The Industrial Revolution in England happened due to the ingenuity, creative thinking and genius of many individuals across the British Isles. But some of the great people of England’s Industrial Revolution desire special mention.
JAMES WATT

James Watt was a mechanical engineer and inventor. His work proved seminal to the birth of the Industrial Revolution in England.
Watt began his working life with his father, building models for engineering. With an aptitude for mathematics, young James began working on calibrating scientific instruments after his father passed away and James had become older.
He partnered with a local businessman to create a toy business, both manufacturing and selling toys and musical instruments.
It wasn’t until the 1750s, when Watt became friends with a Professor of Chemistry at Glasgow that Watt became interested in the properties of heat.
Applying what he knew about calibration, Watt went on to fabricate his own ideas for improving the existing Newcomen steam engine.
He patented his idea and released the first steam engine condensing chamber in the year 1769.
Five years later, Watt started a commercial enterprise to manufacture his new steam engine design.
His design was used to make steam engines that would power the Industrial Revolution for decades to come.
HENRIETTA VANSITTART

Henrietta Vansittart was an engineer whose invention enabled the faster and more efficient movement of ships.
From humble beginnings, Henrietta worked her way up in life and taught herself engineering.
Her father, James Lowe, had invented a screw propeller, but it was highly inefficient.
Upon his death, Henrietta greatly improved upon his design, altering the flat propeller blades so they were in a compound curve.
Her design made all the difference, and she was able to patent the design as the Vansittart Propeller in 1868.
The Vansittart Propeller was used on a series of naval and commercial vessels, such as the HMS Druid.
Henrietta Vansittart is believed to be the only female who ever wrote and illustrated her own drawings and diagrams.
She subsequently published them in a scientific paper before members of the Scientific Institution, all without any formal engineering education.
GEORGE STEPHENSON

The creation of the railway system played a pivotal role in the industrial revolution. The two primary benefits of the railways were time and distance.
The world has George Stephenson to thank. Born to a destitute mining family in 1781, George Stephenson was inspired to work with steam engines by his father, who worked on the engines used to pump water from mines.
George went on to become a single father when his wife died at a young age. Despite this challenge, George persisted in his pursuit of education and knowledge about engines. He became renowned as a local expert and, in 1814, he built his first locomotive engine, capable of pulling a 30-ton load at 4 miles per hour. Nine years later, George opened his own locomotive factory.
When the Railway Board held a competition to determine the best engine, George Stephenson’s Rocket engine bested the other entrants in all categories. Eight of the engines used when the Liverpool-Manchester railway line opened in 1830 were made in Stephenson’s Newcastle factory.
George spent the remainder of his life as the chief guide of the burgeoning railway system, helping to build a number of railways in England and abroad.
RICHARD ARKWRIGHT

Richard Arkwright is known as the “Father of the Factory System.” His creative genius coupled with his vision for manufacturing textiles was the birth of humankind’s factory industry to this day.
Richard Arkwright was born to a poor family that could not even afford to have him formally educated. At a young age, he began an apprenticeship at a nearby barber’s.
In the 1760s he set up a successful business as a wig maker and barber. With an inventive mind, Arkwright eventually became interested in how cotton was woven into thread.
Arkwright and a friend worked together creating what would be called a “spinning frame,” that utilized cylinders and replaced human handiwork.
This invention itself led to a turning point in the way textiles were produced.
After subsequently improving upon a carding machine, Arkwright and a partner set up a textile factory.
Expanding on his initial concept that machines could replace some human work, Arkwright’s factory empire grew as much as his reputation for innovation.
Arkwright’s drive and determination helped to solidify his status as the Father of the Factory System.
(Quiz Answers: 1. Queen Victoria; 2. Brunel; 3. Jenny; 4. Electricity; 5. Power; 6. Gladstone; 7. Lancashire; 8. George Stephenson; 9. Canals; 10.8 miles; 11. Charles Dickens; 12. Farming; 13. Wood; 14. Light Bulb; 15. Telegraph; 16. Weaving; 17. SS Great Britain; 18. 20%; 19. Disraeli;20. Luddites) .
ELEANOR COADE

Eleanor Coade was an intrepid businesswoman whose inventive formula for faux stone helped to shape the landscape of the 1800s. Born in 1733 to a wool merchant and his wife, Eleanor got right into business, selling linens on the streets of London.
Always enterprising, Eleanor purchased the site of a rundown business after her father’s demise in 1769. The business she bought was the making of artificial stone, but it was fragile and not readily formed. Eleanor, determined to make a go of it, devised her own formula for the stone. The formula, which she guarded closely, was highly resistant to the weather and did not erode like other stone that was in use during those times.
Coade Stone, as it came to be called, enabled a wide variety of monuments, statues and architectural details to be made. Coade Stone came to be popular and in demand across Europe. It was the go-to stone for leading builders, architects and artists. Today, over 650 Coade Stone statues and monuments can still be viewed in Britain, Brazil and South Africa.
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In their own unique ways, these individuals helped to shape the world today. Without their contributions, the Industrial Revolution may not have happened, or might have occurred in a very different manner.