Why did the Industrial Revolution begin in Britain, and how did it develop between 1780 and 1850?

image
Woman Working a Spinning JennyThe loose cotton strands on the slanted bobbins shown in this illustration of Hargreaves’s spinning jenny passed up to the sliding carriage and then on to the spindles (inset) in back for fine spinning. The worker, almost always a woman, regulated the sliding carriage with one hand, and with the other she turned the crank on the wheel to supply power. By 1783 one woman could spin a hundred threads at a time. (spinning jenny: © Mary Evans Picture Library/The Image Works; spindle: Picture Research Consultants & Archives)

TTHE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION ORIGINATED from a unique combination of possibilities and constraints in late-eighteenth-century Britain. With no models to copy and no idea of what to expect, Britain pioneered not only in industrial technology but also in social relations and urban living.