1712
Newcomen's steam engine Thomas Newcomen's atmospheric engine, installed in 1712 in the Black Country to pump water from coal mines, is the first practical device to turn steam into mechanical work.
Newcomen engines pump water from mines and ironmasters start using coke, but the big wave of textile machines has not yet begun.
50 years · AI-written context
1761
Bridgewater Canal opens The Duke of Bridgewater's canal, engineered by James Brindley, carries coal from Worsley to Manchester from 1761, and the price of coal in Manchester roughly halves within a year.
1764
Spinning jenny James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny in 1764-1765, the first practical spinning machine with several spindles. He patents it in 1770.
1769
Arkwright's water frame Richard Arkwright patents the water frame, a water-powered spinning machine that makes it possible to produce cloth made entirely of cotton.
1771
Cromford Mill, the first water-powered cotton mill Richard Arkwright builds Cromford Mill in Derbyshire, the world's first water-powered cotton spinning mill, and puts up housing for his workers nearby.
1776
Boulton and Watt engines enter service After James Watt's 1769 patent for a separate condenser and the Boulton and Watt partnership of 1775, their first engines start work in 1776. They use about 75% less fuel than a Newcomen engine.
1779
Crompton's spinning mule Samuel Crompton develops the spinning mule in 1779. It can make finer thread than hand spinning.
1779
The Iron Bridge The first major bridge made of cast iron spans the River Severn at Coalbrookdale in 1779 and officially opens on 1 January 1781. Abraham Darby III supplied the ironwork.
1785
Cartwright's power loom Edmund Cartwright patents the power loom in 1785, a step towards mechanised weaving.
1793
Slater Mill opens in Rhode Island Samuel Slater, who arrived in New York in 1789 and had memorised British textile machinery designs, opens a mill with Moses Brown in Pawtucket in 1793, the first successful water-powered spinning mill in the United States.
1802
Health and Morals of Apprentices Act Sir Robert Peel's 1802 Act is the first factory legislation. It limits apprentice children in cotton mills to 12 hours a day and bans night work, but it is largely unenforced.
1811
Luddite uprising From March 1811 to 1816, workers in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire and Lancashire break machines that threatened wages and skilled trades. Parliament makes machine-breaking a capital crime in 1812.
1814
Waltham mill in Massachusetts The Boston Manufacturing Company opens a fully integrated cotton mill at Waltham in 1814. Its Waltham System, with young women workers in company boarding houses, is repeated at Lowell.
1830
Liverpool and Manchester Railway opens The world's first inter-city railway opens on 15 September 1830, relying entirely on steam locomotives. On the opening day William Huskisson MP is struck by the Rocket and killed.
1833
Factory Act of 1833 The first enforceable factory law bans children under 9 from most textile mills, limits older children's hours and creates a professional factory inspectorate.
