Industrial Age





Ancient History
Until about 10,000 years ago, the people of the earth were hunters and gatherers, living in small, wandering groups. It is estimated that the total world population at that time was approximately 10 million people. The development of agriculture led to major changes in society. No longer were groups of people nomadic--rather they settled where they could grow and harvest crops. The Agricultural Age brought with it increasing population densities and the development of large cities. It provided the environment that led to the development of writing and reading.

Industrial Age
The Agriculture Age lasted about 10,000 years. At the time of the American revolutionary War, for example, about 90% of the population lived on farms. About 200 years ago, the Industrial Age began to emerge. Our great-grandparents and grandparents saw the rapid movement from a society with a significant portion of its people involved in agriculture to an increasing emphasis on industry. Today we are seeing a rapid evolution from an industrial society to an information society.

The following is quoted from the October 1845 issue of Scientific American:


 * It is estimated that the power of steam in Great Britain is equal to the labor of 170,000,000 men, in a population of only 28,000,000.

The Industrial Revolution—fueled by steam power—began in Great Britain in the late 1700s. The quote indicated that 50 years into this Industrial Revolution, the installed base of steam power was equivalent (in terms of pure physical power) to about six times the physical power of the entire population of Great Britain.

One horsepower is about the same as five or six "person power." So, a somewhat different way of representing the information in the previous paragraph is that the total steam power amounted to a little more than one horsepower per person. (The next time you push down the gas pedal on the 150 horsepower gasoline engine in a car think about that statistic!)

By 1845, Great Britain was the industrial powerhouse of the world. Of course, not every person in Great Britain was working in a factory that made use of steam power. We can speculate that perhaps the average factory worker was making use of steam power equivalent to the physical power of a hundred strong people. It was this factor of 100 change that led Great Britain to its world dominance in industrial manufacturing.

The following quote is from the 1994 edition of the Microsoft Encarta:


 * Britain did not long remain the only country to experience an Industrial Revolution. Attempts to specify dates for the Industrial Revolution in other countries are controversial and not particularly rewarding. Nonetheless, scholars generally agree that the Industrial Revolution occurred in France, Belgium, Germany, and the United States about the middle of the 19th century; in Sweden and Japan toward the end of the century; in Russia and Canada just after the turn of the 20th century; and in parts of Latin America, the Middle East, Central and southern Asia, and Africa about or after the middle of the 20th century.

Steam and other forms of power have transformed the societies of the earth during the past 200 years. While not every country was affected at the same time, and while not all people have been affected equally, it is evident that the Industrial Revolution produced great changes.

Of course, the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain and elsewhere was much more than just supplementing the physical power of workers. It also meant steady advances in manufacturing methods, science, and technology. All of these things together led to substantial increases in the productivity of individual workers.

Many of the early factories had terrible working conditions. Moreover, factory owners soon found that quite young children could do a number of the jobs, and required less pay than adults. This situation eventually led to the development of child labor laws. It also led to the development of public schools with required attendance. The public schools that were developed had a number of "factory-like" characteristics. Indeed, one of the goals was to prepare students to eventually work in factories. The factory-like, Industrial Age model of education is still with us--but the world has changed substantially since this model of education was developed.

The Industrial Revolution was an enormous change in a world that had been mainly agrarian for the previous 10,000 years. The change had both positive and negative components. For example, the cost of manufactured goods decreased, so more people could afford to have more of these goods. But, working conditions in factories were often terrible. Some people and some nations benefited more than others. In retrospect, it is easy to point out how the Industrial Revolution contributed to pollution in individual countries and the world. If we can see the "evils" of the Industrial Revolution, can we perhaps predict the problems that may be created by the Information Age?

To Think About
Think about what life in England might have been like in the early 1800s as large numbers of people were moving from the farm to work in factories located in cities. Who "gained" and who "lost" by the changes that were going in this society? For each group you name, what was gained and/or what was lost? For example, did the children of farm families that moved to the city have an improved quality of life?

The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, but it eventually spread to much of the rest of the world. Even today, however, there are a number of agrarian countries that are trying to industrialize, or to move past the Industrial Age into the Information Age. What are advantages and disadvantages to a country in moving from being an agrarian nation into being an industrial nation at the current time?

Author or Authors
The initial version of this article was written by David Moursund.