Man has been around on this earth for a long, long time. Yet in all his long history, the biggest change in his daily life has taken place in only the last 200 years! This change in the way man lives and works is based mainly on the development of the machine. We call this exciting period the Industrial Revolution.

As far back as history goes, man has been making tools. But only after the year 1750 were real machines invented. A machine is like a tool, except that it does nearly all the work and supplies nearly all the power. This change, from tools to machines, was so important and so great, that it began to affect every phase of our lives. In tracing how one development led to another, you will see how this was so.

Before man could make much use of machines he had to harness new sources of power. Before the Industrial Revolution man used only his own muscles, the muscles of animals, wind power and water power. To operate the new machines he had invented, man developed a new source of power-steam. This made it possible to build factories, and they were built where the essential raw materials were available and close to markets.

As machines were used more and more, a need arose for more iron and steel. And for this, new methods of mining coal were necessary. Then, as machines were able to turn out more and more goods, it was necessary to improve transportation to get them to the markets. This led to the improvement of roads, the building of canals, the development of the railroads, and also the development of large ships to get some of these products to faraway markets.

As men began to do business with markets all over the world, better communication became important. So the telegraph and telephone were developed. But there was a still greater change to come. As factories developed and large and expensive machines began to be used, people could no longer work at home. So men began to leave their homes and go to work in factories and mills. In time this led to the “division of labor,” which meant that in a factory a worker did only one job all day long instead of turning out the entire product as he used to do at home.

And finally, the Industrial Revolution made it possible to produce plentiful add cheap goods which everybody could afford.