Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution had started in 1784 AD in Britain. It is marked as an end of medieval era and start of modern era. It also means end of Human hard-work and start of machine work. It affected almost every aspects of human life. Starting from Britain it spread in whole world. Until that time only wood was primary source of energy but coal took over and generation of energy and its requirement of it increased. A first Steam engine was developed that could pump water from below ground to enable mining of coal deep down. With steam engine development of steam trains, steam powered pumps and machine were invented. The first modern water powered cotton spinning mill factory was established by Richard Arkwright in 1774 in Comford in Derbyshire with around 200 workers (today it is UNESCO world heritage point). People started to migrate to live near newly formed industries, crowding the area for supply of labourers and this is how modern urban areas developed. Huge sum of money was invested in making canals, production of pig iron with production of coal was done, it is also known as Canal Mania. Development of residential places, canals, Railways, roads, etc. took place. Britain’s first railway line opened in 1825 built by Stockton and Danlington. In 1840s railways building was on its high peak which is also known as Railway Mania. This was all about Industrial Revolution 1.

After all advancement towards mechanical industrial revolution there was Technological revolution also known as Industrial Revolution 2. It started at the latter part of the 19^th century. Due to industrial revolution there was mass production of cloth, goods, and surplus amount of agriculture products productions. It also changed the global trade. In this technological revolution there was new innovation in steel production, electricity and petroleum which made way for introduction of automobile and then planes. During this period manufacturing and production method were improved for example production of steel which replaced iron and it was strong and cheap price and which made possible to build rail lines at cheap price and it spread transportation, facilated the construction of ships, skyscrapers and larger bridges. In today’s world you won’t be able to imagine a world without electricity but till now it was a norm and the brilliant idea of electricity was invented. Edison made its first light bulb working on electricity and commercial first bulb generated in 1870s. And then Mosley Street and Saroy theatre set the stage for the first large scale power station. Second industrial revolution rolled around electricity and many component needed for it was too invented for example stepping down high voltage alternating current by Sebastian de Ferranti and with it he also enabled the assembly line and mass production. Now with technology and electricity in Second Industrial Revolution it made way for distant communication and hence fruitfully in 1875 Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone and many years after Guglielmo Marconi in 1901 sent radio waves across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time in History. Many products on which are now life is depended was invented in this era like current paper machine, steam driven rotary printing press, etc. also appeared.

This revolution lasted for around 100 years and now it was time for Industrial Revolution 3 which was started around 1960s. We are surrounded by technology, electronics, Internet, etc. and now it has become part of our life but when all these technology got invented? Yes it was Industrial Revolution 3. We can also called it as Digital Revolution as it brought semiconductors, main frame computing, personal computer, Internet, etc. Now which was analogy now became digital example the old television which used to tune with the antenna now got replaced by an Internet connected tablet.  With digitalization automation took place in industries, further reducing man’s hard work. Electronics and information technology began to automate production and take supply chain global. Everything which was paper based work beamed computerised. We can also say Industrial Revolution 3 gave birth to new field that was IT sector. It was also the point where people life style changed with Internet, phone, electronics, automation, etc. Now a days developing countries are still going through industrial revolution 3. In 1980s only 1% of the world’s information was in digital format and now in 2019 it is around 99% in digital format.

Now in 21^st century we all are going through industrial revolution 4 which can also be said Artificial Intelligence revolution. Now we are breaking the walls between the digital, physical and biological spheres known as cyber physical systems. It’s breakthrough in a numerous of field including robotics, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, Internet of things, 3D printing, autonomous vehicle and 5^th generation wireless technology, advance genetically knowledge, etc. We all are in 4^th wave of industrial Revolution.

We are all going to witness human success in science and technology. The change world has seen in these 200 years is unimaginable. No one ever believed that we would fly, travel 100 times faster than horse, connect with anyone anywhere anytime in fraction of seconds, we would ever touch moon, and know secrets of universe, nanotechnology, biotechnology, etc. in just 200 years. But this haphazard development had led to many problems like pollution, degradation of earth, creation of new problems like health, cyber security, etc. May be the next advancement in this revolution would be to make earth pollution free and to solve many problems, etc.

By
Mr.Suresh Limkar,
AISSMS IOIT