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I turn my eyes to the Schools and Universities of Europe,
And there behold the Loom of Locke, whose Woof rages dire,
Wash’d by the Water-wheels of Newton: black the cloth
In heavy wreaths folds over every Nation: cruel Works
Of many Wheels I view, wheel without wheel, with cogs tyrannic,
Moving by compulsion each other; not as those in Eden, which,
Wheel within wheel, in freedom revolve, in harmony and peace.
William Blake, Selections from ‘Jerusalem’
‘The man who discovered how to power the world ... was James Watt, and his steam engine was to drive the industrial revolution.’ Genius of Britain II: A Roomful of Brilliant Minds, James Dyson, Channel 4 2012
The answer was to cool and condense the steam in a separate chamber outside the main cylinder. ibid.
Watt’s monsters throbbed day and night. ibid.
James Watt’s invention changed the world ... This was the start of the Industrial Revolution. ibid.
The Industrial Revolution … The key to the modern world – the machine. Mankind: The Story of All of Us X: Revolutions, History 2012
The railways – they were made possible by Richard Trevithick. Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man 8/13: The Drive For Power, BBC 1973
The Industrial Revolution was terribly cruel to those whose lives and livelihoods it overturned. ibid.
This was a heroic age – Thomas Telford felt that, spanning the landscape with iron. ibid.
The Fighting Temeraire 1838: The painting he calls his Old Darling ... A nation in upheaval as the industrial revolution gathers momentum. And Turner has perfect pitch for a British public torn between affection for the past and anticipation for the future. It’s so emotionally versatile this picture ... This could be the sunset of Nelson’s England ... This is the sun rise of your new industrial revolution. Simon Schama’s Power of Art: Turner, BBC 2000
Britain experienced the most tumultuous upheaval in its history: the Industrial Revolution. A new age was being created. The Genius of Turner: Painting the Industrial Revolution, BBC 2013
Crossing the Brook 1815 ... the Industrial Revolution is about to transform the landscape. ibid.
Rain, Steam and Speed – The Great Western Railway 1844 ... For Turner industry has become the sublime. ibid.
The idea was to discover the natural world which was threatened by the Industrial Revolution. Andrew Lloyd Webber, Perspectives, ITV 2011
The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. The Manifesto, Paragraph 1. Unabomber: The True Story 1996 starring Dean Stockwell & Robert Hays & Tobin Bell & Victoria Mallory & Bill Mondy & Michael Flynn & Scott Wilkinson & Noel De Souza & Joyce Cohen et al, director Jon Purdy
Coal would be the driving force behind the Industrial Revolution. Michael Wood, The Great British Story: A People’s History 5/8: Lost Worlds & New Worlds, BBC 2012
The origins of empire and the industrial revolution ... Traditional industries began to mechanise. Michael Wood, The Great British Story: A People’s History 7/8: Industry & Empire
In the eighteenth century chains had many different uses ... As capitalism expanded it co-opted the world for its workforce and it didn’t care how it got them. ibid.
The steam engine – invented in England in the early eighteenth century and perfected by James Watt. ibid.
The lunar men ... led by Matthew Boulton. ibid.
The Tolpuddle Martyrs – still a landmark in British labour history. ibid.
The rights of the British people were not handed down from on high but won by the people themselves – at a cost. ibid.
The Peterloo Massacre inspired new forms of social action. ibid.
In the 18th century, James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny, and Richard Arkwright pioneered the water-propelled spinning frame which led to the mass production of cotton. This was truly revolutionary. The cotton manufacturers created a whole new class of people – the urban proletariat. The structure of society itself would never be the same. A N Wilson
The Enlightenment ... All of those things in a single individual ... Wedgwood was a founding father of the industrial revolution with a relentless urge to change. A N Wilson, The Genius of Josiah Wedgwood, BBC 2013
The company went through a post-war renaissance. ibid.
America would become Wedgwood’s most important overseas market. ibid.
Josiah asked for permission to call his Creamware – Queensware. ibid.
Josiah’s science was self-taught. ibid.
In the 150 years from the beginning of the eighteenth century a revolution transformed the way we think, work and play for ever. This was the industrial revolution. And it started here in Britain. Professor Jeremy Black, Why the Industrial Revolution Happened Here, BBC 2013
Roads, railways and canals were built. Great cities appeared, and scores of factories and mills sprang up. Our landscape would never be the same again. ibid.
Coal kick-started a revolution in eighteenth-century Britain. ibid.
A wave of three-thinking and creativity. ibid.
Watt was determined to make the most efficient steam engine yet produced. ibid.
The Perrier brothers didn’t want to just copy the design of the Watt/Boulton steam engine, they wanted to improve on it … They failed. ibid.
Britain was the naval superpower with the largest fleet in the world. ibid.
The Royal Navy played a vital role in expanding the trade of the empire. ibid.
All this wealth was created at a terrible human cost with the exploitation and suffering of millions of slaves. ibid.
Just under two and a half million slaves were transported by the British across the Atlantic. ibid.
New institutions like banks and the stock exchange were established. ibid.
Josiah Wedgwood – he was brought up in a family of potters in north Staffordshire. ibid.
The canals – the motorways of the eighteenth century. ibid.
Two-thirds of the world’s coal and half its iron. ibid.
Men like Brunel. Who built the first steam-ships. Fred Dibnah, Life with Fred s1e1: Part of the Dales on Film, BBC 1994
Cockerill’s design was a straight steal which took the rollers from the Arkwright Water Frame and the clasp and carriage from the Spinning Jenny. He was the first man to successfully make a spinning machine that spun short-fibred wool ... He called it The Mule. ibid.
By 1813 William Cockerill’s manufacturing empire employed fifty blacksmiths and fifteen hundred wool workers. ibid.
By 1830 Cockerill was the largest integrated company in Europe. Maybe even the world. ibid.
Why I’ve created all this lot here in me back garden – It’s part of a vain attempt to hang on to childhood memories I suppose. Fred Dibnah’s Industrial Age e1: Wind, Water and Steam, BBC 1999
Engines in steam – there used to be loads of engines like this where I come from. Every coal mine and every spinning wheel had one. But alas they’ve all gone now. ibid.
Up until the 18th century all we had were these things – watermills and windmills. And then this came along … this beautiful little steam train. ibid.
The very first steam engines weren’t very smooth either. ibid.
The beam engine became the work-horse of the industrial revolution. ibid.