The Industrial Revolution: A Permanent State of Change
Studying nature produces a harvest
As we mentioned in earlier chapters, studying nature always pays off in dividends of invention. As man studies the world, he discovers how it works, and then he uses what he has learned to create and invent. The Industrial Revolution, however, was unique in that it was the result of governments lessening their strangle-hold on the invention process, and in England, the Statute of Monopolies gave rights to inventors and let them keep some of the money they earned by inventing through patent royalties. This gave revenue streams so the inventors were no longer strictly at the mercy of the government but were able to invent things the people might want, not just what the government wanted.
The names of the key players in this era may be somewhat familiar, as Thomas Edison loomed large and he made sure his name was in the forefront of the public. James Watt's creation of a working steam engine was hugely important for both transportation and textiles, and went hand in hand with the invention of the telegraph for "taming" the West in the Americas. Thomas Wedgewood and Joseph Niépce, along with Louis Daguerre and William Talbot were all instrumental in developing the camera, and the reverberations of that particular invention are still being felt today.
• Thomas Alva Edison(1847-1931) Thomas Edison amassed 2,332 patents over his lifetime, starting at the age of 21. His favorite saying was, "Never invent what people don't want," largely as a result of his invention of a mechanical voting machine that no one wanted (easier to stuff a ballot box with paper ballots? Hmmm). He invented the light bulb, a phonograph, a motion picture camera, just to mention a few that began a landslide of variations. His battle with Nikola Tesla for the hearts and minds of the public resulted in his helping with the electric chair for executing prisoners with the death penalty is not always mentioned on websites dedicated to his praise.
• James Watt(1736-1819) As a mathematically inclined engineer, Watt realized there was a great deal of steam wasted by the Newcomen steam engine, and set about making it more efficient. He was awarded a patent for his revised invention in 1769. The engine's first use was as a water pump and as an air pump, and the number of uses began to multiply, with mills, waterworks, and then textile factories. He and his partner Matthew Boulton were elected fellows of the Royal Society of London in 1785, and the steam engine began to power the textile industry, which was the backbone of the English Industrial Revolution.
• Joseph Nicéphore Niépce(1765-1883) Not all inventors come from the school of hard knocks, and J.N. Niépce was born to a wealthy French family. His schooling included studying for the Catholic priesthood where he later became an instructor at seminary at the Oratorian college. I'm not sure how to connect his studies at the seminary and his invention, but it's said his interest in the potential of finding a way to create permanent images from the camera obscura was due to a frustration with not being able to draw. His efforts paid off in 1827 when he achieved the first permanent image on a silver plate. He later partnered with Louis Daguerre to improve the quality of the images, and Daguerre continued the work after Niépce died in 1833. Niépce is often called, "The Father of Photography."
