Another key aspect of the Great Britain’s industrial progress was the impact of the inventors who developed new machines and techniques to solve problems of productivity and save labor. It seems reasonable to conclude that in the 18th century, Great Britain enjoyed a greater degree of technical skill and fascination with machine operations than that found on the continent. One assumption is that the rigid influence of the guild system and the heavy-handed mercantilism of the other nations of Europe fixed attention on solutions of the past and thus stifled imagination and new thinking. This approach likely explains why, as Great Britain moved into the throes of industrialization, the other countries of Europe did not hasten to copy the British model until much later. Although all scholars do not agree, some have speculated that this somewhat unique characteristic of the British to seek new solutions may have its roots in the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries. It is impossible to understand completely the mind and motivation of the important inventors who forever modified the direction of British technology in 18th and 19th centuries. However, the developments in science probably persuaded some that nature had a rational explanation and potentially could be controlled for productive purposes. Carried a step further, the implication was that beneficial change was possible, and the result was a wider interest in developing and utilizing new technical experiments.
A brief survey of the background of a few of the major inventors dispels any notion that they were merely uneducated tinkerers who plodded by trial and error. While social advancement often remained tied to aristocratic means, Great Britain had moved further than any other nation in Europe to recognize and appreciate talent that opted to pursue other livelihoods to achieve financial success. Manual labor and technical skill were not viewed as negative attributes. Some inventors had a measure of education, particularly backgrounds in the mathematical principles of arithmetic and geometry. Captain Thomas Savery (‘‘Miner’s Friend’’ steam engine) was from a notable Devonshire family; John Kay (flying shuttle) was from a substantial yeoman family; Samuel Crompton’s (mule) father worked in agriculture but gained a comfortable living from producing cloth as a second source of income; Edmund Cartwright’s (power loom) father was an aristocrat, and he himself graduated from Oxford. Furthermore, the breadth and depth of such knowledge sprinkled itself throughout the realm as the industrializing areas of Lancashire, for example, recruited craftsman from across the country and used their skills to perform tasks required of the new industrial enterprises.
World History
