Industrial Revolution Essay

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The Industrial Revolution
Beginning in Great Britain, the Industrial Revolution brought many struggles to people in the 1700s-1900s. The underprivileged and even various working-class families continued to go home to meager, unsanitary houses in jam-packed neighborhoods (Jacob). Whole families were crammed into one room. Crime and alcoholism was everywhere. However, despite these downsides, the Industrial Revolution brought benefits beyond belief. Without this revolution, the world would not be the same as it is today. New inventions, dispositions, and art styles emerged. Although the Industrial Revolution caused hardships, the innovations and advances during this time profoundly outweigh the consequences.
During this time, technology shed a whole new light on the world of inventions. "The eighteenth century was marked with a series of inventions that brought new uses for known energy sources (coal) and new machines to improve efficiencies (steam engines), which in turn enabled other new inventions including water pumps and railroads" (de Blij, Fouberg, and Murphy). Steamships substituted sailing ships, and railroad construction boomed. The first internal combustion engine that used gasoline, four-wheeled automobile, and car reaching 25 miles per hour were produced. The initial pilot-controlled airplane, invented by Orville and Wilbur Wright, used the internal combustion engine. William Kelly and Henry Bessemer developed a new process for making steel. Steel was lighter, harder, and stronger than iron, so it could be produced inexpensively. Tons of new products were produced by chemists such as Alfred Nobel who invented dynamite which was used for construction. Nobel’s invention earned him a huge fortune which funded the first N...

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...ries were being made, hospital care improved. Anesthesia was first used to relieve pain during surgery in the late 1840s and allowed doctors to experiment with operations that had never been possible before. Florence Nightingale introduced sanitary procedures in hospitals, while Joseph Lister discovered how antiseptics counteracted infection. As industrialization moved forward, city life advanced. Paved streets, gas lamps, and electric street lights lined vast new squares and boulevards that bettered security. Cities established police forces and fire protection, and sewage systems underneath the streets made cities much healthier. Since the standard of living rose, families ate more diverse diets, lived in excelling homes, and dressed in low-cost, bulk-produced clothing (Ellis, Gaynor, and Esler). The Industrial Revolution was the start of a whole new world to come.

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