.Sunday, April 15, 2007@ 6:11 PM Y
Did the industrial revolution affect the way people lived and worked in the 19th century for the better or worse? Explain your answer by providing examples.It changed people's lives for the better. The industrial revolution is the invention of new machines and the discovery of new sources of power to drive these machines that brought about changes that transformed the way people lived.
In the 18th century, making cloth was a slow process and workers could only produce enough cloth for themselves as they worked by hand. But because of industrial revolution, new machines like the spinning machine were invented and these machines greatly changed the ways goods were produced and it shortened the production time. Also, there was an invention of the steam-engine. Coal was burnt in the steam-engine to turn water into steam and the pressure from the steam provided the energy for machines to produce goods in great quantities. The invention of these machines meant that the Europeans could produce their goods cheaply in great quantities and at a faster rate. At the same time, railway trains and steamships were invented and it brought great convenience for people. People could then travel longer distances in a shorter period of time to look for markets and raw materials.
As Europeans could now sail to East to obtain raw materials and find markets to sell their goods, more ships visited Singapore and this led to the growth in trade. Communications also improved as a result of the arrival of steamships as letters which used to take four to five months to arrive from Europe now took only about five weeks. With the shorter time taken to deliver letters and documents, Singapore came into closer contacts with Britain and the rest of the world.
Thus, I think the Industrial Revolution had changed people's lives for the better.
