Inventions & Inventors
Name the inventor of the spinning jenny.
James Hargreaves.
What was a typical workday length for many factory workers in early factories?
Often 10–16 hours per day (varied by time and place).
What mode of transport used iron rails and steam power to move goods faster?
Steam locomotive / railway.
Define the term "industrialization."
The process of shifting from agrarian/manual production to machine-based mass production in factories.
Name one social class that grew during the Industrial Revolution.
Middle class (also urban working class grew).
What invention sped up weaving and helped create factories?
Power loom (Edmund Cartwright).
Give one common hazard faced by children working in factories.
Injuries from unguarded machinery (also exhaustion, stunted growth, disease).
How did the telegraph change long-distance communication?
Allowed near-instant long-distance messaging, speeding business communication, news, and coordination of railways.
What is "mass production"?
Large-scale manufacture of standardized goods using specialized machinery and division of labor.
What movement pushed for shorter workdays and better pay for workers, often using strikes?
The labor movement (trade unions and strikes).
Explain why James Watt’s improvements to the steam engine mattered.
Made steam engines more efficient and practical for factories and transport, enabling greater mechanization and power sources away from water.
What daily problem did many factory workers face in crowded industrial cities that affected health?
Poor sanitation and overcrowded housing leading to disease (e.g., cholera).
Explain how canals supported industrial growth.
Provided cheaper bulk transport for raw materials and goods, lowered costs, and linked industrial regions to ports and markets.
What term describes making many identical items quickly using machines and an assembly process?
Mass production (assembly-line/manufactured standardization).
Describe one major public health problem in rapidly growing industrial cities.
Infectious disease outbreaks due to poor sanitation (cholera, typhoid), contaminated water, and overcrowding.
Which invention by Eli Whitney boosted cotton processing and increased demand for slave-picked cotton?
The cotton gin (Eli Whitney).
Explain how urbanization changed living conditions for factory workers.
Overcrowding, inadequate sanitation, polluted air/water, spread of disease, and poor housing.
Describe the economic effects of improved rail networks across regions.
Faster, cheaper movement of goods and people, expanded markets, encouraged regional specialization, and lowered transport costs.
What financial institution grew in importance to help fund factories, railways, and industrial projects?
Banks (and investment/stock markets).
Explain the goals and effects of trade unions in the 19th century.
Goals — better wages, hours, and conditions; Effects — collective bargaining, strikes, gradual legal recognition, and improved labor protections over time.
Describe two inventions that transformed textile production and explain their combined effect.
Spinning Jenny (faster yarn production) and power loom (faster weaving) — together they massively increased textile output, lowered costs, and centralized production in factories.
Analyze how factory discipline and timekeeping altered workers’ daily lives.
Shift from task-based work to clock-regulated shifts, strict rules, fines for lateness, reduced worker autonomy, and synchronization of labor with machines.
Evaluate how transportation and communication advances reshaped global trade patterns.
Shorter transit times, integration of distant markets, larger-scale exports/imports, and accelerated industrial globalization.
Assess both positive and negative economic consequences of rapid industrial growth.
Positives — increased productivity, lower consumer prices, economic growth, technological innovation.
Negatives — worker exploitation, income inequality, boom–bust cycles, environmental degradation.
What is one long-term social change caused by the Industrial Revolution (e.g., schools, voting, city growth).
Expanded public education, urbanization (growth of cities), and broader political reforms such as increased voting rights and labor laws.