Technology During The Industrial Revolution

In addition, the technologies created during the industrial revolution helped to spur on economic growth in a newly capitalist society. After centuries of commerce being regulated by the royal family and mercantilism restricting foreign and domestic trade, there was finally private ownership, and a freely competitive market where everyone had a chance to participate. The new market economy meant that goods were traded between people instead of everyone only satisfying their own needs and allowed workers and companies to specialise on making one product. By concentrating on manufacturing one product, enterprises grew quicker and were able to improve that single process. People started to produce more goods, turn a profit, and save up money
With the continuous increase in innovations occurring, patents, which gave inventors the exclusive right to profit from their technology, were given out to protect the intellectual property and promote the development of more technologies that would drive the economy. The number of patents increased every decade throughout the industrial revolution, as before the 1750s the number issued in ten years had almost never been more than 100 but the number steadily climbed from 205 in the 1760s, to over 4500 in the 1850s . Coal output in Britain “increased from 11 million tons in 1800 to nearly 34 million tons in 1840” which allowed industrialists to overcome limits of growth in industry. The coal was also burned in blasting furnaces to heat metal so that it could be purified and change pig iron into wrought iron through Henry Cort’s process of “Puddling and Rolling.” The many other new innovations in any industry that were introduced into the market forced others to improve their products to rival the new technology and caused economic growth that would otherwise be impossible through solely an increase in