Beginning shortly after the year 1700, in England, there occurred the most world changing evolution ever known.
Concurrently the English were beginning to acquire their massive overseas empire. Their proud saying, “The sun never sets on the British empire” was indeed quite true. (It then included us you may recall).
They were at that time a small nation of less than nine million people. Yet they literally ruled the world. Quite an achievement.
What was this world changing evolution? Prior to the Industrial Revolution in all the world there were only two sources of power, human-power and horse-power. There was also water-power and wind-power but these were local and an insignificant percentage of power.
Then the steam engine arrived. It provided a virtually unlimited source of power (and thus wealth). The motivation to develop a steam engine was critical.
Smelting large quantities of iron ore was a relatively recent process in Europe and charcoal (made from wood) was required for the process. Wood consumption was enormous. 1000 tons of iron required 100 square miles of forest. England rapidly depleted its woodlands and the smelters had to learn how to use coal instead of charcoal.
Now another serious problem arose. Coal mines were filling with water. How to remove the water? Hand pumps and buckets were quite useless.
Along came the steam engine. It went through many stages of development. The first practical, but quite inefficient one was the Newcomen engine first demonstrated in 1712. It did the job but with a very high coal fuel consumption.
There were two major reasons why the Industrial Revolution occurred in England. England was the first nation to have effective patent laws. There were prior patent laws in many countries but they were vague and easily stolen. English patent law was the first to specifically state that the patent could only be granted to the person who was the actual inventor (not given to some rich important person who knew the king).
Patents provided a powerful incentive for the average person to invent in the hopes of attaining some wealth. A patent basically states that if you explain exactly what your invention is or does the patent grants you a monopoly for X years. But perhaps even more important it provided for a cross fertilization of ideas since it was no longer a secret. This is in contrast to the situation where there are no effective patent laws and so the best course of action is to keep ideas secret. The negative consequences of this are obvious.
The other reason for the Industrial Revolution occurring in England was their law of primogeniture. The eldest son inherited his father’s total wealth to the exclusion of all other sons and daughters. No exceptions.
This was the law dating back at least 700 years before this period.
However, the father and eldest son most often looked after the education and well being of the other children. There arose from this the first substantial non-land owning middle class. One that could also read and write.
One pattern that has been traced was that the second son became a naval officer, the next went oversea as a colonial official and the third a minister in the Church of England.
Many others became engineers, surveyors, mine operators, clock makers, store owners, traders, etc.
From this period onward inventions proliferated at an ever increasing rate.
Theodore E. Theodorsen
Manhasset
