Industrial Revolution Inventions Essay

During the Industrial Revolution many inventions and discoveries were made. Many of the inventions of the Industrial Revolution changed society during the time period of 1700 to 1914, among which changed the ways of transportation, communication, and ways of human labor. The steam engine was a great contributor to the change in transportation, because it resulted in the invention of the steamboat and steam locomotive. The telephone was crucial to the development of communication, because it made it possible to instantly communicate across a distance, something not possible before that. Finally the ways of human labor changed with new machinery that was invented from devices that powered machinery, to devices that helped workers create the product

Three of the most influential machines of the time were: the water frame, the flying shuttle, and the assembly line. The water frame, invented in 1769 by Richard Arkwright, was actually an invention used to power machinery by using water as a power source. The water frame powered entire factories, which is the reason why so many factories were built near water. John Kay invented the flying shuttle in 1733, and it was a device that carried yarn back and forth using an object called a flying shuttle, which greatly increased the efficiency of weaving. Finally, Henry Ford introduced the moving assembly line in 1913, because he needed a more effective way to produce cars. With the use of the moving assembly line the time of production went from over twelve hours to a mere two-and-a-half hours. The main principle of the moving assembly line was that every worker had one specific task that they were made to repeat over and over, making it easier to track where mistakes were being made. These three inventions greatly impacted the ways of human labor, because workers now had less manual work that had to be done, and a lot of machines that had once been man powered were now powered by other forces such as, water. Manual tasks were now done quicker and more efficient, resulting in fewer flaws, better quality, and cheaper products. The total effect of these and other inventions was crucial to the change in the ways of human