D’Amato 1
D’Amato 1
Gabrielle D’Amato
TSEM
Writing Assignment #2

The Role of the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution took place in the 18th and 19th centuries. During this time period, societies in Europe and America lead to urbanization. For the first time, humans moved from an agrarian lifestyle to an urban lifestyle. Industrialization marked a shift in power, machinery, factories, and mass production. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, manufacturing was usually done in people’s homes, using their hands or basic machines. The Industrial Revolution is the name given to the movement in which machines changed people's way of life as well as their methods of manufacture. One specific manufactory that was transformed by this innovation was the way we produced clothes, which is now known textile industry. The textile industry can be described as industries that are primarily concerned with the design or manufacture of clothing as well as the distribution and use of textiles. Before machines and factories, people created textiles in their own homes, which required long tedious hours of hard work. They had the most basic equipment and provided themselves with all the raw materials. The problem with not being a legit foundry or business, led to people only working when they felt like working and on their own schedules. Either not enough products were being made or the results were inefficient. As the industrial revolution began to spread, the physical demand for labor was decreasing and required less energy for satisfying productivity through the use of inventions.
D’Amato 2
D’Amato 2

New inventions that began to emerge with the urbanizing of a new society, made everything more suitable. For example, “around 1764, Englishman James Hargreaves, invented the spinning jenny (“jenny” was an early abbreviation of the word “engine”), a machine that enabled an individual to produce multiple spools of threads simultaneously” (Industrial Revolution). Similarly, during the Industrial Revolution era, a lot of effort was made to increase the speed of the production through several inventions. It wasn’t just the Spinning jenny that got the job done, but instead, a series of developments were brought into existence. Such additions included, the flying shuttle in 1733, made by John Kay that allowed the ability to weave, and the flyer-and-bobbin system and the Roller Spinning machine by John Wyatt and Lewis Paul in 1738, were used together to draw wool at a more even thickness and to twist and spin thread quickly and efficiently. Textile manufacturing has come a long way, from domestic production using wool, cotton and flax in historical times. The demand for labor increased in factories and making clothes quicker became an organized industry, using spinning wheels and handlooms. Today, modern techniques, electronics and innovation have led to a competitive, low-priced textile industry offering almost any type of cloth or design a person could desire. According to Economy Watch’s article, The Textile Industry, “with its low cost labor base, China has come to dominate the global textile industry.” Who would have guessed that with the Industrial Revolution starting in Britain, now China has dominated one of its main impacts?
Looking back on how the textile industry used to be, we can thank the Industrial Revolution era for creating urbanization and changing the lives of humans for the better. The industrial revolution reduced the prices of goods because technologies reduced the cost of production. The industrial revolution changed society forever, specifically through the textile industry, but also generally, through all the other sectors it brought about as well. To live in such an advanced world today, it is hard to think of how the world really used to be. As humans, we must be thankful and not abuse or take advantage of the technology we have.
D’Amato 3
D’Amato 3