Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/647

The Industrial Revolution 491 870. Mass Production. The effect of these inventions in in- creasing the amount of cloth manufactured was astonishing. In 1764 England imported only about four million pounds of raw cotton, but by 1841 she was using nearly five hundred million pounds annually. II. THE STEAM ENGINE 871. Demand for Iron, Steel, and Motive Power. The new inventions greatly increased the demand for iron and steel, for it was necessary to have a strong and durable material out of which machinery could be made. Moreover, some adequate power had to be found to run -the new machines. Windmills were common, and waterfalls and streams had long been used to turn water wheels, but the wind was uncertain and the streams were often low. By the invention of steam engines these difficulties could be overcome, and the mills need no longer, as formerly, be located near running water. The earliest engines were power pumps which raised water into a high reservoir so that it could fall with force on a water wheel. Pumps were also used to drain the water out of mines. While new methods of spinning and weaving were being intro- duced other inventors were finding better ways of melting and forging iron, and still others were improving the crude steam engines then in use. New processes for reducing iron from the ore were discovered. Coal began to be used instead of charcoal for softening the metal, and the old-fashioned bellows were re- placed by great blast furnaces. Steam hammers were invented, weighing seven hundred and fifty pounds and striking three hun- dred blows a minute, to beat the iron into shape. 872. Watt's Steam Engine. James Watt was first able to make the steam engine a practical device for furnishing power to the new machines. Watt did not, however, invent the steam engine, as has been commonly supposed. As an instrument-maker in Glasgow, he was called upon (about 1760) to repair the model of a steam engine invented sixty years earlier by an ingen- ious mechanic named Newcomen. Watt hit upon a number of