Question

What do you think is special about inventions happening during the industrial revolution ?

Answer 1

• Most inventions were more the product of determination, interest, curiosity, even luck, than the application of scientific knowledge. 
• Some inventors in the cotton industry, like John Kay and James Hargreaves, were familiar with the skills of weaving and carpentry. 
• Richard Arkwright, however, was a barber and wig-maker, Samuel Crompton was not technically skilled and Edmund Cartwright studied literature, medicine and agriculture, initially wished to become a clergyman and knew little of mechanics. 
• By contrast, in the area of steam engines, Thomas Savery, an army officer, Thomas Newcomen, a blacksmith and locksmith, and James Watt, with a strong mechanical bent, all had some knowledge relevant to their inventions.
• The road-builder John Metcalf, who personally surveyed surfaces for roads and planned them, was blind. 
• The canal builder James Brindley was almost illiterate, with such poor spelling that he could never spell the word ‘navigation’, but he had tremendous powers of memory, imagination and concentration.