Chapter 10 Terms

Capital

Material wealth used or available for use in the production of more wealth

Flying Shuttle

Was developed by John Kay, it sped the process of weaving on a loom, enabling weavers to double their output

Spinning Jenny

(1768) Developed by James Hargreaves, it enabled spinners to produce yarn in greater quantities

Water Frame

1780's; Richard Arkwright; powered by horse or water; turned out yarn much faster than cottage spinning wheels, led to development of mechanized looms

Powerloom

Invented by Edmund Cartwright, it allowed the weaving of cloth to catch up with the spinning of yarn

Steam Engine

An engine that uses the expansion or rapid condensation of steam to generate power. Invented by Thomas Newcomen but perfected by James Watt, whose version was used in cotton mills and textile factories

James Watt (1736-1819)

Scottish engineer and inventor whose improvements in the steam engine led to its wide use in industry.

Henry Cort

(1780's) Inventor of the puddling system in which coke was used to burn away impurities in pig iron to produce an iron of high quality called wrought iron.

Coke

A form of coal that was unlimited in supply and therefore easier and better to use.

Richard Trevithick

English engineer who built the first railway locomotive (1771-1833)

George Stephenson (1781-1848)

English railway pioneer who built the first railway using a steam locomotive. Created Rocket (steam-powered locomotive) which pulled carriages along iron rails.

Locomotive

A railroad engine

Great Exhibition of 1851

In 1851, the British organized the first industrial fair at London in the Crystal Palace. The fair had 100,000 exhibits that showed a wide variety of products made in the Industrial Revolution. It was a display of Britain's wealth to the world.

Crystal Palace

Building erected in London, for the Great Exhibition of 1851. Made of iron and glass, like a gigantic greenhouse, it was a symbol of the industrial age.

Tariffs

Duties (taxes) imposed on imported goods, usually to raise revenue and to discourage imports and protect domestic industries

Friedrich List

German-American who wrote "National System of Political Economy" in 1844; he advocated industrialization by railroad building and protective tariffs

National System

This book was written by Friedrich List in 1840. He believed that industrialization would relieve people of poverty and help achieve happiness. He supported railroad building, tariffs, and the Zollverein. In this book he also expressed his beliefs that free trade was only beneficial to the British and that tariffs would aid countries in catching up with the English. A revival of his ideas began in earnest during the 1870s

Ruhr Valley

Coal-rich industrial region of Germany

Samuel Slater

He was a British mechanic that moved to America and in 1791 invented the first American machine for spinning cotton. He is known as "the Father of the Factory System" and he started the idea of child labor in America's factories

The Great Hunger

Potato famine in Ireland, diseases spread through the potato crop and destroyed it

Irish Potato Famine

A famine in 1845 when the main crop of Ireland, potatoes, was destroyed by disease. Irish farmers grew other food items, such as wheat and oats, but Great Britain required them to export those items to them, leaving nothing for the Irish to live on. As a result, over 1 million Irish died of starvation or disease, while millions of others migrated to the United States.

Poor Law Commission

1820s British investigation into the poor living conditions of many city dwellers

Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890)

An urban reformer with a background in law that was obsessed with eliminating the poverty of urban areas. He was appointed to a number of government investigations. He was a secretary of the Poor Law Commission that initiated a search for conditions of the working classes. This led to his Report on the Condition of the Laboring Population of Great Britain. He believed that the disease was caused by sanitation problems. He wanted a modern sanitary system and efficient sewers and piped water. This caused the National Board of Health to be created

Cholera

A serious and often deadly disease commonly spread by contaminated water; a major problem in nineteenth-century European cities before sewerage systems were installed.

Pauper apprentices

Orphans or abandoned children who were forced to work long hours with inadequate food as a result of the local parishes' lack of funds, many became deformed

Poor Law Act of 1834

Established workhouses for jobless for people to live, assumed the unemployed poor were jobless because it was their fault so they forced the poor to live in prison like homes where they were forced to work and given horrible living conditions

Trade unions

Associations of workers in the same trade formed to help members secure better wages, benefits, and working conditions

Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800

Outlawed associations of workers (trade unions) in Britain. Repealed in 1824 when faced with massive blatant disobedience.

Robert Owen (1771-1858)

Cotton magnate and social reformer. Believed that the creation of voluntary associations would demonstrate the importance of cooperative rather than competitive living. Helped plan the Grand National Consolidated Trades Union (formed in Feb 1834, collapsed the same summer amidst a failed strike for unrealistic goals, such as an eight-hour working day)

Luddites

Skilled craftspeople in the Midlands and northern England (British workers) who in 1812 attacked the machines that they believed threatened their livelihoods

Chartism

A political reform movement that aimed for political democracy for all men. Names comes from People's Charter (1838) that demanded universal male suffrage, payment for members in Parliament, elimination of property qualifications for members of Parliament, and annual sessions of Parliament. Women joined movement to fight for political rights of their husbands.

Working class consciousness

An awareness among workers that they were experiencing similar living and working conditions, and therefore belonged to a single class of worker

Ten Hours Act of 1847

Reduced the workday for children between 13-18 and women to ten hours

Coal Mines Act

Eliminated the employment of boys under ten and women in mines

Factory Act of 1833

* Children between the ages of 9-13 could work only eight hours a day
* Children between 13-18, twelve hours
* Factory inspectors were appointed with the power to fine those who broke the law.
* Children between 9-13 to have at least two hours of elementary education during the working day
* Applied to textile factories now