The Beginning of Modern Day Technology

The Industrial Revolution was truly revolutionary, not only for the time period that it took place in, but also by today's standards considering how much the inventions from the time still affect us today.  In class we were split up into groups and given an informational article about a specific branch of inventions or important areas of innovation at the time of the Industrial Revolution, and took notes on the article to learn more about that topic.  Once all of the groups had their information gathered, we went around to each group and every group presented, while the other groups took notes on the information.
One extremely important aspect of the Industrial Revolution was the improved transportation.  The steam locomotive was a crucial piece of new technology which helped improve the quality of life for people at the time.  The steam locomotive was a steam-powered train that pulled carriages across land, and was extremely important in trade so that people could send goods across long expanses of land.  This invention allowed people to be able to outsource and receive materials they needed or wanted from other areas, and allowed small towns to be less dependent on one another for all supplies.  Similarly to the steam locomotive, the steam boat was also created and served the same purpose as the steam locomotive but in water.  The steam boat was not only better for long distance travels across the ocean, but also was able to carry much more weight in goods than wooden ships could (10-20 times the wooden ships' amount).

Steam locomotive.  Black and white picture.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_locomotive_class_IS

People were also a central piece of the Industrial Revolution and allowed it to succeed and thrive as much as it did.  The farming was far improved during this time period for many reasons, one of them being that the Dutch made earthen walls to reclaim the land from the sea, resulting in more food.  The farmers also utilized techniques like fertilizer to make more food per farmer.  However, many farmers eventually started using the enclosure which took over and fenced off peasant farmers land, forcing them to move to the cities, making the cities much more populated, but allowing the creation of machines to flourish by having many people working in the factories.
As you can see, many factors contributed to the success of the Industrial Revolution, and their contributions allowed the possibility of technology and ideas of innovation to translate into today's world.