The Solutions

The Solutions

By and large the solutions to all these problems come from an industrious group of Britishers called Dissenters. These are all the non-Anglican Protestants who are (because of the Civil War of 1640-60) forbidden by law to hold a position in local government, civil service or universities. They can go into trade, however. Their religion (Quaker, Presbyterian, Unitarian, etc.) advocates hard work, excellence and success in their enterprises which makes them natural entrepreneurs. They also set up their own schools (since they can't attend the universities) where they teach in English (the universities still use Latin) and have practical courses with really terrific science labs and hands-on experience. Solutions begin to pop up like daisies with these entrepreneurs, the surplus finance pouring in from the colonial plantations and expanding international trade and the expanding credit systems (introduced by that Dutchman England brought in as a King, William II of the Netherlands, later known as the William of William and Mary).

The earliest solution comes in 1707 when a Quaker named Abraham Darby in a village Shropshire starts to use coke (coal that has impurities burned out of it) for his iron works. The coke makes terrific iron and there is an endless supply of it. The next solution deals with the problem of water in the mines. An ironmonger from Devon, another Dissenter named Thomas Newcomen, uses Darby's iron to cast a cylinder for a pumping engine he designs to take water out of a mine. The engine works by using atmospheric pressure to push the plunger down and steam to raise it up. It works so well it is still working (in a museum).

Meanwhile the transportation problem, made more acute by the need to move tons of coal, is being solved by building canals. Since England has lots of navigable rivers, adding canals works wonders. It's a lot easier to move tons of stuff on water than it is to fix all those roads. Since the Seven Years War is over (in 1763) the government has some surplus cash to put into the infrastructure and canals get top priority. By 1775 there is a network of canals connecting the major coal fields with the major ports. By 1770, to make use of the coke, the ironmasters are putting up permanent furnaces on the plains of Lancaster near the ports where all that coal is showing up in abundance and where finished iron can be shipped out to the colonies or sent back up the canals to local markets.

By the 1760's new machines begin showing up to handle all that surplus cotton. There is a new weaving loom (invented by a Lancashire clock-maker named John Kay) that lets one person weave a double width cloth. Seven years later James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny so yarn-spinners can keep up with the new loom. These are all still hand-run but they increase production. In 1769 a wig-maker named Richard Arkwright figures out how to use water power to work with people power and comes up with the water-frame machine. He brings all kinds of textile workers together in the first factory.

The next step comes about with the development of crucible steel (in the 1750's by Benjamin Huntsman, a clock-maker from Doncaster) which, in turn, makes it possible for ironmasters to cut iron with the precision of a few millimeters. The great ironmaster James Wilkinson invents a new way to bore cannon muzzles with great accuracy. All this may not seem relevant but it makes better machines possible. Especially one of the first, developed by James Watt. Watt has been working out improvements on Newcomen's engine to drain the water out of mines. He comes up with one because he is able (thanks to Huntsman's steel and Wilkinson's boring technique) to make a piston in a cylinder that is almost air-tight. His steam engine is a great hit in the mines but the demand for power in the factories requires something different. In 1781 one of Watt's assistants, a guy named William Murdock, develops a way to use Watt's steam engine (which drives a piston up and down) to provide the rotary motion needed for factory machinery. The steam engine spins a shaft and belts around the shaft run individual machines in the factory. The factory system takes off like a rocket.

But the use of the steam engine doesn't stop there. An ironmaster named Henry Cort uses it to come up with a new way of producing iron that is better and makes fifteen times as much. With this technique, iron is cheaper than wood, and engineering, building and machines are all changed. Transportation is also changed. Canals haven't solved all the transportation problems and, although roads are being improved, they only serve as a place to move horse drawn vehicles. An English engineer named George Stephenson (1781-1848) builds the first locomotive to run on steam power, for hauling coal. Once he develops it they start laying rails everywhere. Although railroads begin as a freight hauling business, passenger service can't be far behind. And, of course, if the steam engine works on moving a machine on land, why not on the water? A number of people experiment with steam for ships but they're not too successful until 1807 when an American, Robert Fulton (1765-1815), comes up with his steam-powered Claremont and makes the 150 mile trip from Albany to New York in 32 hours. A real speedy trip for the time. Everybody jumps on this bandwagon too and in 1819 a combination sail and steam ship, the Savannah, crosses the Atlantic. Traveling by steam power alone will take a few years to develop [see below 1838].