Biography of great industrialists of the 1800s

Inhe instigated the use of steam locomotives on the Stockton and Darlington railway, on which he acted as chief engineer. When it opened in was the first public railway in the world. Perhaps one of the most well-known faces of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel sought to connect the world through his masterpieces in iron.

At just 20 years old, he helped his father to design and construct the 1,foot Thames Tunneland at 24 he designed the magnificent Clifton Suspension Bridge over the River Avon in Bristol. When completed, it had the longest span of any bridge in the world at ft. InBrunel became chief engineer of an ambitious project to link London to Bristol via a mile railway route: the Great Western Railway.

Seeking to extend this route all the way to New York, in he launched SS Great Westernthe first steamship purpose-built for crossing the Atlantic, and in he launched the largest ship of her day: SS Great Britain. Working alongside with these incredible innovations in travel, advancements in communication were also underway. Banks and industrial financiers soon rose to new prominence during this period, as well as a factory system dependent on owners and managers.

A stock exchange was established in London in the s; the New York Stock Exchange was founded in the early s. The latter part of the Industrial Revolution also saw key advances in communication methods, as people increasingly saw the need to communicate efficiently over long distances. InBritish inventors William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patented the first commercial telegraphy system, even as Samuel Morse and other inventors worked on their own versions in the United States.

Biography of great industrialists of the 1800s: Andrew Carnegie, having already amassed millions

Though many people in Britain had begun moving to the cities from rural areas before the Industrial Revolution, this process accelerated dramatically with industrialization, as the rise of large factories turned smaller towns into major cities over the span of decades. This rapid urbanization brought significant challenges, as overcrowded cities suffered from pollution, inadequate sanitation, miserable housing conditions and a lack of safe drinking water.

Meanwhile, even as industrialization increased economic output overall and improved the standard of living for the middle and upper classes, poor and working class people continued to struggle. The mechanization of labor created by technological innovation had made working in factories increasingly tedious and sometimes dangerousand many workers—including children—were forced to work long hours for pitifully low wages.

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Biography of great industrialists of the 1800s: Biographies of Mellon, Carnegie and Rockefeller

The word "luddite" refers to a person who is opposed to technological change. The term is derived from a group of early 19th century English workers who attacked factories and destroyed machinery as a means of protest. They were supposedly led by a man named Ned Ludd, though he may have been an apocryphal figure. In the decades to come, outrage over substandard working and living conditions would fuel the formation of labor unionsas well as the passage of new child labor laws and public health regulations in both Britain and the United States, all aimed at improving life for working class and poor citizens who had been negatively impacted by industrialization.

The beginning of industrialization in the United States is usually pegged to the opening of a textile mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, in by the recent English immigrant Samuel Slater. They were the men who ran the factories of the Industrial Revolutionmaking their fortunes as a result of their ingenuity, grasp of market forces or good luck.

Samuel Greg built a large cotton mill in Styal, south of Manchester. His factory was built on land rented from the Earl of Stamford and Warrington and was manned largely by children from the local workhouse. Titus Salt made his fortune in the Wool trade. He owned a number of mills in Bradford. Salt saw the possibilities of a different type of wool, Alpaca, and established a buying system that ensured that he was the only person able to produce Alpaca wool in this country.

Biography of great industrialists of the 1800s: The wealthy elite of

His gamble was a definite success and he used his wealth to build a massive new factory and village for his workers six miles outside of Bradford. Edmund Cartwright — English inventor, and member of the Anglican clergy. Cartwright invented the power loom which significantly increased the efficiency of textile production. He also developed a wool-combing machine.

Robert Owen — — Welsh social reformer who attempted to build a utopian socialist and co-operative movement. Owen sought to consider the welfare of his workers, something usually overlooked in the industrial revolution. Sir Humphrey Davy — — English chemist and inventor. He invented the Davy lamp used by miners to help detect gas and improve safety.

He also discovered several alkaline earth metals and discovered more about the chemical properties of chlorine and iodine.

Biography of great industrialists of the 1800s: Andrew Carnegie (–) was among

George Stephenson — Mechanical engineer, who developed the steam engine for use in trains. He was a key figure in building the 25 mile Stockton and Darlington railway. Joseph Locke — English civil engineer. Locke was an important railway pioneer.