The Industrial Revolution and Australia Marion Littlejohn Education Officer, Sovereign Hill Museum

The Industrial Revolution
and Australia
Marion Littlejohn
Education Officer, Sovereign Hill Museum
HTAV Annual Conference, July, 2014.
Year 9
The Making of the Modern World
Depth Study 1 Making a Better World?
Choose ONE
1 The Industrial Revolution (1750 – 1914)
2 Movements of Peoples (c. 1757 – 1914)
3 Progressive Ideas and Movements (1750 – 1914)
Making a Better World ? (1750 – 1914)
Content description
Students investigate …the experiences of men, women and children during the
Industrial Revolution, and their changing way of life
The Industrial Revolution (1750 – 1914)
The technological innovations that led to the Industrial Revolution, and other
conditions that influenced the industrialisation of Britain (the agricultural revolution,
access to raw materials, wealthy middle class, cheap labour, transport system, and
expanding empire) and of Australia
Elaborations
• the impact of steam, gas and electricity on people’s way of life
• the experiences of men, women and children during the Industrial Revolution
• the population movements and changing settlement patterns
• changes to the cities and landscape in European countries and Australia as the
Industrial Revolution continued to develop, using photos
• the short and long-term impacts of the Industrial Revolution, including global changes
in landscapes, transport and communication
The Australian Curriculum; Year 9 - History
George Baxter, News from Australia 1854
Pierre Edouard Frere, Washing Day
c. 1837
[Penny post 1840]
… conditions that influenced the industrialisation of Britain
A revolution in agriculture in Britain in the 1700s created conditions
that favored the Industrial Revolution.
• Farmers began growing new crops and using new technology such
as the seed drill and the iron plow.
• Increased food production improved people's diet and health, which
in turn contributed to rapid population growth.
• More efficient farming methods (enclosures) meant that fewer
people were needed to farm.
• As a result, unemployed farmers created a large new labor force.
Why Britain took the lead.
• It had plentiful iron and coal resources and a good transportation
system (canals).
• It was a leading commercial power so merchants had the capital to
invest in new enterprises.
• It had colonies that supplied raw materials and bought finished goods.
• The British government encouraged improvements in transportation
and used its navy to protect British trade.
• Political stability – secure property rights encourages investment
• British ideal that people could move ahead in society by hard work and
talent. The Protestant Work Ethic.
The Industrial Revolution
began in the textile industry.
Between 1733 and 1793,
when inventors produced
new machines, for spinning
and weaving of wool and
cotton.
New machines led to the growth of
the factory system, bringing workers
and machines together in one place.
By the late 1700s, steam beginning to
replace water as a source of power.
Steam engines gave a boost to two
other industries that were essential
to the Industrial Revolution;
coal and iron.
TRAINS
TRANSFORM
BRITAIN
Replica of Richard Trevithick's 1804 locomotive at the
National Waterfront Museum, Swansea.
1808 Trevithick charged one shilling at his Steam Circus
to view his “Catch me who can” steam locomotive.
c.f. What is happening in NSW in 1808?
1829 George Stephenson’s
Rocket successfully pulled
an open carriage carrying
30 passengers at 45 kph.
Rocket (with some post 1829 innovations)
as preserved in the Science Museum, London.
Benefits of rail travel
• ability to transport fresh meat, milk, eggs & vegetables
→ better diet → improved health
• Information/news spreads faster
newspapers and letters delivered next day in UK
• Shrinking world
• Cheaper transport costs → cheaper goods → raising sales → more jobs
• Population more mobile, day return ticket to seaside now possible
William Powell Frith - Life at the Seaside (Ramsgate Sands) 1854.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
(1806-1859)
Brunel’s Great Western railway linking London to Bristol included this twomile-long Tunnel at Box; then the longest railway tunnel in the world.
The first train ran in 1838.
A famous Great Western engine, the "Vulcan," built in 1837
Rapid development since the Rocket 1829.
By 1846 – 5,000 miles of railway track are laid in Britain
1840 The Penny Post is introduced in Britain
SS Great Britain
Launch of the SS Great Britain by HRH Prince Albert in 1843
The Crystal Palace,
Hyde Park, London.
1851
1851
THE GREAT EXHIBITION
Queen Victoria opens the Great
Exhibition in the Crystal Palace.
Hyde Park, London, 1851
North Transept – waiting for the Queen
India
Agriculture
Machinery
Moving machinery
De la Rue’s Stationery stand and envelope-making machine (1851)
Illustration
showing the
envelopemaking machine
demonstrated at
the Great
Exhibition 1851.
The Port Phillip District of NSW 1835 - 1851
S.T. Gill, Homeward Bound
The Forest Creek Diggings, Mount Alexander, Port Phillip 1852,
The London Illustrated News, 3rd July 1852
Colonization spread
Britain’s Industrial
Revolution to
Australia.
Henry O’Neil, The Parting Cheer
Between 1852 and 1875
the ss Great Britain made
32 round trips to Australia
bringing 15,000 passengers.
2% of present day Australians are
descended from a Great Britain passenger.
S.T. Gill, Deep Sinking Ballaarat, 1852
Horse power at
Sovereign Hill
Chilean Mill
Puddling machine
Water wheel at Chewton
Stamper Batteries, crushing ore to release gold
Black Hill Company
established 1861
Battery consists of
60 stampers
Last line reads
FOUNDRY The Company
have a foundry attached
to the mine and make all
their own castings
Ballarat 1872 by William Bardwell.
Star of the East Quartz Gold Mine, Ballarat c.1890s
Phoenix Foundry Ballarat, 1873
http://trove.nla.gov.au/picture/result?q=phoenix+foundry+ballarat
B class locomotive, Ballarat
Phœnix Company's foundry,
Ballarat
The Australasian sketcher.
April 8, 1882
Early stripper/harvester c. 1883
H.V. McKay Sunshine Harvester factory
showing harvester combs, comb teeth,
wheels and other metal parts are being
packed for shipment c1918
Reproduced courtesy of Museum Victoria
http://museumvictoria.com.au/sunshine
Ballarat station 1903.
A load of Sunshine Harvesters leaving Hugh V. McKay’s Ballarat works
for export to Argentina
Both train and farm machinery made in Ballarat.
www.museumvictoria.com.au/sunshine/displayimage.asp
Episodes on
Brunel’s Great Eastern
&
1858 “the Great Stink”
Joseph Bazalgette,
Chief Engineer of the London
Metropolitan Board of Works,
creates the world’s first modern
sewerage system.
Working steam driven machinery at
Sovereign Hill
Sovereign Hill Education Blog on The Industrial Revolution in Australia
http://sovereignhilleducation.wordpress.com/2013/02/06/the-industrial-revolution-in-australia/
Teaching resources
http://www.teacherlink.org/content/social/instructional/industrialrevolution/home.html
Useful outline for teaching a unit on the Industrial Revolution in England – some of the links no longer
work
http://www1.umassd.edu/ir/welcome.cfm
Interesting site from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth which contains an excellent Image Gallery
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IndustrialRevolution.htm
Spartacus is an amazing site produced to support the UK History curriculum with easily searchable
sections on History topics from Romans to World War 2
Google Images – type in Industrial Revolution and go ballistic!!