The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution is a period in the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries when major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions in Britain. The changes subsequently spread throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the world. The onset of the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in human society; almost every aspect of daily life was eventually influenced in some way. In the later part of the 1700s there occurred a transition in parts of Great Britain's previously manual-labour-based economy towards machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. The introduction of steam power (fuelled primarily by coal) and powered machinery (mainly in textile manufacturing) underpinned the dramatic increases in production capacity. The development of all-metal machine tools in the first two decades of the 19th century facilitated the manufacture of more production machines for manufacturing in other industries. The effects spread throughout Western Europe and North America during the 19th century, eventually affecting most of the world. The impact of this change on society was enormous.

The First Industrial Revolution, which began in the eighteenth century, merged into the Second Industrial Revolution around 1850, when technological and economic progress gained momentum with the development of steam-powered ships, railways, and later in the nineteenth century with the internal combustion engine and electrical power generation.

The period of time covered by the Industrial Revolution varies with different historians. Eric Hobsbawm held that it 'broke out' in the 1780s and was not fully felt until the 1830s or 1840s, while T. S. Ashton held that it occurred roughly between 1760 and 1830. Some twentieth century historians such as John Clapham and Nicholas Crafts have argued that the process of economic and social change took place gradually and the term "revolution" is not a true description of what took place. This is still a subject of debate amongst historians.

XX century

One of the prominent traits of the 20th century was the dramatic growth of technology. Organized research and practice of science led to advancement in the fields of communication, engineering, travel, medicine, and war.

The number and types of home appliances increased dramatically due to advancements in technology, electricity availability, and increases in wealth and leisure time. Such basic appliances as washing machines, clothes dryers, furnaces, exercise machines, refrigerators, freezers, electric stoves, and vacuum cleaners all became popular from the 1920s through the 1950s. The microwave oven became popular during the 1980s. Radios were popularized as a form of entertainment during the 1920s, which extended to television during the 1950s. Cable television spread rapidly during the 1980s. Personal computers began to enter the home during the 1970s–1980s as well. The age of the portable music player grew during the 1960s with the development of 8-track and cassettetapes, which slowly began to replace record players. These were in turn replaced by the CD during the late 1980s and 1990s. The proliferation of the Internet in the mid-to-late 1990s made digital distribution of music (mp3s) possible. VCRs were popularized in the 1970s, but by the end of the 20th century, DVDs were beginning to replace them.

The first airplane was flown in 1903. With the engineering of the faster jet engine in the 1940s, mass air travel became commercially viable.

The assembly line made mass production of the automobile viable. By the end of the 20th century, billions of people had automobiles for personal transportation. The combination of the automobile, motor boats and air travel allowed for unprecedented personal mobility. In western nations, motor vehicle accidents became the greatest cause of death for young people. However, expansion of divided highways reduced the death rate.

The triode tube (Audion), transistor and integrated circuit revolutionized computers, leading to the proliferation of the personal computer in the 1980s and cell phones and the public-use Internet in the 1990s.

New materials, most notably stainless steel, plastics, polyethylene, Velcro, and Teflon, came into widespread use for many various applications.

Aluminum became an inexpensive metal and became second only to iron in use. Semiconductors were put to use in electronic objects.

Thousands of chemicals were developed for industrial processing and home use.

The Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union gave a peaceful outlet to the political and military tensions of the Cold War, leading to the first human spaceflight with the Soviet Union's Vostok 1 mission in 1961, and man's first landing on another world—the Moon—with America's Apollo 11 mission in 1969. Later, the firstspace station was launched by the Soviet space program. The United States developed the first (and to date only) reusable spacecraft system with the Space Shuttle program, first launched in 1981. As the century ended, a permanent manned presence in space was being founded with the ongoing construction of the International Space Station.

In addition to human spaceflight, unmanned space probes became a practical and relatively inexpensive form of exploration. The first orbiting space probe, Sputnik 1, was launched by the Soviet Union in 1957. Over time, a massive system of artificial satellites was placed into orbit around Earth. These satellites greatly advanced navigation, communications, military intelligence, geology, climate, and numerous other fields. Also, by the end of the 20th century, unmanned probes had visited the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and various asteroids and comets. The Hubble Space Telescope, launched in 1990, greatly expanded our understanding of the Universe and brought brilliant images to TV and computer screens around the world.

Device	Benefits	Disadvantages
Refrigerator	In the longer lasting foodstuffs due to decreased biological action and, the constant availability of Ice and cold drinks.	Heat is added to the kitchen area from the motor, the compressor and the heat of compression of the refrigerator. The refrigerator's unit will work a little harder to take care of this extra heat. This plus the cost of running the fridge, will increase power consumption which increases the Electric Bill. Also, she sound from the fridge and it's clicking in and out of operation.
Microwave oven	Microwave oven cooks many foods in about 1/4th of the time necessary on a gas burner. There is no wastage of energy. It saves time in heating frozen foods. Thawing can be done in minutes or seconds. Only the food is heated during cooking. The oven or the utensil does not get heated except under prolonged heating periods. Flavour and texture do not change when reheated in a microwave oven. Loss of nutrients is minimized. (3-carotene and vitamin C are better retained by microwave cooking compared to pressure cooking and saucepan cooking. After cooking in a microwave oven washing dishes is much easier as food does not stick to the sides of the vessels. Food gets cooked uniformly. Preserves the natural colour of vegetables and fruits. No fat or low fat cooking can be made.	Due to short period of cooking, food does not become brown unless the microwave has a browning unit. It is not possible to make chapati or tandoori roti in it. It cannot cook soft or hard boiled eggs. Deep frying necessary for puris, jalebis, pakoda, vadas cannot be done in it. Sometimes unwanted chemicals migrate to food from plastic cookware or food packages. Only "microwave safe" should be used. The short cooking time may not give a chance of blending of flavours as in conventional methods. The operator should be careful in operating the microwave oven since any exposure to microwave oven causes physiological abnormalities. If the food is greater than 80 mm the central portion is out of range of the microwave radiation will only heat by the normal slow process of conduction. It will be relatively uncooked while the exterior accessible to microwave is cooked in minutes or seconds.