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65438+1960s-65438+the middle of the 9th century (humans began to enter age of steam).

The industrial revolution cannot be attributed only to the genius of a small group of inventors. Genius undoubtedly played a role, however, it was heavier.

What matters is1the combination of various favorable forces that began to play a role in the late 8 th century. Inventors seldom make inventions unless stimulated by strong demand. As the basis of various new inventions, many principles were known centuries before the industrial revolution, but they were not applied to industry because of lack of stimulation. This is the case with steam power, for example. Steam power was known and even applied in ancient Greece, but it was only used to open and close the doors of temples. However, in Britain, in order to pump water from mines and turn the wheels of new machines, a new energy source is urgently needed. So, a series of inventions and improvements were made until a steam engine suitable for mass production was finally developed.

These favorable conditions led to a series of inventions, which made it possible for the cotton textile industry to fully realize mechanization by 1830. Among the new inventions, Richard Akrit's hydraulic spinning machine (1796), james hargreaves's multi-spindle spinning machine (1770) and Samuel Crump's spinning machine (1779) are excellent. Hydrospinning machine can spin fine and strong yarn between leather rollers; With a multi-spindle spinning machine, one person can spin eight yarns at the same time, then 16 yarns, and finally 100 yarns; Spindle spinning machine is also called "walking spindle spinning machine" because it combines the advantages of hydraulic spinning machine and multi-spindle spinning machine. The yarn produced by all these new spinning machines soon exceeded the ability of the weavers. A priest named Edmund Cartwright tried to correct this imbalance. 1785, he obtained a patent for a power loom, which was originally driven by horses, and after 1789, it was driven by steam. This new invention is crude and unprofitable in business. However, after 20 years of improvement, its most serious shortcomings have been corrected. By the 191920s, this power loom had basically replaced the manual weavers in the cotton textile industry.

Just as the invention of spinning leads to the corresponding invention of textile, the invention of one industry promotes the corresponding invention of other industries. The new cotton spinning machinery needs power, which is richer and more reliable than the traditional water wheel and horse. About 1702, a primitive steam engine was built in Thomas Newcomen, and it was widely used to pump water from coal mines. But compared with the power it provides, it consumes too much fuel, so it is only suitable for the coalfield itself economically. 1763, james watt, a technician from Glasgow University, began to improve the steam engine in newcomen. He established a business partnership with the manufacturer matthew boulton, and Bolton raised funds for quite expensive experiments and initial models. The cause proved to be very successful; By 1800, when Watt's basic patent right expired, there were about 500 Bolton-Watt steam engines in use. Among them, 38% steam engines are used to pump water, and the rest are used to provide rotating power for textile mills, ironmaking furnaces, flour mills and other industries. However, the smooth invention of the steam engine was also inseparable from the natural environment and social factors at that time. As early as 120 BC, people in ancient Egypt studied steam as power. According to statistics, in the following 1800 years, more than 20 inventors tried to use steam as power, but none of them made a relatively perfect steam engine and widely used it in production. So someone said, "If Watt had been born a hundred years earlier, he would have died with his invention!" " Therefore, the environment is also very important.

The historical significance of the steam engine cannot be overemphasized. It provides a means to control and utilize heat energy and provide driving force for machines. Therefore, the long-term dependence of human beings on animal power, wind power and water power has ended. At this time, mankind has obtained a huge new energy, and soon, mankind can also develop other fossil fuels hidden in the earth, namely oil and natural gas. Thus began a trend, leading to the present situation: the energy available per person in Western Europe and North America is 1 1.5 times and 29 times that in Asia, respectively. In a world where economic and military forces are directly dependent on available energy, the importance of these figures is obvious. In fact, it can be said that Europe's rule over the world in the19th century was based on the steam engine, rather than any other means or force.

New cotton mills and steam engines need to increase the supply of iron, steel and coal-this demand has been met through a series of improvements in mining and metallurgy. At first, iron ore was smelted in a small furnace full of charcoal. The exhaustion of forests forced manufacturers to turn to coal; It was at this time (1709) that Abraham Darby discovered that coal can be turned into coke and ordinary wood into charcoal. As it turns out, coke is as effective as charcoal and much cheaper. Darby's son developed a huge bellows driven by a waterwheel, thus manufacturing the first mechanically controlled blast furnace, which greatly reduced the cost of iron. 1760, further improved in John Smeaton; He abandoned Darby's bellows made of leather and wood and replaced it with a water pump, which consists of four metal cylinders with pistons and valves and is driven by a water wheel. More importantly, this improvement was made by Henry Cote, who invented the "stirring" method to remove impurities from molten pig iron in 1784. Park Jung Su puts molten pig iron into a reverberatory furnace to stir or "stir". In this way, carbon in the melt is removed by oxygen in the air circulating in the melt. After removing carbon and other impurities, molten iron is produced which is more ductile than the original brittle molten pig iron or pig iron. At that time, in order to keep up with the increasing demand of ironmaking industry, coal mining technology was also improved. It is extremely important that the steam engine is used for mine drainage. Sir humphry davy invented the safety lamp in 18 15. Safety lights greatly reduce the danger in mining.

As a result of these developments, by 1800, Britain will produce more coal and iron than the rest of the world combined. More specifically, the coal production in Britain increased from 6 million tons in 1770 to 20,000 tons in 1800, and then to 57 million tons in 186 1 year. Similarly, the iron production in Britain increased from 50,000 tons in 1770 to130,000 tons in 1800, and then to 3.8 million tons in 186 1 year. Iron is rich in resources and low in price, which can be used in general buildings. Therefore, mankind has not only entered age of steam, but also entered the age of steel.

The development of textile industry, mining industry and metallurgical industry has caused the demand for improved transportation tools, which can transport a large number of coal and ore. The most important step in this direction was taken at 176 1; That year, the Duke of bridgewater opened a seven-mile canal between Manchester and the coal mines in Worsley. Coal prices in Manchester have fallen by half; Later, the Duke extended his canal to mersey river, and the cost was only one sixth of that charged by the land transportation company. These amazing achievements led to the craze of canal digging, which enabled Britain to have 2500 miles of canals by 1830.

Parallel to the canal era is the great road construction period. At first, the roads were so primitive that people could only walk or ride horses. In the rainy season, it is almost impossible to pull a van full of goods on this road with horses. After 1850, a group of road engineers-John Metcalfe, Thomas telford and John Macadam-invented the technology of building roads with hard roads that can withstand traffic all year round. The speed of traveling by carriage has increased from 4 miles per hour to 6 miles, 8 miles or even 10 miles. It is also possible to travel at night. Therefore, it used to take 65,438+04 days from Edinburgh to London. At this point, it only takes 44 hours.

After 1830, highways and waterways were challenged by railways. This new mode of transportation is realized in two stages. At the beginning, the rails or rails that had been widely used by the middle of18th century appeared. They are used to transport coal from the wellhead to waterways or places where coal is burned. It is said that on the track, a woman or a child can pull a truck with a load of three-quarters tons, and a horse can do what 22 horses do on ordinary roads. The second stage is to install a steam engine on the truck. The main figure in this respect is george stephenson, a mining engineer. He first used a locomotive to pull several coal cars from the mine to the Tyne River. 1830, his locomotive "rocket" traveled 3 1 mile at an average speed of1mile per hour, pulling a train from Liverpool to Manchester. In just a few years, railways have dominated long-distance transportation. Compared with roads or canals, railways can transport passengers and goods at a faster speed and at a lower cost. By 1838, Britain has 500 miles of railways; By 1850, it will have 6600 miles of railways; To 1870, with railway 15500 miles.

Steam engines are also used for water transportation. Inventors from Scotland, France and the United States have been experimenting with steam engines on board since 1770. American robert fulton built the first successful commercial steamboat. He went to England to study painting, but with James.

After getting to know each other, Watt turned to engineering. 1807, he launched his steamboat "clermont" on the Hudson River. The ship is equipped with a Watt-type steam engine that drives paddles. It traveled 150 miles back to the Hudson River and reached Albany. Other inventors followed Fulton's example, including Henry Bell of Glasgow, who laid the foundation for Scottish shipbuilding on both sides of the Clyde River. Early steamships were used for navigation in rivers and coastal areas, but in 1833, the steamship "Royal William" sailed from Nova Scotia to England. Five years later, the steamship Sirius and Daxifang crossed the Atlantic in the opposite direction in 16.5 days and 13.5 days respectively, and the sailing time was about half that of the fastest sailing ship. 1840, Samuel Kennard established a regular transatlantic route, and announced the arrival and departure dates of ships in advance. Kennard preached that his route was an "ocean railway", which replaced the "inseparable and annoying irregularity in the era of navigation". By 1850, steamboats had surpassed sailboats in transporting passengers and mail and began to compete for freight successfully.

The industrial revolution caused a revolution not only in transportation, but also in communication. In the past, people could only send messages to a distant place by carriage, courier or boat. However, the telegraph was invented in the middle of18th century; The chairman who made this invention was Charles Wheatstone, an Englishman, and Samuel Morse and Alfred Weil, two Americans. 1866, a transatlantic cable was laid, and direct communication between the Eastern Hemisphere and America was established.

Man has conquered time and space in this way. Since ancient times, human beings have always expressed the distance between different places by the number of hours needed to travel by carriage, horse riding or sea. But now, humans have crossed the earth in boots that span seven leagues. Humans can cross oceans and continents by steamboat and railway, and communicate with compatriots all over the world by telegraph. These achievements, together with other achievements that enable human beings to use the energy of coal to produce iron at low cost and spin 100 yarn at the same time, show the influence and significance of the first stage of the industrial revolution. At this stage, the world is unified, and the degree of unity greatly exceeds that of the Roman era or the Mongolian era. In addition, it made it possible for Europe to dominate the world, which continued until the industrial revolution spread to other regions.

It was the market that triggered the British industrial revolution.

the second industrial revolution

/kloc-the second half of the 0/9th century-the beginning of the 20th century (mankind began to enter the electrical age and reached its peak in the information revolution).

The industrial revolution, which began at the end of18th century, has continued steadily to this day. Therefore, it is essentially arbitrary to divide its development process into different periods. However, if 1870 is taken as the transition date, it can still be divided. Around 1870, there were two important developments-science began to greatly affect industry, and the technology of mass production was improved and applied.

As we mentioned in the previous chapter, science had little influence on industry at the beginning. The inventions we have mastered so far in textile, mining, metallurgy and transportation are rarely made by scientists. On the contrary, they are mostly done by talented technicians who respond to unusual economic stimulus. But after 1870, science began to play a more important role. Gradually, it became an integral part of all large-scale industrial production. The laboratory of industrial research is equipped with expensive instruments and well-trained scientists, who systematically study designated problems, replacing the attic and studio of lonely inventors. In the past, invention was the result of personal response to opportunities, but now, invention is arranged in advance and actually customized. Walter lippmann aptly described this new situation as follows:

Machines have been invented since ancient times. They are extremely important, such as wheels, such as sailboats, such as windmills and waterwheels. But in modern times, people invented the method of making inventions, and people discovered the method of making discoveries. The progress of machinery is not accidental, but systematic and incremental. We know that we will make more and more perfect machines; This point was not realized before.

After 1870, all industries were influenced by science. For example, in metallurgy, many technological methods have been invented (Bessemer steelmaking, Siemens-Martin steelmaking and Gelkrist-Thomas steelmaking), which makes it possible to smelt a large number of high-grade steel from low-grade iron ore. Due to the use of electric power and the invention of internal combustion engines mainly using petroleum and gasoline, the electric power industry has been completely reformed. The invention of radio also changed the way of communication. 1896, Guri elmo Marconi invented a machine that can send and receive information without wires. However, his achievement is based on the research of Scottish physicist james clerk maxwell and German physicist Henrich Hertz. The petroleum industry has developed rapidly because geologists and chemists have done a lot of work; Geologists explore oil fields with extraordinary accuracy, and chemists have invented various methods to extract naphtha, gasoline, kerosene and light and heavy lubricating oil from crude oil. One of the most striking examples of the influence of science on industry can be found in the derivatives of coal. Coal not only provides coke and valuable gas for lighting, but also produces a liquid, namely coal tar. Chemists have found real treasures in this substance-various derivatives, including hundreds of dyes and a large number of other by-products, such as aspirin, wintergreen oil, saccharin, disinfectants, laxatives, perfumes, photographic chemicals, high explosives and neroli essence.

The second stage of the industrial revolution is also characterized by the development of large-scale production technology. The United States leads in this respect, just as Germany leads in science. The United States has some obvious advantages that can explain why it ranks first in mass production: a huge treasure house of raw materials; Provide sufficient capital supply for indigenous people and Europeans; The continuous inflow of cheap immigrant labor; China's huge domestic market, rapid population growth and improvement of living standards.

Two main methods of mass production were developed in the United States. One method is to manufacture standard and interchangeable parts, and then assemble these parts into a complete unit with the least amount of manpower. It was at the beginning of19th century that eli whitney, an American inventor, made a large number of muskets for the government in this way. Based on this new principle, his factory attracted widespread attention and many tourists visited it. One of the visitors aptly described the basic features of Whitney's revolutionary technology: "He made a mold for every part of the musket; It is said that these molds are processed very accurately, and every part of any musket can be applied to any other musket. " In the decades after Whitney, machines have become more and more accurate, so it is possible to produce parts that are not almost the same but exactly the same. The second method, which appeared in the early 20th century, is to design an "assembly line". Henry Ford became famous for inventing an endless conveyor belt that can transport automobile parts to the places where assembly workers need them, and gained a lot of property. Someone vividly described the development process of this conveyor belt model as follows:

The idea of making conveyor belts came from canned food workers in Chicago, who used aerial cranes to lift the carcasses of beef cattle along a row of butchers. Ford first tried this idea when assembling the small parts of the engine and flywheel magnetoelectric machine, and then tried this idea when assembling the engine itself and the automobile chassis.

One day, the chassis of a car was tied to a steel cable. Six workers made a 250-foot historic trip along the cable when the winch dragged the cable through the factory. As they walked, they picked up the parts along the way and bolted them to the chassis of the car. The experiment is finished, but there is one difficulty. God didn't make man as accurately as Ford made piston rings. The assembly line is too high for short people and too low for tall people, and the result is futile.

So, do more experiments. First raise the assembly line, then lower the assembly line, and then try two assembly lines, which are suitable for people of different heights; First, improve the running speed of the assembly line, then reduce the running speed of the assembly line, and then do various experiments to determine how many people need to be placed on an assembly line, how far apart each process should be, and whether to let the bolt loader screw the nut again, so that the original nut loader can have time to tighten the nut. Finally, the required time for assembling each car chassis has been shortened from 18 hours and 28 minutes to 1 hour and 33 minutes, and it is possible for the world to acquire a large number of new Model T cars. As workers become more effective gear teeth on their machines, mass production has entered a new stage.

Then with the help of advanced mechanical equipment, the treatment of piles of raw materials has been improved. This method of mass production has also been improved in the United States, and the best example is the steel industry. The following description of the process of manufacturing rails illustrates this method:

The iron and steel industry has developed this continuous production on a large scale. Iron ore comes from Mesabi Ridge. Steam shovel shovels iron ore into the train car; The carriage was towed to Deluce or Superior, and then entered the docks above some depressions. When the bottom of the carriage turned outwards, the iron ore in the carriage was discharged into the depression. The chute allows iron ore to enter the cargo hold of the ore carrier from the recess. At the port of Lake Erie, the ore ship was unloaded by the automatic device and the ore was loaded into the train car. In Pittsburgh, these cars are unloaded by dump trucks, which turn the cars to their own side and make the ore fall into the box like a waterfall; The coke, limestone and ore in these boxes are transported to the top of the blast furnace by loaders and then poured into the furnace. So, the blast furnace began to produce. The hot pig iron from the blast furnace is transported to the mixer by the hot metal tanker and then to the open hearth. In this way, fuel economy is realized. Then, the open hearth furnace starts tapping, and the molten steel flows into the huge ladle, and then flows into the crystallizer placed on the flat car from there. A locomotive pushes the flatbed car into several pits, and the exposed ingots left after formwork removal are placed in these pits for heat preservation until the time of production. The conveyor transports the steel ingot to the rolling mill, and the automatic platform rises and falls from time to time, throwing rails with the required shape back and forth between rolling equipment. The shape of the rail made in this way is excellent, and it will be scrapped if there is a slight deviation. Electric cranes, buckets, conveyors, dump trucks, unloaders and loaders make iron ore production from mines to railways an incredibly automatic and energetic thing.

From the perspective of pure economy, the significance of mass production of this scale can be detected from the following irreproachable words of Andrew Carnegie, the king of steel:

Two pounds of iron ore were mined from Lake Superior and transported to Pittsburgh 900 miles away. Mining a pound and a half of coal to make coke and then transporting it to Pittsburgh; Mining half a pound of lime and transporting it to Pittsburgh; Mining a small amount of manganese ore in Virginia and transporting it to Pittsburgh-these four pounds of raw materials are made into a pound of steel, and consumers only need to pay a penny for this pound of steel.

Scientific mass production mode not only affects industry, but also affects agriculture. Moreover, Germany, which is leading in scientific application, and the United States, which is leading in mass production, are all doing this. German chemists found that in order to maintain soil fertility, it is necessary to restore nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus absorbed by plants in the soil. At first, natural fertilizers were used to achieve this goal, but by the end of 19, natural fertilizers gave way to purer and more necessary inorganic substances in form. As a result, the output of inorganic substances in the world has greatly increased. During the period from 1850 to 19 13, the output of nitrate, potash fertilizer and calcium superphosphate increased from negligible amounts to 899,800 metric tons (three quarters of which were used for fertilizer production),1348,000 metric tons and 16256553.

The third industrial revolution

The time is uncertain, probably after World War II. When mankind enters the era of science and technology, the emergence of biological cloning technology and space science and technology called 2 1 century in Europe and America will trigger the third industrial revolution, that is, biotechnology and industrial revolution.

2 1 Century Biotechnology and Industrial Revolution [1]

The financial crisis triggered by the United States has spread all over the world, which is both a crisis and an opportunity. The transformation of industrial model or industrial structure is often the characteristic of new economy and new industrial era, and technological revolution brings industrial revolution. The formation of social industrial structure and economic growth have reached a new historical period since the first industrial revolution began in the midwest of England and the second industrial revolution occurred almost simultaneously in Europe and America. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties in China, textile, printing and dyeing, mining and other industries and businesses sprouted, and Shanxi merchants and Huizhou merchants formed a famous business model at the north and south ends of the Silk Road. The development of modern western science can be seen in China culture, such as the social ethics of Confucianism (social norms), the practical experience of Mohism (experimental methods), the clarification of the concept of Zen (epiphany), the systematic logic model of Taoism (structural model), and the prototypes of some scientific and technological inventions. China's modern industrialization experienced the Jiangnan manufacturing industry in Zeng Guofan and Sheng Xuanhuai's era, and the special economic zones in Guangdong and Fujian began to develop from the Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Bohai Bay to the central and western regions. The essence of economic growth is scientific and technological innovation and industrialization, which is reflected in the social vitality of inventors, entrepreneurs and financiers. Aiming at the new scientific and technological revolution and grasping the whole economic chain from technological creativity to product marketization in time will bring fundamental opportunities for the economy to rise.

In the 20th century, the methodology of science and technology changed from empirical analysis to system synthesis. The development of artificial intelligence and microelectronics technology triggered the revolution of computer, telecommunications and other information industries, and brought about the development of genome project and bioinformatics. Comprehensive philosophy was formed long before the birth of system science, including Spencer's comprehensive philosophy in the late 9th century and early 20th century, Russell's philosophical analysis and synthesis, and Whitehead's organic philosophy. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, China's philosophy of science discussed comprehensive philosophy, systematic science and traditional medicine, and China's philosophy. In 1990s, Ceng Bangzhe of China Academy of Sciences expounded the concepts of systems bioengineering and systems genetics, and established the systems bioengineering and engineering network in Germany on 1999. In 2000, L.Hood of the United States and H.Kitano of Japan established a research institute of systems biology. In 2003, J.Keasling established the Department of Genetic Engineering-Synthetic Biology based on Systems Biology. In 2005, French F.Cambien and L. Tiret discussed the concept of systems genetics's research on arteriosclerosis. Subsequently, the world explosively moves towards the development trend of science and technology integrating computer science and biological science, which will bring about the 2 1 century era of cell pharmaceutical factory and cell computer biological industrialization. Scientific and technological decision-making bodies in Europe and America have formulated policies on education, scientific research and industrial reform, while China has made major projects and decisions on the modernization of Chinese medicine industry in the development of gene biotechnology and systematic medicine.

In June, 2007, Academician R. I. Kitney, head of the Department of Biomedicine and Bioengineering of the Royal British Academy of Engineering, said: "The coupling of systems biology and synthetic biology will produce the third industrial revolution", which will subvert the technological and industrial changes in the fields of computers, nanotechnology, biology and medicine, that is, the bio-industrial revolution. The whole industrial structure in 2 1 century will be transformed into the bio-(chemical)-physical alliance industrial model of systematic bioengineering, that is, the material, energy and information industries which embody the biological system principles of machines (evolution and genetic calculation), biomaterials (nano-biomolecules, engineering biomaterials) and genetically engineered organisms, and integrate the engineering applications of ecology, genetics, bionics and machinery, chemical engineering and electromagnetics. The theory of computer science comes from the study of animal communication behavior, cybernetics of nervous system and information theory. The exploration of intracellular and intercellular communication behavior has led to the development of system biology science and engineering, which will form an all-round biological industry of materials, energy and information in the future.

Scientific and technological revolution and industrial revolution are different concepts, and industrial revolution is often caused by the revolution of manufacturing industry, which leads to the comprehensive transformation of the three major industries. The first industrial revolution began with the industrial scale of textiles and the wide application of steam engines, and ended with the invention of internal combustion engines and automobile industries. The second industrial revolution started the development of electrification, telephone and electronic communication industries, and reached its peak in computer internet technology (i.e. information revolution, information revolution); The third industrial revolution should begin with the end of organic chemical engineering, the beginning of genetic engineering, and the rapid development of systems biology and synthetic biology. The remarkable feature of bio-industrial revolution is interdisciplinary and technical synthesis, which is based on the comprehensive integration of organic chemical synthesis technology, high-precision analytical chemistry, nano-molecular science, microelectronics technology, super-large-scale integration, computer software design, transgenic biotechnology, drug screening Qualcomm quantity technology and other disciplines and technologies. Development of biomolecular computer components, artificial intelligence biological computing, synthetic cell biological system, etc. In about 30 years, it will bring about the development of new bio-molecular materials designed artificially, oil synthesized by algae artificial cells, nano-medical cell robots and other industries. It will be the basis for the development of pillar enterprises in the future to shift the focus of support to the development and invention of potential high and new technologies.