Nelson Modern History

The Industrial Revolution has been developed especially for senior secondary students of History and is part of the Nelson Modern History series. Each book in the series is based on the understanding that History is an interpretive study of the past by which you also come to better appreciate the making of the modern world. Developing understandings of the past and present in senior History extends on the skills you learnt in earlier years. As senior students you will use historical skills, including research, evaluation, synthesis, analysis and communication, and the historical concepts, such as evidence, continuity and change, cause and effect, significance, empathy, perspectives and contestability, to understand and interpret societies from the past. The activities and tasks in The Industrial Revolution have been written to ensure that you develop the skills and attributes you need in senior History subjects. The development and application of steam power was one of many technical developments that drove the Industrial Revolution. The most significant modifications to the steam engine, which had first been patented in 1698, have been attributed to James Watt. Watt developed two important changes to these earlier models: the addition of a condenser and a ???rotative??? system that used a crank rather than a chain to transfer power. These improvements greatly improved the efficiency and power of the steam engine and led to a range of new uses. By 1800, Watt???s innovations were being used throughout the mining and textile industries in Britain. In the 1820s others, such as the father-and-son team of George and Robert Stephenson, applied the principles of steam power to transport, laying the foundation for the train mania of the 1840s.