386.310.1337
A view of a steam locomotive as it pulls a train along a track
The steam engine is often cited as the hallmark of the first industrial revolution. Introduction of the steam engine to the textile manufacturing process in the 1780s forever changed the manufacturing world, opening new possibilities for manufacturing scale and efficiency. At the same time, it challenged the status quo, requiring new management techniques, new operating processes, and new types of workers to man the large factories where machines replaced people in previously labor-intensive activities in what was once a cottage industry. Similarly, later manufacturing technologies, such as the Bessemer process in the 1850s and the computer in the 1960s propelled the second and third industrial revolutions.
386.310.1337
APRIL 2017 | 17 |