: the factory owners would ultimately have to bow to them 625 00:38:42,760 --> 00:38:48,240 Speaker 1: if they were actually able to unionize. Well, the ruling 626 00:38:48,239 --> 00:38:51,960 Speaker 1: powers in England didn't like that idea so much. Um 627 00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:56,320 Speaker 1: England traditionally had had a lot of reluctance to allow 628 00:38:56,440 --> 00:38:59,560 Speaker 1: lower classes to have any kind of power or say 629 00:38:59,600 --> 00:39:02,560 Speaker 1: and help things were going, so why change things now. 630 00:39:03,120 --> 00:39:07,239 Speaker 1: They actually discouraged people from organizing into a labor force 631 00:39:07,239 --> 00:39:10,080 Speaker 1: that could fight for the rights of employees by passing 632 00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:16,640 Speaker 1: laws Britain passed. Britain's parliament passed the Combination Acts of 633 00:39:18,120 --> 00:39:21,920 Speaker 1: eight hundred, and it actually made it illegal for workers 634 00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:25,840 Speaker 1: to unionize. If you've tried to unionize workers, if you 635 00:39:25,880 --> 00:39:28,000 Speaker 1: were an employee and you were trying to convince others 636 00:39:28,040 --> 00:39:30,799 Speaker 1: to band with you, So that you could leverage your 637 00:39:30,800 --> 00:39:36,160 Speaker 1: work against the factory owners and demand better conditions. You 638 00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:39,640 Speaker 1: could be sentenced to either three months in prison or 639 00:39:39,680 --> 00:39:44,759 Speaker 1: two months of hard labor. So it's pretty grim. And 640 00:39:44,800 --> 00:39:49,279 Speaker 1: those acts remained law until eighteen twenty four, so a 641 00:39:49,360 --> 00:39:52,279 Speaker 1: quarter of a century. Essentially, this was the law of 642 00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:57,880 Speaker 1: the land. They were finally overthrown, and perhaps predictably, immediately 643 00:39:57,920 --> 00:40:02,080 Speaker 1: after they were overthrown, there were a series of workers 644 00:40:02,080 --> 00:40:04,920 Speaker 1: strikes throughout all of Britain, and in fact, the following 645 00:40:05,000 --> 00:40:10,439 Speaker 1: year in Parliament attempted to reinstate the Acts, but that 646 00:40:10,600 --> 00:40:14,640 Speaker 1: movement failed and they never were reinstated. Meanwhile, so you've 647 00:40:14,680 --> 00:40:19,680 Speaker 1: got the working class, this very poor new class of 648 00:40:19,719 --> 00:40:22,759 Speaker 1: people in Britain. They hadn't existed before. Before they would 649 00:40:22,760 --> 00:40:27,600 Speaker 1: have been farmers or perhaps small uh skilled workers of 650 00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:30,440 Speaker 1: some sort, like they might be a blacksmith or a weaver, 651 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:36,000 Speaker 1: but now they are factory workers, the working class. You 652 00:40:36,080 --> 00:40:39,000 Speaker 1: had another new class as well, that would be the 653 00:40:39,040 --> 00:40:42,360 Speaker 1: industrial capitalists. And these were the people who had the 654 00:40:42,400 --> 00:40:44,799 Speaker 1: money to start up the businesses. They were the ones 655 00:40:44,880 --> 00:40:48,759 Speaker 1: who were funding the building of a factory, the operation 656 00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:52,160 Speaker 1: of an industry, and they would use the profits from 657 00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:57,080 Speaker 1: that industry to improve that business, including the funding of 658 00:40:57,600 --> 00:41:01,879 Speaker 1: canals and bridges and roads throughout all of Britain. So 659 00:41:02,120 --> 00:41:05,240 Speaker 1: their work would benefit other people, but they were largely 660 00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:08,120 Speaker 1: doing it to benefit their own business, to to maximize 661 00:41:08,120 --> 00:41:11,239 Speaker 1: profits even more. And some of these people came from 662 00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:16,400 Speaker 1: humble origins. They weren't all very highly educated people. Some 663 00:41:16,480 --> 00:41:19,239 Speaker 1: of them came from families that were very similar to 664 00:41:19,239 --> 00:41:23,560 Speaker 1: the families working in the factories. But because of their wealth, 665 00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:27,520 Speaker 1: they wielded as much or more power as the traditional 666 00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:32,279 Speaker 1: noble houses in England at that time. Um, remember this 667 00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,680 Speaker 1: is a time when the noble houses, you know, the 668 00:41:35,719 --> 00:41:38,000 Speaker 1: House of Lords, had largely lost a lot of its 669 00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:42,840 Speaker 1: power and uh, nobility was now looked upon with something 670 00:41:42,880 --> 00:41:46,000 Speaker 1: of of disdain because a lot of the noble noble 671 00:41:46,040 --> 00:41:49,560 Speaker 1: houses no longer had any money. Uh they had titles 672 00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:53,040 Speaker 1: and they had they had estates, but they didn't necessarily 673 00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:56,239 Speaker 1: have wealth, whereas you had this new class of industrial 674 00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:59,200 Speaker 1: capitalists who might not have any title to their name, 675 00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:04,320 Speaker 1: but we're fabulously wealthy. So it was a very different 676 00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:07,920 Speaker 1: time in Britain's history. Now that change, this whole change 677 00:42:07,920 --> 00:42:11,520 Speaker 1: with the working class and the industrial capitalists that didn't 678 00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:15,239 Speaker 1: go on without any resistance. In fact, weavers would lead 679 00:42:15,280 --> 00:42:18,160 Speaker 1: the way. They protested the change from the cottage industry 680 00:42:18,160 --> 00:42:23,320 Speaker 1: to factory production. Early on, you get stories about weavers 681 00:42:23,400 --> 00:42:27,200 Speaker 1: who were upset at factories. They they felt one the 682 00:42:27,280 --> 00:42:29,520 Speaker 1: factory was going to put them out of business, and 683 00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:33,520 Speaker 1: two that factories were going to produce work that was 684 00:42:34,680 --> 00:42:38,960 Speaker 1: inferior to what a weaver, a traditional weaver would make, 685 00:42:40,239 --> 00:42:42,319 Speaker 1: So there was a bit of pride and a bit 686 00:42:42,360 --> 00:42:45,840 Speaker 1: of self preservation in this. They would protest this change 687 00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:51,399 Speaker 1: by breaking looms. This was a an era in which 688 00:42:51,440 --> 00:42:56,240 Speaker 1: the term sabotage came to prominence. So there's a most 689 00:42:56,280 --> 00:43:01,000 Speaker 1: likely apocryphal story that some weavers through their shoes into 690 00:43:01,320 --> 00:43:06,600 Speaker 1: a loom essentially a giant water powered loom, in order 691 00:43:06,640 --> 00:43:09,200 Speaker 1: to destroy it. So they're coming up the works with 692 00:43:09,200 --> 00:43:14,200 Speaker 1: their shoes and shoes in French is sabo, So sabotage 693 00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:17,560 Speaker 1: is this act of throwing one's shoes into machinery to 694 00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:22,120 Speaker 1: destroy the machines, normally as part of a labor dispute. 695 00:43:22,480 --> 00:43:26,120 Speaker 1: But most etymologists agree that that particular story is likely 696 00:43:26,239 --> 00:43:28,920 Speaker 1: just a folk tale. So don't write to me and say, hey, 697 00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:32,440 Speaker 1: you said sabotage comes from throwing shoes into machines, and 698 00:43:32,480 --> 00:43:37,200 Speaker 1: it says here that's not true. I agree, It's just 699 00:43:37,239 --> 00:43:41,120 Speaker 1: that the most widely used explanation comes from the mostly 700 00:43:41,760 --> 00:43:45,960 Speaker 1: most likely untrue story that shoes have everything to do 701 00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:50,440 Speaker 1: with sabotage. But there's another word that also came up 702 00:43:50,520 --> 00:43:53,319 Speaker 1: during this era that also gets misused a lot, and 703 00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:56,960 Speaker 1: that is the word luddite. Now, today, we usually interpret 704 00:43:57,040 --> 00:44:01,759 Speaker 1: luddite as someone who opposes or doesn't adopt technological advances. 705 00:44:01,760 --> 00:44:04,359 Speaker 1: So a person refusing to get a cell phone could 706 00:44:04,400 --> 00:44:06,640 Speaker 1: be called a luddite by somebody like, Oh, you're such 707 00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:09,439 Speaker 1: a luddite you won't even get a cell phone. So 708 00:44:09,719 --> 00:44:12,080 Speaker 1: we use that term just I mean, you aren't going 709 00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:15,040 Speaker 1: to embrace technology. You think it's bad for some reason. 710 00:44:15,200 --> 00:44:19,280 Speaker 1: But in the Industrial Revolution, luddites were workers in England 711 00:44:19,280 --> 00:44:22,719 Speaker 1: who destroyed machinery in waves of labor disputes during the 712 00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:28,000 Speaker 1: early eighteen hundreds. Uh. They were doing so against the law, obviously, 713 00:44:29,040 --> 00:44:32,200 Speaker 1: and Parliament got very nervous about this. Uh. They you know, 714 00:44:32,239 --> 00:44:34,319 Speaker 1: England had already been through a civil war a couple 715 00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:37,560 Speaker 1: of centuries earlier, and Parliament was not eager to have 716 00:44:37,680 --> 00:44:41,239 Speaker 1: that happen again, so it began to assign soldiers to 717 00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:45,120 Speaker 1: defend factories. Thousands of soldiers were deployed throughout Britain to 718 00:44:45,400 --> 00:44:50,920 Speaker 1: guard factories against mobs of the working class. And the 719 00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:54,200 Speaker 1: Luddites ended up taking their name from a man named 720 00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:58,760 Speaker 1: ned Ludd who inspired and led them to cause mischief 721 00:44:58,760 --> 00:45:03,200 Speaker 1: throughout all of England. This guy almost went Christopher walking here. 722 00:45:03,560 --> 00:45:07,359 Speaker 1: This guy went all over England. He would show up 723 00:45:07,400 --> 00:45:11,920 Speaker 1: in all sorts of villages everywhere to lead people in 724 00:45:12,239 --> 00:45:16,440 Speaker 1: opposition to factory owners. And the British authorities were having 725 00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:19,080 Speaker 1: a heck of a time tracking this guy down. It 726 00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:22,680 Speaker 1: seemed like every time they were responding to one crisis, 727 00:45:23,400 --> 00:45:26,680 Speaker 1: he would pop up somewhere else in England, almost magically. 728 00:45:27,120 --> 00:45:29,360 Speaker 1: And the reason for this is because ned Lud was 729 00:45:29,400 --> 00:45:32,560 Speaker 1: not a real person. He was a story. He was 730 00:45:33,120 --> 00:45:37,120 Speaker 1: an idea concocted by the Luddites themselves, kind of as 731 00:45:37,120 --> 00:45:41,160 Speaker 1: a symbol of their movement. Uh So, ned Lud was 732 00:45:41,239 --> 00:45:43,920 Speaker 1: not a real person, but the Luddites did take their 733 00:45:44,000 --> 00:45:46,920 Speaker 1: name from ned Lud. Now, there was someone who may 734 00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:51,000 Speaker 1: have been named Lud or Ludham, who was working as 735 00:45:51,239 --> 00:45:54,959 Speaker 1: a weaver in a factory who might have inspired the name, 736 00:45:55,360 --> 00:46:00,399 Speaker 1: but the person himself didn't exist. Now, as it turns out, 737 00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:04,520 Speaker 1: the Luddites weren't really organized in any meaningful way. They 738 00:46:04,520 --> 00:46:08,520 Speaker 1: were very passionate, and they generally agreed on their cause, 739 00:46:09,320 --> 00:46:14,239 Speaker 1: but they weren't this massive underground organization that Parliament was 740 00:46:14,360 --> 00:46:17,799 Speaker 1: terrified of, and the workers actually suffered way more than 741 00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:21,000 Speaker 1: any of the machinery they attacked dead. In April of 742 00:46:21,040 --> 00:46:26,120 Speaker 1: eighteen twelve, a mob of workers were fired upon by soldiers. 743 00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:29,760 Speaker 1: A factory owner ordered the soldiers to fire into the crowd, 744 00:46:30,280 --> 00:46:32,440 Speaker 1: and as a result, three people were killed and at 745 00:46:32,480 --> 00:46:35,520 Speaker 1: least eighteen were wounded, and more were killed in a 746 00:46:35,600 --> 00:46:39,440 Speaker 1: different clash on the following day. So violent confrontations like 747 00:46:39,520 --> 00:46:43,879 Speaker 1: these would continue for the next several years. Here's the thing. 748 00:46:44,560 --> 00:46:48,960 Speaker 1: The Luddites weren't actually opposing industrial machines. They depended on 749 00:46:49,040 --> 00:46:52,440 Speaker 1: those machines to do their work, so they were not 750 00:46:52,640 --> 00:46:56,840 Speaker 1: anti technology. What the Luddites opposed were what they viewed 751 00:46:56,840 --> 00:47:01,560 Speaker 1: as cruel labor conditions that exploited employee and benefited the owners. 752 00:47:02,080 --> 00:47:05,719 Speaker 1: They targeted manufacturers who used factories in a fraudulent and 753 00:47:05,840 --> 00:47:09,799 Speaker 1: deceitful manner. What they really wanted was better wages. They 754 00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:13,440 Speaker 1: wanted the assurance that people who were working the machines 755 00:47:13,520 --> 00:47:17,640 Speaker 1: would actually be trained as apprentices and learn how to 756 00:47:17,719 --> 00:47:22,920 Speaker 1: use the machines before being assigned a machine. Uh. This 757 00:47:23,000 --> 00:47:24,440 Speaker 1: was sort of a point of a pride to make 758 00:47:24,480 --> 00:47:27,160 Speaker 1: sure that the finished product was a good product and 759 00:47:27,200 --> 00:47:29,440 Speaker 1: not just one that's super cheaply made in order to 760 00:47:29,440 --> 00:47:32,520 Speaker 1: benefit the factory owner. And all of this seems like 761 00:47:33,160 --> 00:47:35,799 Speaker 1: a pretty humble set of demands if you ask me, 762 00:47:36,280 --> 00:47:38,640 Speaker 1: you know, they're they're just asking to be paid a 763 00:47:38,719 --> 00:47:42,439 Speaker 1: fair wage and to make sure that the business isn't 764 00:47:42,480 --> 00:47:47,440 Speaker 1: cutting corners when it comes to production. But now today 765 00:47:47,480 --> 00:47:49,800 Speaker 1: we just considered ludite to be a term for somebody 766 00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:53,600 Speaker 1: who doesn't like technology. It's kind of interesting considering that's 767 00:47:53,640 --> 00:47:56,239 Speaker 1: not what the original intent was, although they did try 768 00:47:56,280 --> 00:47:59,759 Speaker 1: and destroy machines in order to to get their point 769 00:47:59,760 --> 00:48:05,000 Speaker 1: of us. Eventually workers were able to unionize legally, but 770 00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:09,840 Speaker 1: it took decades after they unionized before conditions would start 771 00:48:09,880 --> 00:48:13,719 Speaker 1: to really improve. Even into the Victorian era in the 772 00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:18,560 Speaker 1: mid to late eighteen hundreds, factories were still crowded and dangerous, 773 00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:21,520 Speaker 1: and London had more than its share of slums filled 774 00:48:21,520 --> 00:48:25,000 Speaker 1: with working class families and the unemployed. All you have 775 00:48:25,040 --> 00:48:28,360 Speaker 1: to read is any Charles Dickens novel and you'll understand. 776 00:48:28,360 --> 00:48:31,360 Speaker 1: You'll see this, uh that this was still an issue 777 00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:36,520 Speaker 1: in Britain decades after the unions were finally able to form. Now, 778 00:48:36,520 --> 00:48:38,160 Speaker 1: what about the rest of the world. I've talked a 779 00:48:38,200 --> 00:48:42,160 Speaker 1: lot about Britain, a little bit about America. Why haven't 780 00:48:42,200 --> 00:48:45,279 Speaker 1: I talked about other places? Well, it's largely because the 781 00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:49,680 Speaker 1: industrialization of other countries followed in the footsteps of Britain 782 00:48:49,719 --> 00:48:53,719 Speaker 1: by a few but lagged a few decades behind um. 783 00:48:53,760 --> 00:48:57,240 Speaker 1: And some places had better excuses than others. Like France 784 00:48:57,280 --> 00:49:00,120 Speaker 1: and America both had pretty good excuses. They both are 785 00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:04,240 Speaker 1: undergoing revolutionary wars around the same time Britain was undergoing 786 00:49:04,239 --> 00:49:08,280 Speaker 1: its industrial revolution, and the war was taking way more 787 00:49:08,400 --> 00:49:12,000 Speaker 1: of the focus of the people of France and the 788 00:49:12,000 --> 00:49:18,480 Speaker 1: people of America than any sort of industrial revolution could America. Obviously, 789 00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:24,000 Speaker 1: they concluded their revolutionary war well ahead of time before 790 00:49:24,040 --> 00:49:28,040 Speaker 1: France did, before France had even had a revolution, and 791 00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:30,399 Speaker 1: so we're able to move on, and so they caught 792 00:49:30,480 --> 00:49:35,160 Speaker 1: up not too long after that. American ingenuity was something 793 00:49:35,160 --> 00:49:38,239 Speaker 1: that people were very proud of and they were able 794 00:49:38,280 --> 00:49:40,920 Speaker 1: to catch up to the Brits before too long. France 795 00:49:41,239 --> 00:49:45,920 Speaker 1: had the other drawback that after the French Revolution, there 796 00:49:45,920 --> 00:49:50,960 Speaker 1: were the Napoleonic Wars, which did not end until eighteen fifteen, 797 00:49:51,040 --> 00:49:55,680 Speaker 1: so they didn't move into industrialization until after that. Essentially 798 00:49:55,719 --> 00:49:59,000 Speaker 1: around that same time, the other nations in Europe began 799 00:49:59,040 --> 00:50:02,200 Speaker 1: to follow suit, and so you started to see this 800 00:50:02,239 --> 00:50:07,200 Speaker 1: pattern where countries were becoming industrialized following similar pathways that 801 00:50:07,320 --> 00:50:11,840 Speaker 1: Britain followed, but several decades behind. So that's why we 802 00:50:11,920 --> 00:50:14,880 Speaker 1: tell the story of the industrial Revolution largely with Britain 803 00:50:14,880 --> 00:50:18,920 Speaker 1: in mind, because it acts as the model for everybody else. 804 00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:22,120 Speaker 1: But once they got started, they actually caught up to 805 00:50:22,160 --> 00:50:24,759 Speaker 1: Britain pretty quickly. So in other words, it didn't take 806 00:50:24,760 --> 00:50:28,240 Speaker 1: the decades and decades and decades of work that happened 807 00:50:28,239 --> 00:50:31,360 Speaker 1: in Britain to get up to about the same speed 808 00:50:31,400 --> 00:50:34,600 Speaker 1: that Britain was currently at, and what followed was an 809 00:50:34,680 --> 00:50:40,040 Speaker 1: unprecedented era of production and commerce. Other inventions would also 810 00:50:40,120 --> 00:50:44,320 Speaker 1: contribute to a very rapidly changing world. You might remember 811 00:50:44,360 --> 00:50:47,279 Speaker 1: I did an episode with Holly from Stuff You Missed 812 00:50:47,320 --> 00:50:51,200 Speaker 1: in History Class about the sewing machine for example, which 813 00:50:52,000 --> 00:50:54,200 Speaker 1: it's hard, it's hard to believe, but the sewing machine 814 00:50:54,840 --> 00:50:57,760 Speaker 1: is the subject of one of the nastiest patent wars 815 00:50:57,840 --> 00:51:02,400 Speaker 1: of all time. There were people who were willing to 816 00:51:02,400 --> 00:51:05,800 Speaker 1: to kill or die for their designs of the sewing machine. 817 00:51:05,880 --> 00:51:09,640 Speaker 1: But that was another big uh invention that came out 818 00:51:09,680 --> 00:51:14,640 Speaker 1: around this time. And innovation was also changing farming, which 819 00:51:14,719 --> 00:51:17,640 Speaker 1: was important because so many people were leaving the profession 820 00:51:17,719 --> 00:51:20,480 Speaker 1: of farming to go to cities and try something else. 821 00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:24,160 Speaker 1: A guy named Cyrus McCormick invented several large machines that 822 00:51:24,320 --> 00:51:27,279 Speaker 1: were important in farming, including one that was in on 823 00:51:28,160 --> 00:51:31,239 Speaker 1: a motorizer or mechanized I guess I should say a 824 00:51:31,320 --> 00:51:36,239 Speaker 1: mechanized reaper designed to harvest crops far more quickly than 825 00:51:36,280 --> 00:51:39,120 Speaker 1: you could by hand. So farmers could use machines to 826 00:51:39,120 --> 00:51:42,239 Speaker 1: meet the demand of these larger populations of non farmers. 827 00:51:42,480 --> 00:51:45,440 Speaker 1: You know, they were able to the one farmer was 828 00:51:45,480 --> 00:51:48,360 Speaker 1: now able to do the work of ten or twenty 829 00:51:48,480 --> 00:51:51,960 Speaker 1: farm hands using these machines because they were much more 830 00:51:51,960 --> 00:51:55,680 Speaker 1: efficient and fast. When the Industrial Revolution was coming to 831 00:51:55,760 --> 00:51:58,520 Speaker 1: an end in the middle of the nineteenth century, the 832 00:51:58,600 --> 00:52:03,560 Speaker 1: stage was set. Not long after this period, we would 833 00:52:03,560 --> 00:52:07,959 Speaker 1: see an unprecedented era of scientific discoveries. Some people refer 834 00:52:08,080 --> 00:52:11,279 Speaker 1: to it as the Second Industrial Revolution, because that's when 835 00:52:11,320 --> 00:52:15,680 Speaker 1: mass production really became a thing, when corporations came into existence, 836 00:52:16,200 --> 00:52:21,880 Speaker 1: and when we started to see people harness things like 837 00:52:21,920 --> 00:52:26,719 Speaker 1: electricity and discover radio waves, which ended up powering all 838 00:52:26,760 --> 00:52:29,480 Speaker 1: these ideas, I mean literally powering in the case of electricity, 839 00:52:29,719 --> 00:52:32,880 Speaker 1: all these ideas including radio and television that followed in 840 00:52:32,960 --> 00:52:37,560 Speaker 1: that Second Industrial Revolution, And it also allowed for the 841 00:52:37,600 --> 00:52:40,759 Speaker 1: age of discovery, where we had scientists all over the 842 00:52:40,800 --> 00:52:44,239 Speaker 1: world starting to break new ground in our understanding of 843 00:52:44,239 --> 00:52:47,840 Speaker 1: the universe, including in really weird areas like quantum physics. 844 00:52:49,040 --> 00:52:52,280 Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed that classics series from tech Stuff 845 00:52:52,280 --> 00:52:55,520 Speaker 1: on how the Industrial Revolution worked. I thought that was 846 00:52:55,560 --> 00:52:58,200 Speaker 1: a fascinating topic to really look into. You know, some 847 00:52:58,280 --> 00:53:00,400 Speaker 1: of the stuff I knew a little bit about, but 848 00:53:00,520 --> 00:53:03,040 Speaker 1: most of it was brand new for me at the 849 00:53:03,080 --> 00:53:10,080 Speaker 1: time and really exciting to learn about how quickly new 850 00:53:10,160 --> 00:53:14,520 Speaker 1: technologies were being developed and adopted and how much, you know, 851 00:53:15,560 --> 00:53:19,839 Speaker 1: stress there was, how much how much conflict there was 852 00:53:20,320 --> 00:53:24,719 Speaker 1: as various technologies were coming mature. And of course we 853 00:53:24,760 --> 00:53:27,920 Speaker 1: still see that sort of stuff today. Typically we're seeing 854 00:53:27,920 --> 00:53:32,120 Speaker 1: it in the digital realm more than in the engineering realm. 855 00:53:32,200 --> 00:53:34,760 Speaker 1: But yeah, I mean it's it was the stuff of 856 00:53:34,760 --> 00:53:38,719 Speaker 1: of real drama back then. If you have suggestions for 857 00:53:38,840 --> 00:53:41,439 Speaker 1: topics that we should cover on tech Stuff, whether they're 858 00:53:41,480 --> 00:53:44,719 Speaker 1: historical or futuristic or anything in between, there are a 859 00:53:44,760 --> 00:53:46,719 Speaker 1: couple of different ways you can get in touch. One 860 00:53:46,840 --> 00:53:49,239 Speaker 1: is to download the I Heart Radio app. It's free 861 00:53:49,239 --> 00:53:51,759 Speaker 1: to download and to use. You can navigate over to 862 00:53:51,840 --> 00:53:54,560 Speaker 1: the tech Stuff page. Just search tech Stuff in the 863 00:53:54,600 --> 00:53:57,719 Speaker 1: search bar, bringing right to us. If you click into 864 00:53:57,800 --> 00:53:59,960 Speaker 1: tech Stuff, you'll see that there's a little microphone I 865 00:54:00,080 --> 00:54:02,360 Speaker 1: con and if you touch that, you can leave a 866 00:54:02,440 --> 00:54:04,959 Speaker 1: message up to thirty seconds in length. If you prefer 867 00:54:05,120 --> 00:54:08,399 Speaker 1: to send your message other in other ways, the best 868 00:54:08,440 --> 00:54:10,880 Speaker 1: way to do it is over Twitter. The handle for 869 00:54:10,960 --> 00:54:13,480 Speaker 1: our show is text Stuff hs W. Just send us 870 00:54:13,480 --> 00:54:15,719 Speaker 1: a tweet and tell me what it is you would 871 00:54:15,760 --> 00:54:18,040 Speaker 1: like us to cover, and I'll try to get to 872 00:54:18,120 --> 00:54:23,920 Speaker 1: it and I'll talk to you again really soon. YEA. 873 00:54:28,040 --> 00:54:31,080 Speaker 1: Text Stuff is an I Heart Radio production. For more 874 00:54:31,160 --> 00:54:34,560 Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, 875 00:54:34,680 --> 00:54:37,840 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.