c. 1760 - 1840

Giants of the Industrial Revolution

 

James Watt: separate condenser - Steam Power/Engineering

James Hargreaves: Spinning jenny - Textiles/Spinning

Richard Arkwright: Water frame - Textiles/Industrial Factory System

Matthew Boulton: Steam Power/Industrial Manufacturing

Isambard Kingdom Brunel: Bridges, tunnels, steamships - Civil Engineering/Transport Infrastructure William Cooke & Charles Wheatstone: Electronic telegraph – Communications

Josiah Wedgwood: Pottery - Ceramics/Pottery Manufacturing

Samuel Crompton: Spinning mule - Textiles/Spinning

Abraham Darby I: Coke‑smelted iron - Ironmaking/Metallurgy

John Kay: Flying shuttle - Textiles/Weaving

 Iron Bridge - Civil Engineering/Iron Construction

Richard Trevithick: High‑pressure steam; first full‑scale working railway locomotive

– Steam Engineering/Early Railways

George Stephenson: Early locomotives – Railways/Locomotive Engineering

Robert Stephenson: Rocket; major railways - Railways/Civil & Locomotive Engineering

Michael Faraday: Electromagnetic induction - Science/Electricity

Henry Bessemer: Steelmaking - Steel/Metallurgy

 

Industrialisation brought Britain unprecedented growth. New factories, powered first by water and then by steam, created jobs, expanded trade, and turned the country into the world’s leading industrial power.