Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/648

492 General History of Europe important improvements and devised a scheme for making the engine turn the wheels of a machine attached to it. In 1785 the steam engine was first applied to spinning machinery, and by the end of the century the new engines were becoming as common as the old wind and water mills. 873. The Industrial Revolution in France. England was the first country to develop the modern use of machinery for manu- facturing. It was not until after the establishment of peace in 1815 that the In- dustrial Revolution really began in France. At that time there was only one small steam engine employed in French industry at a cotton factory in Alsace; but by 1847 France had nearly five thousand steam engines, with a capacity of sixty thousand horse power, and many important manu- facturing centers had grown up. Paris alone had three hundred and forty-two thou- sand working people, other cities had their great factories, and whole quarters, peopled exclusively by factory laborers, grew up in manufacturing centers. 874. The Age of Steam. While the steam engine was first used in factories to increase manufacture, it soon revolutionized navigation and transportation. We shall see in a later chapter how the steamboat and the steam locomotive made it possible for men to get from place to place in a much shorter time than was required by the stagecoach or the sailing vessel. Moreover, the manufactured goods which were now produced in such large quantities by the new power machines could be sent rapidly all over the world. Thus both commerce and business were enormously JAMES WATT