Isaac Zipp
History
Mr. Johnson
12/17/14
Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution affected the means of production, the availability of products, population distribution and the social structure.
The Industrial Revolution changed the means of production. Craftsmen used to make everything by hand, this process was very slow, and not many products were being made. With industrialization the time to make a product was drastically reduced, so more products were made. This new means of production was improved over time.
More and more items were made in factories. Production became more efficient during the 1800s, making products more affordable to more people. The introduction of interchangeable parts, the assembly line, and mass production during the early 1900s made the process even more efficient. This process continued until most products in our society were made in factories.
Before the industrial revolution people had to work much harder to put food on their table and clothes on their back. For example to make their clothes they either had to raise sheep, grow cotton, or buy it from merchants. Then they had to spin the wool or cotton, into thread and weave the clothing by hand. During the industrial revolution there were inventions that helped speed up this process, like the cotton gin created by
Eli Whitney in 1793. This machine separated the seeds from the cotton fibers. Other

inventions, during the industrial revolution, sped up the process of creating goods, making them more available to consumers.
When the Industrial Revolution began, most people in Britain still lived in the countryside and worked in agriculture. Most of them would have lived in small cottages.
However, many lost their livelihood as a result of enclosures of land, and moved to the towns to work in the manufacturing industries. As the towns expanded and took in more workers, lots of small houses were built to house the growing workforce. The middle and upper classes would live in larger houses. Upper class families were likely to have homes in both London and in the country. During the industrial revolution, some people from the countryside went to the cities and factory towns looking for a better life. They wanted to make more money to support their families, and they hoped to move up in the world. They believed that they