Industrial Revolution Inventors/Inventions/Contributions

  • Jethro Tull

    Jethro Tull invented the horse-drawn seed drill, this economically sowed the seeds in neat rows.
  • Abraham Darby

    Abraham Darby
    Abraham Darby founded the Bristol Iron Company. He produced marketable iron in a coke-fired furnace. He presently demonstrated the superiority of coke in cost and efficiency by building much larger furnaces than were possible with charcoal as a fuel.
  • James Hargreaves

    James Hargreaves
    James Hargreaves created the "Spinning Jenny". This would revolutionize the process of cotton spinning. The machine used eight spindles onto which the thread was spun, so by turning a single wheel, the operator could now spin eight threads at once.
  • James Watt

    James Watt was the person who developed the "horsepower" concept and to honor his inventions, the SI unit of power, Watt, was named after him.
  • Adam Smith

    Adam Smith was a Scottish political economist and philosopher. He is most famous for his influential book, "The Wealth of the Nations". This book was considered the first book written on economics.
  • Samuel Crompton

    Samuel Crompton
    Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule. The spinning mule was a machine used to spin cotton and other fibers.
  • Eli Whitney

    Eli Whitney
    Eli Whitney created the cotton gin. The cotton gin was a machine that revolutionized the production of cotton by greatly speeding up the process of removing seeds from cotton fiber.
  • Alessandro Volta

    Alessandro Volta
    Alessandro Volta invented the electric battery. This was the first real start up to the battery industry
  • Jeremy Bentham

    Jeremy Bentham is primarily known today for his moral philosophy, especially his principle of utilitarianism. This evaluated the actions based upon their consequences.
  • Karl Marx

    Karl Marx
    Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, and socialist revolutionary. He wrote the book "Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844". These manuscripts illustrate the young Marx's transition from philosophy to political economy.
  • Elias Howe

    Elias Howe was an American inventor whose sewing machine helped revolutionize garment manufacture in the factory and in the home.
  • Cyrus Field

    Cyrus Field
    Cyrus Field arranged for Queen Victoria to send the first transatlantic message to President James Buchanan.