Industrial Revolution

Born: Dec 17, 1778 in Penzance, Cornwall, England Died: May 29, 1829 (at age 50) in Geneva, Switzerland Nationality: English Famous For: Electrolysis,

British ironmaster who first successfully smelted iron ore with coke. Darby, who had used coke in smelting copper in Bristol, in 1708 founded the Bristol Iron Company. H

Come to Biography.com for the life of inventor Elias Howe, who patented the first practical sewing machine, and won one of the first patent infringement suits.

Inventor and engineer who developed the first process for manufacturing steel inexpensively (1856), leading to the development of the Bessemer converter. He was knighted i

Read a biography on Edmund Cartwright - 18th century industrial pioneer who invented the power loom

Discover facts about the life of James Watt, the Scottish inventor and engineer - well renowned for his improvements in steam engine technology.

British inventor of the spinning mule, which permitted large-scale manufacture of high-quality thread and yarn. As a youth Crompton spun cotton on a spinning jenny for hi

James Hargreaves Biography - James Hargreaves invented "Spinning Jenny" Spinning Jenny, one of the most important devices which brought advancement in production of textiles in the ind

19th century pioneer of the steam engine

Read a concise biography about the 19th century scientist Sir Humphry Davy who invented the miners safety lamp.

British discoverer of the puddling process for converting pig iron into wrought iron. Having accumulated capital by serving 10 years as a civilian official of the Royal Navy

When Abraham Darby I arrived in Coalbrookdale in 1708 he started a chain of events which changed the industrial world. He began a tradition of ironmaking which lasted for four generations.

American inventor whose sewing machine helped revolutionize garment manufacture in the factory and in the home. Interested in machinery since childhood, Howe learned th

Isaac Merritt Singer was no introverted back-room inventor, but one of the most forceful, flamboyant and unscrupulous tycoons in American business history.

Scottish instrument maker and inventor whose steam engine contributed substantially to the Industrial Revolution. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society of London i

Textile industrialist and inventor whose use of power-driven machinery and employment of a factory system of production were perhaps more important than his inventions. I

English inventor of the spinning jenny, the first practical application of multiple spinning by a machine. At the time he devised the machine, he was a poor, uneducate

English machinist and engineer, inventor of the flying shuttle, which was an important step toward automatic weaving. The son of a woolen manufacturer, Kay was placed i

British engineer and inventor of the atmospheric steam engine, a precursor of James Watt’s engine. As an ironmonger at Dartmouth, Newcomen became aware of the high cost o