The nineteenth century in Britain witnessed the explosion of the Industrial Revolution, but it also witnessed the growth of a movement to reform political and social injustices exacerbated by the industrialization. The first successful attempt to regulate factory conditions was passed in 1819. It prohibited children younger than nine from working in factories and set a maximum twelve-hour work day for children aged between nine and sixteen.

In 1867 Alfred Nobel invented dynamite and in doing so revolutionized the nature and destructive capabilities of warfare. It was the first highly powerful explosive that could be safely contained and detonated when required. It allowed for rapid innovations in weaponry, particularly in artillery. Nobel is said to have been distraught at the realization of his invention and founded the Nobel Prize as a way to contribute some positive energy to the world.

The city of Manchester in the Northwest of England grew spectacularly during the Industrial Revolution. Much of this growth was caused by the construction of canals that connected Manchester directly to the ocean and to many other manufacturing centers in the country. This allowed Manchester to circumvent the city of Liverpool, causing widespread job loss in Liverpool and contributing to a rivalry that still exists to this day. Manchester became, for a time, the biggest industrial port in the world.

The internal combustion engine was developed during the second half of the nineteenth century, and by the dawn of the twentieth century, oil was being refined so that petroleum could be used to fuel the newly created internal combustion engine. This allowed for the invention of cars and improved the speeds of trains and ships.

The Enclosure Movement contributed dramatically to the urbanization of Britain in the eighteenth century. It involved the consolidation of many small landholdings into fewer large farms. This led to an increase in productivity and a decrease in the demand for agricultural labor. This forced much of the population to move to urban centers in search of work.

Steel was the resource that drove the Industrial Revolution (and continues to drive industrialization around the world). It is produced from iron ore that is heated and combined with carbon using coal fires. Bessemer invented a means to do this more cheaply and far more efficiently and in doing so contributed to Britain’s continued dominance of the Industrial Revolution.

Leo Tolstoy and Charles Dickens were part of a group of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century writers who shone a light on the plight of the working class in industrial societies. Their works routinely focused on the day-to-day struggles of the lower class. Oliver Twist and Hard Time, by Charles Dickens, are two famous examples of this type of literature.

Steel is simply iron without impurities, thus making it stronger and more useful in construction and heavy industry. By heating iron ore in a coal fire, the impurities can be removed. The realization of this fact contributed to the rise of heavy industry in the second half of the Industrial Revolution.

The process of curing rubber by mixing it with sulfur and heating it, called “vulcanization,” was developed in the 1830s by Charles Goodyear.

In the eighteenth century, some people began to realize that gas burned from coal could be used to power lights. As the technology was refined and improved in the second half of the eighteenth century, it was argued that it could be used to power street lamps in the big industrial centers of Britain. It was first widely used in London, beginning in the 1830s, and by the 1860s had spread all around Europe.