Salvador Dali- myth and reality of 20th century art. Of course, not from childhood, but already during his lifetime his name was surrounded by a halo of world fame. No one other than Pablo Picasso could match his fame. Despite the fact that we know many well-reasoned, although sometimes opposing, versions of the phenomenon of this outstanding artist, they cannot finally convince us of the correctness of individual points of view of this or that author or win us over to the side of one of them. Apparently this is inevitable. After all, just as there are inexplicable phenomena in nature, so in art much is completely incomprehensible.
Trying to get closer to understanding creativity Dali, let us turn to his own thoughts and judgments: “... when the Renaissance wanted to imitate Immortal Greece, Raphael came out of it. Ingres wanted to imitate Raphael, and from this came Ingres. Cezanne wanted to imitate Poussin, and it turned out to be Cezanne. Dali wanted to imitate Meyssonnier, and this resulted in Dali. Nothing comes of those who do not want to imitate anything. And I want people to know about it. After pop art and op art, Pompier art will appear, but such art will be multiplied by everything that is valuable, and by all, even the craziest, experiences of this grandiose tragedy called Modern art (art nouveau).”
Dali never ceases to amaze viewers with the paradoxical nature of its imaginative worldview, asserting its monopoly on ingenious unsurpassability. With his inexhaustible imagination, extravagance of nature, seeming absurdity, unmotivated actions, and hypertrophied ambition, he created the ground for the mythologization of his own person. Dali possessed a truly universal gift and managed to brilliantly realize his talent in various fields of creativity - in the fine arts, cinema, literature... Art criticism and art history, partly contrary to Dali’s idea of his own exclusivity, simplifying his task, determined his leading place within conventional boundaries one artistic movement - surrealism. But, apparently, the time will come when this will clearly not be enough and the existing theoretical model will be replaced by a more in-depth and complex attitude towards the heritage of the great master. Perhaps only the future can feel a certain closeness of Dali’s art to the spiritual quest of Russian culture, the genius of N. Gogol, F. Dostoevsky, M. Bulgakov, and their universal phantasmagoria. The experience of such parallels, in our opinion, would be fruitful and would allow us to break out of the narrowed circle of established views, but today we are not sufficiently prepared for this. Contrary to this kind of predictions, let us return to the traditional model of the history of surrealism and its role in its development today. Dali.
Many world-changing inventions appeared during the Industrial Revolution. The camera wasn't one of them. In fact, the camera's predecessor, known as the camera obscura, dates back to the late 1500s.
However, saving camera shots has long been a challenge, especially if you don't have time to render them. Then Nikephore Niépce came. In the 1820s, a Frenchman came up with the idea of applying coated paper filled with light-sensitive chemicals to the image projected by a camera obscura. Eight hours later, the world's first photograph appeared.
Realizing that eight hours was too long to pose for a family portrait, Niepce joined forces with Louis Daguerre to improve his design, and it was Daguerre who carried on Niepce's work after his death in 1833. The so-called daggerotype first aroused enthusiasm in the French parliament and then throughout the world. However, although the daguerreotype could produce very detailed images, they could not be made into replicas.
Daguerre's contemporary, William Henry Fox Talbot, also worked to improve photographic images in the 1830s and made the first negative, through which light could be exposed to photographic paper and create a positive. Similar advances quickly began to take hold, and gradually cameras became capable of even capturing moving objects, and exposure times became shorter. A photo of a horse taken in 1877 ended a long-standing debate about whether all four of a horse's legs leave the ground during a gallop (they do). So the next time you whip out your smartphone to take a photo, take a second to think about the centuries of innovation that allowed that photo to be born.
Phonograph
Nothing can quite replicate the experience of seeing your favorite band perform live. Not long ago, live performances were the only way to listen to music. Thomas Edison changed that forever by developing a method for transcribing telegraph messages, which led him to the idea of the phonograph. The idea is simple but beautiful: a recording stylus extrudes grooves corresponding to the sound waves of music or speech into a rotating cylinder coated with tin, and another stylus reproduces the original sound based on those grooves.
Unlike Babbage and his ten-year attempts to see his designs come to fruition, Edison commissioned his mechanic John Kruesi to build the machine and, 30 hours later, had a working prototype in his hands. But Edison did not stop there. His first tin cylinders could only play music a few times, so Edison later replaced the tin with wax. By that time, Edison's phonograph was no longer the only one on the market, and over time, people began to abandon Edison's cylinders. The main mechanism has been preserved and is still in use today. Not bad for a random invention.
Steam engine
Just as the roar of V8 engines and high-speed jets fascinates us today, steam technology was once incredible. In addition, it played a gigantic role in supporting the industrial revolution. Before this era, people used horses and carriages to get around, and the practice of mining in mines was very labor-intensive and inefficient.
James Watt, a Scottish engineer, did not develop the steam engine, but he did manage to make a more efficient version of one in the 1760s by adding a separate condenser. This changed the mining industry forever.
Initially, some inventors used the steam engine to pump and remove water from mines, allowing for improved access to resources. As these engines gained popularity, engineers wondered how they could be improved. Watt's version of the steam engine did not require cooling after each blow, which accompanied resource extraction at the time.
Others wondered: What if, instead of transporting raw materials, goods and people by horse, they used a steam-powered machine? These thoughts inspired inventors to explore the potential of steam engines outside the mining world. Watt's modification of the steam engine led to other developments of the Industrial Revolution, including the first steam locomotives and steam-powered ships.
The following invention may be less well known, but is definitely important.
Conservation
Open your kitchen cabinet and you're sure to find at least one useful invention from the Industrial Revolution. The same period that gave us the steam engine changed the way we stored food.
After Britain spread to other parts of the world, inventions began to fuel the Industrial Revolution at a steady pace. For example, this happened with a French chef and innovator named Nicolas Appert. In search of ways to preserve food without losing taste and freshness, Apper regularly experimented with storing food in containers. In the end, he came to the conclusion that storing food, associated with drying or salting, does not lead to improved taste, but quite the opposite.
Appert thought that storing food in containers would be especially useful for sailors suffering from malnutrition at sea. The Frenchman was working on a boiling technique that involved placing food in a jar, sealing it, and then boiling it in water to create a vacuum seal. Appert achieved his goal by developing a special autoclave for preservation in the early 1800s. The basic concept still remains today.
Before the advent of smartphones and laptops, people still continued to use Industrial Revolution technology like the telegraph - although much less than before.
Through an electrical system of networks, the telegraph could transmit messages from one place to another over long distances. The recipient of the message had to interpret the markings produced by the machine using Morse code.
The first message was sent in 1844 by Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph, and it accurately captures his excitement. He conveyed “What is the Lord doing?” using his new system, hinting that he had discovered something big. And so it was. The Morse telegraph allowed people to communicate almost instantly over long distances.
Information transmitted via telegraph lines also greatly contributed to the development of the media and allowed governments to exchange information more quickly. The development of the telegraph even gave birth to the first news service, the Associated Press. In the end, Morse's invention connected America with Europe - and this was very important at that time.
Spinning Jenny
Be it socks or any fashion item, it was the advances in the textile industry during the Industrial Revolution that made these items possible for the masses.
The spinning jenny, or Hargreaves spinning machine, made a major contribution to the development of this process. After the raw material - cotton or wool - is collected, it needs to be made into yarn, and this work is often very painstaking for people.
James Hargreaves solved this issue. Taking on a challenge from Britain's Royal Society of Arts, Hargreaves developed a device that far exceeded the competition's requirement that it weave at least six yarns at a time. Hargreaves built a machine that produced eight streams simultaneously, dramatically increasing the efficiency of this activity.
The device consisted of a spinning wheel that controlled the flow of material. At one end of the device there was a rotating material, and at the other the threads were collected into yarn from under a hand wheel.
Roads and mines
Building the infrastructure to support the Industrial Revolution was not easy. Demand for metals, including iron, spurred industry to come up with more efficient methods of extracting and transporting the raw materials.
For several decades, iron mining companies supplied large quantities of iron to factories and manufacturing companies. To obtain cheap metal, mining companies supplied more pig iron than wrought iron. In addition, people began to use metallurgy or simply explore the physical properties of materials in industrial settings.
Massive iron mining enabled the mechanization of other inventions of the Industrial Revolution. Without the metallurgical industry, railways and steam locomotives would not have developed, and there could have been stagnation in the development of transport and other industries.
Industrialization fundamentally changed the world. New sources of energy enabled mechanization; communications and means of transportation were developed.
Reasons for Industrialization
Many factors contributed to the accelerated development of industrialization in Europe in the 19th century. Due to the development of large empires, especially the British Empire, powerful trade opportunities emerged in Europe. Growing export markets contributed to increased productivity, and modern factories gradually began to be built. The acceleration of industrial development in Great Britain was facilitated by the significant expansion of the empire in the 18th century. By the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, states such as Belgium and Germany also began to create industrial production. Industrialization captured more and more new areas, from England to Northern and Western Europe, and later it crossed the Atlantic and reached the east coast of the United States.
This process was facilitated by the intensive development of natural sciences and technology. Probably one of the most important inventions of the time was the use of steam power, which drove machines in factories. Coal was required to generate steam, and some of Europe's strongest industrial regions were located near vast coal deposits. Great Britain and benefited from coal mines in South Wales, the Midlands and Northern England. In Germany, the coal industry was developed primarily with its deep coal seams extending widely to the north.
In addition, industrial regions benefited from proximity to important transport routes and trade routes such as rivers, canals or the sea. For example, in France, the Moselle and Marne rivers were ideal for transporting coal, and Marseille, located in Provence, provided access to the Mediterranean Sea.
The first photograph of the site (circa 1850) where the major city of Salt Lake City was later built. Left: An 1883 engraving shows a female worker (and foreman) in an English cotton mill.
The advantage of Great Britain was that on a relatively narrow island, all cities were located close to the sea. In addition, a network of waterways consisting of rivers and canals provided an easy route for transporting raw materials and finished products. The rivers of Northern Germany and Belgium were of equal importance. Along with the convenient geographical location, the supply of labor that was used in the factories played an important role.
As a result of years of privatization of common lands, many people living in rural areas of Great Britain have been forced to move to cities in search of work. On the European continent, the flight from villages to big cities began a little later. Major port cities such as Liverpool, Marseille, Hamburg and Rotterdam quickly developed into major industrial centers.
Impact of industrialization
The emergence of industrial society completely changed the world. At the beginning of the 20th century, countries with a high degree of industrialization were not only economically, but also politically strong states. The dominant nations of Germany, France, Great Britain, Japan and the United States relied on the developed economies of their countries. Industrialization, combined with the capitalist structure of the economy, has created an extremely effective and productive instrument for supporting and financing the state. Over the course of the 20th century, market-oriented capitalist democracies became the richest countries in the world.
In the 19th century, the direct impact of the industrial revolution did not always have positive consequences. Due to the urbanization of cities and the influx of poor people, many felt their living conditions deteriorating. Hunger and disease appeared. The distance between factory owners (capitalists), who wanted to reduce costs as much as possible in order to gain profit, and low-paid and oppressed workers (the proletariat) gave rise to class conflicts. Poor living conditions throughout 19th-century Europe influenced philosophers such as Karl Marx, who published The Communist Manifesto in 1848. Industrialization brought about not only social but also political changes. The emergence of communism as an opposition to capitalism led to fundamental changes in some countries. The coup in Russia was especially significant - the Great October Revolution.
English physicist Michael Faraday, who discovered electromagnetism and thereby laid the foundations of the dynamo and electric generator.
Steam engine
Steam engines contributed greatly to industrialization as they generated power to drive pumps, locomotives, and steamships.
The steam produced in the machine under pressure enters a turbine or piston and sets it in motion. This movement is transmitted to the wheels of the car. Although the date of this invention is considered to be 1698, many improvements were required before the steamship was first equipped with a steam engine in 1802. We owe the improvement of the steam engine to the Scotsman James Watt. Watt was born in 1732 and devoted his whole life to improving the steam engine, as a result of which it began to be used as a source of energy and drive during the era of the industrial revolution. Watt invented a separate chamber for steam condensation and thereby increased the efficiency of the machine. The barometer, centrifugal governor and flywheel are also his inventions. One of the steam engines built by Watt was installed on the first experimental steamship, the Claremont, built in 1807 on the Hudson.
Railway
The creation of railways with steam locomotives was a significant contribution to industrialization. Simple types of railways operated in Great Britain as early as the 19th century. Horses pulled trolleys along primitive tracks made of stone and iron to quarries and mines. The steam engine radically changed the situation. Miner Richard Trevithick from Cornwall coupled a steam engine and a tipping trolley in 1804. Inspired by this result, George Stephenson created the first working steam locomotive that could pull carriages. The first railway opened in 1830 between London and Liverpool created a real sensation in the construction of railways. Finally, the British state intervened and in 1850 standardized the gauge, which by then had up to ten widths. Thus, Britain became the first country to have a properly functioning national railway network at its disposal. Railways were now being built everywhere in Europe, connecting remote areas and facilitating the integration of the economy.
Textile industry
Factories equipped with machines became the production centers of national industry. In parallel with the increasing mechanization of production processes and the rapid increase in labor productivity, gigantic factories arose throughout Europe, equipped with machines and operated by countless workers. Revolutionary advances in textile production were achieved through the use of the first water-powered spinning machine, invented by Arkwright in 1769, and the invention of the steam-powered power loom, invented by Cartwright in 1792. In America, Eli Whitney developed a linter in 1793 to automatically separate cotton fiber from the seed. The associated increase in the volume of raw cotton produced caused a drop in prices and an increase in demand. In the mid-19th century, America produced three-quarters of the world's cotton textiles. Large quantities of this product came from the southern states and further to England and New England for further processing. The factories produced not only cheap clothes, but also dishes, glassware, watches - everything that was in demand.
Telegraph
Prosperous economies depended on communications, and postal systems emerged throughout Europe in the 19th century. Around 1875, the Universal Postal Union was organized to carry out postal correspondence with other countries. However, only with the creation of the telegraph did it become possible to carry out direct and instant communication with remote objects. In 1837, the electric telegraph was first tested in London, and in 1838, Samuel Morse patented the telegraph he invented in America.
With the successful installation of the first submarine cable between North America and Europe in 1866, transatlantic telephone communications became possible.
Electricity
In 1831, Michael Faraday demonstrated the effect of converting electrical energy into mechanical energy. The electromagnetism he discovered served as the basis for the development of a dynamo and an electric generator. In 1837, he created a dynamo with increased electrical power, and the technique, which at first was almost inaccessible and very expensive, gradually gained popularity. Until the beginning of the 20th century, people learned to generate relatively cheap electricity only from the energy of water movement. In the mountainous regions of Italy, where there was no coal, most factories ran on electricity generated by generators powered by the movement of water. In Florence, the first electric trams were put into operation in 1890. In the 1930s, almost all of Europe was electrified, and states such as Russia, where industrialization in the 19th century was slower rather than faster, began to develop rapidly.
The factory floor of one of the Krupp steel factories in Essen, the largest weapons forges in the German Empire.
Weapon
Firearms began to be created in the 16th century, and their role gradually increased. A consequence of the technological innovations of the 19th century was the rapid change in military weapons. The invention of the machine gun led to subsequent changes in weapon production. In 1862, the Gatling gun was invented, which quickly fired pellets and was the first self-loading firearm. Such weapons were first used in the American Civil War and later began to be used in the US Navy. Mitrailleuses made in France consisted of 37 rifle barrels connected in bundles. In 1883, the Maxim machine gun, invented by an American, was the first to use recoil energy after a shot to reload cartridges, which made it possible to fire a whole series of shots. Alfred Krupp from Essen is considered one of the greatest inventors of weapons, who turned a small family business into the largest and most successful manufacturing enterprise in Europe. When Krupp took over the company, it had five employees. After his death in 1887, 20 thousand people were already employed in production - proof of the enormous need for weapons in the 19th century.
The Great Industrial Revolution, the achievements and problems of which will be discussed in the article, began in England (mid-18th century) and gradually spread to the entire world civilization. It led to the mechanization of production, economic growth and the creation of a modern industrial society. The topic is covered in the eighth grade history course and will be useful to both students and parents.
Basic concept
A detailed definition of the concept can be seen in the picture above. It was first used by the French economist Adolphe Blanqui in 1830. The theory was developed by Marxists and Arnold Toynbee (English historian). The industrial revolution is not an evolutionary process associated with the emergence of new machines based on scientific and technical discoveries (some already existed at the beginning of the 18th century), but a massive transition to a new organization of labor - machine production in large factories, which replaced the manual labor of factories.
There are other definitions of this phenomenon in books, including the industrial revolution. It applies to the initial stage of the revolution, during which there are three of them:
- Industrial revolution: the emergence of a new industry - mechanical engineering and the creation of a steam engine (from the mid-18th century to the first half of the 19th century).
- Organization of continuous production through the use of chemicals and electricity (from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century). For the first time the stage was highlighted by David Landis.
- Use of information and communication technologies in production (from the end of the 20th century to the present). There is no consensus in science regarding the third stage.
Industrial revolution (industrial revolution): basic prerequisites
To organize factory production, a number of conditions are necessary, the main ones being:
- Availability of labor - people deprived of property.
- Possibility of selling goods (markets).
- The existence of rich people with money savings.
These conditions were formed first in England, where after the revolution of the 17th century the bourgeoisie came to power. The confiscation of land from peasants and the ruin of artisans in intense competition with manufactures created a huge army of dispossessed people in need of income. The relocation of former farmers to cities led to a weakening of subsistence farming. While villagers produced their own clothing and utensils, city dwellers were forced to buy them. Goods were also exported abroad, since sheep breeding was well developed in the country. Profits from the slave trade, the robbery of colonies and the export of wealth from India accumulated in the hands of the bourgeoisie. The Industrial Revolution (the transition from manual labor to machine labor) became a reality thanks to a number of serious inventions.
Spinning production
The industrial revolution first affected the cotton industry, the most developed in the country. The stages of its mechanization can be seen in the table presented.
Edmund Cartwright improved the loom (1785), because weavers could no longer process as much yarn as they produced in the factories of England. A 40-fold increase in productivity is the best confirmation that the industrial revolution has arrived. Achievements and problems (table) will be presented in the article. They are associated with the need to invent a special propulsion force that does not depend on the proximity of water.
Steam engine
The search for a new source of energy was important not only in but also in the mining industry, where work was especially hard. Already in 1711, an attempt was made to create a steam pump with a piston and cylinder into which water was injected. This was the first serious attempt to use steam. The author of an improved steam engine in 1763 was In 1784, the first double-acting steam engine used in a spinning mill was patented. The introduction of patents made it possible to protect the copyrights of inventors, which contributed to their motivation for new achievements. Without this step, the industrial revolution would hardly have been possible.
Achievements and problems (the table is shown in the picture below) show that the steam engine contributed to the industrial revolution in the development of transport. The appearance of the first steam locomotives on smooth rails is associated with the name of George Stephenson (1814), who personally drove a train of 33 cars on the first citizen railway in history in 1825. Its 30 km route connected Stockton and Darlington. By the middle of the century, all of England was surrounded by a network of railways. A little earlier, an American working in France tested the first steamship (1803).
Advances in mechanical engineering
In the table presented above, we should highlight an achievement without which the industrial revolution would have been impossible - the transition from manufactory to factory. This is the invention of a lathe, which makes it possible to cut nuts and screws. A mechanic from England, Henry Maudsley, made a breakthrough in the development of industry, essentially creating a new industry - mechanical engineering (1798-1800). To provide machines for factory workers, machines must be created that produce other machines. Planing and milling machines soon appeared (1817, 1818). Mechanical engineering contributed to the development of metallurgy and coal mining, which allowed England to flood other countries with cheap industrial goods. For this, it received the name “workshop of the world.”
With the development of machine tool industry, collective work has become a necessity. A new type of worker has emerged - one who performs only one operation and is unable to produce a finished product from start to finish. There was a separation of intellectual forces from physical labor, which led to the emergence of qualified specialists who formed the basis of the middle class. The industrial revolution is not only a technical aspect, but also serious social consequences.
Social consequences
The main result of the industrial revolution was the creation of an industrial society. It is characterized by:
- Personal freedom of citizens.
- Market relations.
- Technical modernization.
- New structure of society (predominance of urban residents, class stratification).
- Competition.
New technical capabilities (transport, communications) appeared, which improved the quality of life of people. But in pursuit of profit, the bourgeoisie looked for ways to reduce the cost of labor, which led to the widespread use of the labor of women and children. Society split into two opposing classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.
Bankrupt peasants and artisans could not find work due to a lack of jobs. They considered the culprits to be the machines that replaced their labor, so the movement against the machines gained momentum. Workers destroyed factory equipment, which marked the beginning of the class struggle against the exploiters. The growth of banks and the increase in capital imported into England at the beginning of the 19th century led to low solvency of other countries, which caused a crisis of overproduction in 1825. These are the consequences that the industrial revolution caused.
Achievements and problems (table): results of the industrial revolution
The table about industrial revolutions (achievements and problems) will be incomplete without taking into account the foreign policy aspect. For most of the 19th century, England's economic superiority was undeniable. It dominated the world trade market, which was developing rapidly. At the first stage, only France competed with it thanks to the targeted policy of Napoleon Bonaparte. The uneven economic development of countries can be seen in the picture below.
The second stage of the revolution: the emergence of monopolies
The technical achievements of the second stage are presented above (see picture No. 4). Chief among them: the invention of new means of communication (telephone, radio, telegraph), the internal combustion engine and the furnace for smelting steel. The emergence of new energy sources is associated with the discovery of oil fields. This made it possible to create a gasoline-powered car for the first time (1885). Chemistry came to the service of man, thanks to which durable synthetic materials began to be created.
New productions (for the development of oil fields, for example) required significant capital. The process of their concentration has intensified through the merger of companies, as well as their merging with banks, whose role has increased significantly. Monopolies emerge - powerful enterprises that control both production and sales of products. They were created by industrial revolutions. Achievements and problems (the table will be presented below) are associated with the consequences of the emergence of monopoly capitalism. are shown in the picture.
Consequences of the second stage of the industrial revolution
The uneven development of countries and the emergence of large corporations led to wars for the redistribution of the world, the seizure of sales markets and new sources of raw materials. Between 1870 and 1955, twenty serious military conflicts occurred. A huge number of countries were involved in two world wars. The creation of international monopolies led to the economic division of the world under the dominance of a financial oligarchy. Instead of exporting goods, large corporations began to export capital, creating production facilities in countries with cheap labor. Monopolies dominate within countries, ruining and absorbing smaller enterprises.
But industrial revolutions also bring a lot of positive things. Achievements and problems (the table is presented in the last subheading) of the second stage are mastering the results of scientific and technical discoveries, creating a developed infrastructure of society, adapting to new living conditions. Monopoly capitalism is the most developed form of the capitalist mode of production, in which all the contradictions and problems of the bourgeois system are most fully manifested.
Results of the second stage
Industrial revolution: achievements and problems (table)
| Achievements | Problems | |
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The industrial revolution, the achievements and problems of which are presented in two tables (based on the results of the first and second stages), is the greatest achievement of civilization. The transition to factory production was accompanied by technological progress. However, the risk of military and environmental disasters requires that the development of modern technologies and the use of new energy sources be under the control of humanistic social institutions.
The Industrial Revolution, an innovative period in the mid-18th and 19th centuries, moved people from a predominantly agrarian existence to a relatively urban lifestyle. And although we call this era a “revolution,” its name is somewhat misleading. This movement, which originated in Britain, was not a sudden explosion of achievement, but a series of successive breakthroughs that built on or fed each other.
Just as dot-coms were an integral part of the 1990s, it was inventions that made this era unique. Without all these brilliant minds, many of the important products and services we use today would simply not exist. Whether the inventor was a mere theoretical dreamer or a tenacious creator of important things, this revolution changed the lives of many people (including us).
Difference and analytical machines
For many of us, the phrase “put away your calculators during the exam” will always cause anxiety, but such exams without calculators clearly demonstrate what life was like for Charles Babbage. The English inventor and mathematician was born in 1791, and over time his task became to study mathematical tables in search of errors. Such tables were typically used in astronomy, banking, and engineering, and because they were created by hand, they often contained errors. Babbage set out to create a calculator and eventually developed several models.
Of course, Babbage could not have had modern computer components like transistors, so his computers were purely mechanical. They were surprisingly large, complex, and difficult to build (none of Babbage's machines appeared during his lifetime). For example, difference engine number one could solve polynomials, but its design consisted of 25,000 individual parts weighing a total of 15 tons. The "number two" difference engine was developed between 1847 and 1849 and was more elegant, along with comparable power and one-third the weight.
There was another design that earned Babbage the title of the father of modern computing, according to some people. In 1834, Babbage decided to create a machine that could be programmed. Like modern computers, Babbage's machine could store data for later use in other calculations and perform logical if-then operations. Babbage wasn't as involved in the design of the Analytical Engine as he was with the Difference Engines, but to imagine the enormity of the former, you need to know that it was so massive that it needed a steam engine to operate.
Pneumatic tire
Like many inventions of this era, the pneumatic tire "stood on the shoulders of giants", ushering in a new wave of inventions. Thus, although John Dunlop is often credited with the invention of this important thing, before him, Charles Goodyear patented the process of vulcanizing rubber in 1839.
Before Goodyear's experiments, rubber was a very new product with a relatively small range of uses, but this, due to its properties, changed very quickly. Vulcanization, in which rubber was strengthened with sulfur and lead, created a stronger material suitable for the manufacturing process.
While rubber technology advanced rapidly, other accompanying inventions of the Industrial Revolution developed much more slowly. Despite advances such as pedals and steering wheels, bicycles remained more an object of curiosity than a practical mode of transport for much of the 19th century because they were bulky, their frames heavy, and their wheels rigid and difficult to maneuver.
Dunlop, a veterinarian by profession, noticed all these shortcomings when he watched his son struggle with a tricycle and decided to correct them. First, he tried to twist a garden hose into a ring and wrap it in liquid rubber. This option turned out to be significantly superior to existing tires made of leather and reinforced rubber. Very soon Dunlop began producing bicycle tires through W. Edlin and Co., which later became the Dunlop Rubber Company. It quickly captured the market and greatly increased bicycle production. Shortly thereafter, the Dunlop Rubber Company began producing rubber tires for another product of the Industrial Revolution, the automobile.
As with rubber, the practical application of the following point was not obvious for a long time.
Anesthesia
Inventions like the light bulb take up many pages in the history book, but we are sure that any practicing surgeon would call anesthesia the best product of the Industrial Revolution. Before its invention, correcting any illness was, perhaps, more painful than the illness itself. One of the biggest problems associated with removing a tooth or limb was keeping the patient in a relaxed state, often with the help of alcohol and opium. Today, of course, we can all thank anesthesia for the fact that few of us can remember the painful sensations of surgery at all.
Nitrous oxide and ether were discovered in the early 1800s, but both drugs had little practical use beyond being a useless intoxication. Nitrous oxide was generally better known as laughing gas and was used to entertain audiences. During one of these demonstrations, a young dentist, Horace Wells, saw someone inhale the gas and injure his leg. When the man returned to his seat, Wells asked if the victim was in pain and was told that he was not. After this, the dentist decided to use laughing gas in his work, and volunteered to be the first test subject. The next day, Wells and Gardner Colton, the show's organizer, tested laughing gas in Wells' office. The gas worked great.
Soon after this, ether was also tested as an anesthesia for long-term operations, although who was actually behind the use of this drug is not known for certain.
Photo
Many world-changing inventions appeared during the Industrial Revolution. The camera wasn't one of them. In fact, the camera's predecessor, known as the camera obscura, dates back to the late 1500s.
However, saving camera shots has long been a challenge, especially if you don't have time to render them. Then Nikephore Niépce came. In the 1820s, a Frenchman came up with the idea of applying coated paper filled with light-sensitive chemicals to the image projected by a camera obscura. Eight hours later, the world's first photograph appeared.
Realizing that eight hours was too long to pose for a family portrait, Niepce joined forces with Louis Daguerre to improve his design, and it was Daguerre who carried on Niepce's work after his death in 1833. The so-called daggerotype first aroused enthusiasm in the French parliament and then throughout the world. However, although the daguerreotype could produce very detailed images, they could not be made into replicas.
Daguerre's contemporary, William Henry Fox Talbot, also worked to improve photographic images in the 1830s and made the first negative, through which light could be exposed to photographic paper and create a positive. Similar advances quickly began to take hold, and gradually cameras became capable of even capturing moving objects, and exposure times became shorter. A photo of a horse taken in 1877 ended a long-standing debate about whether all four of a horse's legs leave the ground during a gallop (they do). So the next time you whip out your smartphone to take a photo, take a second to think about the centuries of innovation that allowed that photo to be born.
Phonograph
Nothing can quite replicate the experience of seeing your favorite band perform live. Not long ago, live performances were the only way to listen to music. Thomas Edison changed that forever by developing a method for transcribing telegraph messages, which led him to the idea of the phonograph. The idea is simple but beautiful: a recording stylus extrudes grooves corresponding to the sound waves of music or speech into a rotating cylinder coated with tin, and another stylus reproduces the original sound based on those grooves.
Unlike Babbage and his ten-year attempts to see his designs come to fruition, Edison commissioned his mechanic John Kruesi to build the machine and, 30 hours later, had a working prototype in his hands. But Edison did not stop there. His first tin cylinders could only play music a few times, so Edison later replaced the tin with wax. By that time, Edison's phonograph was no longer the only one on the market, and over time, people began to abandon Edison's cylinders. The main mechanism has been preserved and is still in use today. Not bad for a random invention.
Steam engine
Just as the roar of V8 engines and high-speed jets fascinates us today, steam technology was once incredible. In addition, it played a gigantic role in supporting the industrial revolution. Before this era, people used horses and carriages to get around, and the practice of mining in mines was very labor-intensive and inefficient.
James Watt, a Scottish engineer, did not develop the steam engine, but he did manage to make a more efficient version of one in the 1760s by adding a separate condenser. This changed the mining industry forever.
Initially, some inventors used the steam engine to pump and remove water from mines, allowing for improved access to resources. As these engines gained popularity, engineers wondered how they could be improved. Watt's version of the steam engine did not require cooling after each blow, which accompanied resource extraction at the time.
Others wondered: What if, instead of transporting raw materials, goods and people by horse, they used a steam-powered machine? These thoughts inspired inventors to explore the potential of steam engines outside the mining world. Watt's modification of the steam engine led to other developments of the Industrial Revolution, including the first steam locomotives and steam-powered ships.
The following invention may be less well known, but is definitely important.
Conservation
Open your kitchen cabinet and you're sure to find at least one useful invention from the Industrial Revolution. The same period that gave us the steam engine changed the way we stored food.
After Britain spread to other parts of the world, inventions began to fuel the Industrial Revolution at a steady pace. For example, this happened with a French chef and innovator named Nicolas Appert. In search of ways to preserve food without losing taste and freshness, Apper regularly experimented with storing food in containers. In the end, he came to the conclusion that storing food, associated with drying or salting, does not lead to improved taste, but quite the opposite.
Appert thought that storing food in containers would be especially useful for sailors suffering from malnutrition at sea. The Frenchman was working on a boiling technique that involved placing food in a jar, sealing it, and then boiling it in water to create a vacuum seal. Appert achieved his goal by developing a special autoclave for preservation in the early 1800s. The basic concept still remains today.
Telegraph
Before the advent of smartphones and laptops, people still continued to use Industrial Revolution technology like the telegraph - although much less than before.
Through an electrical system of networks, the telegraph could transmit messages from one place to another over long distances. The recipient of the message had to interpret the markings produced by the machine using Morse code.
The first message was sent in 1844 by Samuel Morse, inventor of the telegraph, and it accurately captures his excitement. He conveyed “What is the Lord doing?” using his new system, hinting that he had discovered something big. And so it was. The Morse telegraph allowed people to communicate almost instantly over long distances.
Information transmitted via telegraph lines also greatly contributed to the development of the media and allowed governments to exchange information more quickly. The development of the telegraph even gave birth to the first news service, the Associated Press. In the end, Morse's invention connected America with Europe - and this was very important at that time.
Spinning Jenny
Be it socks or any fashion item, it was the advances in the textile industry during the Industrial Revolution that made these items possible for the masses.
The spinning jenny, or Hargreaves spinning machine, made a major contribution to the development of this process. After the raw material - cotton or wool - is collected, it needs to be made into yarn, and this work is often very painstaking for people.
James Hargreaves solved this issue. Taking on a challenge from Britain's Royal Society of Arts, Hargreaves developed a device that far exceeded the competition's requirement that it weave at least six yarns at a time. Hargreaves built a machine that produced eight streams simultaneously, dramatically increasing the efficiency of this activity.
The device consisted of a spinning wheel that controlled the flow of material. At one end of the device there was a rotating material, and at the other the threads were collected into yarn from under a hand wheel.
Roads and mines
Building the infrastructure to support the Industrial Revolution was not easy. Demand for metals, including iron, spurred industry to come up with more efficient methods of extracting and transporting the raw materials.
For several decades, iron mining companies supplied large quantities of iron to factories and manufacturing companies. To obtain cheap metal, mining companies supplied more pig iron than wrought iron. In addition, people began to use metallurgy or simply explore the physical properties of materials in industrial settings.
Massive iron mining enabled the mechanization of other inventions of the Industrial Revolution. Without the metallurgical industry, railways and steam locomotives would not have developed, and there could have been stagnation in the development of transport and other industries.
Jul 31, 2017 Gennady
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