iron furnace, substituted mineral coal for wood charcoal in the smelting
and puddling of iron ore. In 1766, he made it possible to transport coal
out of mines on rail wagons drawn by horses. As father of the iron
industry, he made iron chairs, vats for breweries and distilleries, and
iron pipes of all sizes. With his invention of the first precision
boring machine, he provided Watt with metal cylinders of perfectly
accurate shape, which were necessary for the smooth working of Watt's
steam engine. In 1775 he bought a pumping steam engine from Boulton and
Watt's company for his ironworks. It pumped three times as fast as
Newcomen's engine.
Watt's steam engine came to be used for power-loom weaving and then for
all sorts of manufactures. It would put England ahead of every
manufacturing country in the world. Millwrights built, installed, and
later designed not only steam engines but the machinery that they drove.
These men were essential in setting up the first factories. They were
the most imaginative and resourceful craftsmen. They knew how to use a
turner's, a carpenter's and a blacksmith's tools and had supervised or
done smith work, brick-laying or stone-mason's work in erecting and
maintaining windmills with their many gears and bearings. There was a
good deal of variety in mills, as well as in the structure and
workmanship of them, some being worked by horses, some by wind, and
others by water. They had some knowledge of arithmetic and practical
mechanics. They could draw out a plan and calculate the speed and power
of a wheel. Although technically in a branch of carpentry, the
millwrights learned to work with metal as well. Metal was superior to
wood not only because of its strength but because wood parts were
irregular in motion and wore out rapidly. So iron and brass parts came
to replace wood and leather parts.
In 1728, J. Paine got a patent for rolling iron instead of hammering
it. The iron bars, being heated in a long hot arch or cavern passed
between two large metal rollers, which had certain notches or furrows on
their surfaces.
Clockmaker and Quaker Benjamin Huntsman was struck with the difficulty
of finding finely tempered steel for the springs of his watches and
pendulums of his clocks. He experimented for years to find a homogeneous
and flawless metal, and finally, in 1740, invented cast steel, which had
high tensile strength and was much harder than ordinary steel. He did
this by remelting refined high quality wrought iron bars at very high
temperatures in sealed fireclay crucibles, together with small
quantities of charcoal and ground glass as reagents. This distributed
the carbon evenly in the metal, which hammering could not do. He
approached the Sheffield cutlers, who finally agreed to try his cast
steel for fear of losing their business to some other manufacturers who
were approaching Huntsman. Since Huntsman had no patent, he worked at
night and employed only men who would keep his secret. His steel was
made at night. His factory became prosperous about 1770 and the
excellence of his steel manufacture was never equaled. Steel and wrought
iron was scarce and expensive.
Around 1748, iron founder Samuel Walker, discovered Huntsman's secret
by appearing at Huntsman's factory disguised as a shivering tramp who
asked to warm himself by the furnace fire. He feigned sleep while
watching the whole process. When he began to make cast steel, his annual
output grew from 900 pounds in 1747 to 11,000 pounds in 1760 and he made
a fortune.
Silver was plated over copper from 1751. White metal from tin and
antimony was used from about 1770.
The brass industry was beginning to produce brass from copper and zinc
that was as good as foreign brass. The secret of plate-glass manufacture
came to England in the 1770s.
In 1773, a corporation was set up for the manufacture of plate glass.
It could raise joint-stock because of the great risk and large expense
of the undertaking.
In 1775, chemist William Cookworthy was given a fourteen year patent
for the discovery of certain clay and stone in England from which he
made England's first true porcelain, i.e. that which could sustain the
most extreme degree of fire without melting, and also had grain as
smooth and lustrous, and the transparency and beauty of color, equal in
degree to the best Chinese or Dresden porcelain.
The import duties on diamonds, pearls, rubies, emeralds and other
precious stones and jewels was dropped to increase the business of
cutting and polishing them.
The world's first chocolate factory was set up in England in 1728. Milk
was added to chocolate.
The Fanmakers were incorporated in 1709.
A linen company to sell cambricks [a fine white linen] and lawns [a
thin and fine linen] was incorporated in 1763.
A free market for fish was established in Westminster to supplement the
free fish market in London to prevent forestalling and monopolizing of
the fish industry and to increase the number of fishermen. Duties for
its maintenance were paid by the fishermen. Certain men were given the
right to incorporate fisheries of white herring for twenty one years to
improve the fisheries and give employment to the poor. They were
authorized to sell subscriptions and to build ships provided the fishery
employ 100,000 in such fishery. There were restrictions on taking fish
from rivers during their breeding season. Herring fishermen were allowed
to land and dry their nets and erect tents and pickle, cure, and reload
fish on uncultivated land up to 100 yards beyond the high water mark all
any shore, forelands, harbors, and ports, without paying the landholder.
Later, a bounty of 30s. per ton was authorized to be given for vessels
that were fitted out and used for white herring fishery.
Anyone wishing to be admitted to the Levant (Turkey) trading company
was to be made free of such on paying 20 pounds, so that this trade
might be increased.
In the 1760s the first cooking school was established by Mrs. Elizabeth
Raffald, a servant.
As for health, there were many occupational hazards. These included
paralysis by mercury of refiners of silver and gold, paralysis by
mercurial fumes of molten lead by plumbers, palsy of glaziers working
with melted lead and of watch gilders, lead poisoning of painters,
blinding by sawdust of sawyers, and the affects of fumes on pewterers
and letter founders. Particles of copper were breathed in by copper
workers, whose hair and beards then turned green. Braziers became deaf.
Hairdressers, bakers, masons, bricklayers' laborers, coal heavers,
chimney sweeps, flax and feather dressers, and workers in leather
warehouses suffered pulmonary diseases. Chimney sweeps also had warty
skin cancer from their bodies being habitually covered with soot and the
lethal cancer of the scrotum. Working with charcoal fires affected
confectioners, chocolate makers, and sail-cloth makers. Tanners, catgut
makers, and tallow-candle makers became nauseous. Heavy work weakened
many bodies and caused hernias. Bending over work for long hours caused
stooped posture and hump backs.
The association between dirt and disease was just beginning to be made.
The principles of infection and hygiene were not well understood.
Bathing every couple of months was not unusual. There was some
theological feeling that cleanliness betokened pride and filthiness
humility. Most houses had a bathtub that could be placed beside the fire
in a bedroom. About 80% of the population had been getting smallpox,
which blinded, maimed or disfigured many. Deaths from smallpox were only
occasional in the country, but constant in London, where about 13% of
every generation died from it. Making death commonplace, especially in
the winter months when thick, dirty clothes were worn day and night,
were typhus, which was carried by lice; typhoid, which was spread by
flies from horse dung; tuberculosis; and influenza. Dysentery and
diarrhea made death commonplace especially in the summer when flies
transmitted bacteria from filth to food and the water was its most foul.
There was great meaning in the prayer "Now I lay me down to sleep; I
pray the Lord my soul to keep; if I should die before I wake, I pray the
Lord my soul to take." Thyphus spread easily in hospitals and gaols
where vermin could live in the beds made of wood. Colds and toothache
were also common. Venereal disease was not uncommon among the well-to-do
in London. Condoms were used to deter disease, but were still crude,
coarse, uncomfortable, and unreliable. London had almost double the
mortality rate of the nation. The number of baptisms in London were
about 80% of its burials. About 40% of the deaths in London were among
children under two, due to infantile diseases fostered by malnutrition,
maternal ignorance such as giving babies adult food, ill-health, bad
water, dirty food, poor hygiene, and overcrowding. Many children died
from diptheria, measles, scarlet fever, and smallpox. Ten or twelve
children with three or four surviving was a common family pattern. Many
well-to-do in London kept their children in the country for their better
health. No matter what the ailment, physicians regularly bled patients
and often gave them enemas with wooden funnels. Sometimes a blister or
irritant was applied to the skin to draw out the evil humors. Cupping
was used to provide suction to remove pressure from various parts of the
body. Also used were poultices, ointments, and herbal treatments,
notably quinine. Opium was given to deaden pain. There were about 70
drugs in use. Charms, spells, astrology, and folk remedies still played
a major role in medicine. A physician attended surgeries to give advice.
Physicians could visit apothecary shops once a year and throw away any
drugs falling below an arbitrary standard of excellence. In 1703 the
House of Lords decided a jurisdictional contest between the College of
Physicians and the Society of Apothecaries. It permitted the
apothecaries to direct the remedies as well as to prepare them, although
they could only charge for the drugs they provided. The poor sought
advice from apothecaries.
There was progress in health. Scurvy virtually disappeared as a cause
of death due to the eating of more vegetables. People were cleaner when
wearing cotton, which had to be washed. In 1721, free inoculations for
smallpox began in England, pioneered by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, also
a poet and letter writer. She led the way by having herself and her son
inoculated. Theologicians denounced this practice as a diabolical
interference with disease sent by Providence for the punishment of sin.
Sarah Wallen Mapp was a famous bone-setter. In 1727 surgeon William
Cheselden, whose master was specially licensed to perform the operation
of removing stones in the hospital, reduced the death rate for removing
stones due to hemorrhage, shock, and infection down to 17% by his
invention of a lateral operation. He also published an anatomy book and
treated certain kinds of blindness by forming an opening in the eye to
serve as an artificial pupil. In 1736, Claudius Aymand conducted the
first successful appendectomy.
Nutritional deficiency diseases were beginning to be understood. In
1753, James Lind, a surgeon in the navy who noted that more men died of
scurvy than in battle, published his work on his dietary controlled
experiment on seamen showing that oranges, lemons, limes, green food,
and onions cured scurvy. He published his methods of prevention and cure
of malarial fevers and his method of disinfecting ships with the smoke
of wood and gunpowder. In 1761, he discovered that steam from salt water
was fresh, and proposed a method of distillation to supply ships with
fresh water. In 1761 Giovanni Morgagni from Italy opined that disease
resulted from a breakdown of organs and tissues that was viewable on
autopsy. He wrote an extensive book showing the anatomy of diseases,
e.g. affections of pericardium and aorta, (e.g. aneurysm), valve
diseases, ulceration, rupture, dilation, and hypertrophy. He associated
clinical observation with anatomy of disease. For example, pain on the
left upper chest, numbness of the left arm, and difficulty breathing
occurring together with exertion were associated with dilation of the
aorta and hardening of arteries, which caused delay of blood in the
aorta, in the heart, and in the lung vessels. Bernoulli showed that the
living human body constantly changes so that all its particles are
renewed in a certain number of years. Stephen Hale described the first
quantitative estimate of blood pressure and fundamental characteristics
of blood circulation. In 1728, Frenchman Dr. Pierre Fauchard, the father
of dentistry, recommended rubbing one's teeth and gums with a piece of
sponge.
Since three out of four babies died shortly after birth, beds in
hospitals for pregnant women were established starting in 1739. The next
year physicians began to replace midwives. A hospital was established
for abandoned foundling children in 1739 so they wouldn't die, as they
usually did, in the care of parishes or workhouses or be exposed in the
streets or left on door steps of the wealthy. It was besieged by women
with babies in their arms. In 1762 a statute made the principles of the
foundling hospital obligatory for all London parish children under six;
they were to be sent to nurses outside London who were to be paid at
least 2s. a week by the parish. In 1766, this was extended to all
parishes, and nurses who cared for a child well for a year was given a
reward of at least 10s. Also, parish children were not allowed to be
apprenticed for more than seven years or until age 21 and an apprentice
fee of at least 4 pounds, 2s. was to be paid to the master or mistress
by the parish.
After 1740, there was a steady growth of population due to improved
midwifery. William Smellie taught scientific midwifery in London from
1741 and wrote a "Treatise on Midwifery" in 1752, which had a clear
explanation of the mechanism of labor. At this time there were several
maternity hospitals. Forceps existed for difficult deliveries. In 1750,
Dr. Cadogan wrote his book: "An Essay on the Nursing and Management of
Children, which made a great improvement in the care of young children.
For instance, it recommended loose clothing, no tight swaddling clothes,
and a simple diet. Swaddling clothes were used to retain a baby's
evacuations but produced discomfort and serious skin conditions. A
hospital was founded for venereal diseases in 1746, another as an asylum
for the penitent and orphaned girls who might otherwise be inclined to
prostitution, and yet another for prostitutes in 1758. Coitus
interruptus was widely used for birth control. There were also
clandestine abortions and intentional neglect of newborns.
Melancholy was widespread. Suicides were frequent and drugs were sold
for this purpose. In 1725, the mentally ill were classified as curable
or incurable. There were many private asylums. A lunatic who was
furiously mad and dangerous was required to be safely locked up or
chained in his place of settlement. There were frequent and dangerous
abuses in madhouses, so in 1774, no one was to keep or confine more than
one lunatic without a license granted by the Royal College of Physicians
or else forfeit 500 pounds. A Justice of the Peace and a physician
inspected all madhouses to observe conditions and care of patients
there. If refused admittance, the license was forfeited.
In 1712 was the last time a monarch touched a person to cure him of a
malady such as scrofula.
In 1743 surgery students began to dissect corpses with their own hands
to better learn anatomy. In 1744 the Company of Surgeons was separated
out of the Company of Barber-Surgeons. The barbers were proscribed from
performing surgery and had to have a separate corporation from the
surgeons because of the ignorance and unskillfulness of barbers healing
wounds, blows, and hurts e.g. by blood letting and drawing of teeth.
There was a Surgeon's Hall, officers chosen by the surgeons, and bylaws.
The surgeons were required to examine candidates for the position of
surgeon in the king's army and navy. They were exempted from parish,
ward, and leet offices, and juries. In 1752, a statute provided that the
corpses of murderers were to be sent to the Surgeon's Hall to be
anatomized, for the purpose of deterring murders. The penalty for
rescuing the corpse of a murderer was to suffer death.
The first dispensary for the poor was established in 1769 to give free
medicine and treatment to the infant poor, and then to the infants of
the industrious poor.
The progress of science was seen to threaten the authority of the
church. There was a general belief in God, but not much attention to
Jesus. Feared to come were free thought, rationalism, and atheism. There
was still a big gap between local parsons and bishops, who were
educated, well-off, and related to the aristocracy. On the whole,
preachers talked about morality and Christian belief. They stressed good
works and benevolence. But many Protestant clergy were more concerned
with their own livings than with their parishioners. They were indolent
and did not set a good example of moral living.
From 1715, Freemasonry spread and swiftly provided a spiritual haven
for those who believed in God and desired ritual and mysticism.
About 1744, John Wesley, the son of an Anglican clergyman, became a
religious leader for mining and industrial laborers, who were crowded
into the slums of industrializing cities, and largely ignored by the
Church of England. He had been led to this by a profound religious
experience. He led an evangelical revival with a promise of individual
salvation. He lead an aesthetic life, eating bread, and sleeping on
boards. The person to be saved from the horrors of eternal damnation in
hell was to discipline himself to regular prayer, self-criticism, and
hard work and to forsake worldly pleasures such as drinking, overeating,
and even frivolous talk. This methodical regularity of living led to the
movement being called Methodist. Wesley believed in witchcraft and
magic. He opined that bodily diseases and insanity could be caused by
devils and that some dreams are caused by occult powers of evil. The
Methodists engaged increasingly in philanthropic activities. They gave
to the poor, and visited the sick and the imprisoned. Wesley preached in
the open air where all who wanted to attend could attend and also wear
whatever clothes they had. Large crowds of poor people gathered for
these meetings. Crowds of poor people were generally feared because of
their mob potential. These Methodist meetings were stormed as were
Quaker meetings, with shouts of "the church in danger". The Methodists'
homes were invaded and their belongings destroyed or taken or their
persons beaten with tacit permission of authorities. Some Justices of
the Peace drafted preachers into the army or navy as vagabonds.
Eventually, however, the Methodist revival imbued energy and piety into
the lethargic clergy of the established church. A new moral enthusiasm
and philanthropic energy grabbed the nation. Prisons were reformed,
penal laws made more wise, slave trade abolished, and popular education
given momentum. In the established church, charity gained precedence
over theology and comfort over self-examination and guilt. Evangelist
George Whitfield preached Calvinism and it split off from Methodism.
Then Calvinism went into full decline. Presbyterianism collapsed into
Unitarianism and a general tendency towards deism developed.
Church sanctuary was abolished for those accused of civil offenses.
There was much travel by scheduled coaches, which usually carried
several passengers and were drawn by four horses. Regular service of
public vehicles to and from London went four miles an hour; it took two
days to go from London to Oxford. It was not unusual for a coach to bog
down or overturn. Sometimes it had to detour around an impassable
stretch of road or borrow a couple of oxen from a nearby farm to get out
of a quagmire. Men and horses drowned in some of the potholes. Robbery
was endemic and some of the roads were so unsafe from highwaymen that
bands of armed horsemen were hired to accompany the coaches. It was not
unusual to come across gibbets for hanging at crossroads. In London inns
at coach stops, there were casual workers who were associated with gangs
of thieves specializing in passengers' goods. These workers would inform
their associate thieves of specific goods that had been loaded onto
certain coaches, which were then robbed selectively. Traveling merchants
preferred packhorses to carts because they could cross overland or
through watercourses more easily. These pack horses traveled in regular
caravans in single file. The leader had a bell around his neck to warn,
from a distance, riders or carts coming in the opposite direction. Carts
traveled about two miles an hour. In 1711 the trustee system superseded
administration by the Justices of the Peace of the turnpike system,
including tolls and toll booths. The toll booths were frequently
attacked by riotous mobs. So anyone pulling down or destroying turnpike
gates at which tolls were to be paid went to prison or was put to hard
labor in a House of Correction for three months without bail. He was
also whipped in the market place between 11:00 and 2:00. If he offended
a second time, he was transported for seven years. Later the penalty of
prison up to three years was added as an alternative. The hundred had to
pay the damages up to 20 pounds. The penalty for threatening the toll
collector or forcibly passing through was 5 pounds for the first
offense, and 10 pounds for the second offense with imprisonment for one
year for those who couldn't pay.
By 1750, about 60 miles could be made in a day. The turnpike trusts
took over most of London's major highways during the 1700s. There was no
travel on Sundays until 1750.
In 1745, shocked by the difficulty caused by bad roads in concentrating
the royal army to stop the Scottish invasion, the king began
systematically to improve all the roads. There was much road and highway
widening and repair, and also river bank and pier repair, going on all
over the country. Marsh lands were drained. Harbors were deepened. There
were numerous statutes trying to adjust the needs of travel with the
condition of the roads. For instance, there had to be a pole between
wheel horses or double shafts. Carriages, wagons, or carts drawn by more
horses, oxen, or animals, or with very heavy loads, or with wheels bound
with iron tires were observed to cause more damage, so they were
restricted or had to pay higher tolls. Then broad and smooth iron tires
were observed to not cause the amount of damage as did narrow or
irregular iron tires and their use was encouraged. From 1741, weighing
machines were kept at toll gates. By 1766, turnpike roads had to be at
least 30 feet wide, and hedges and fences thereon had to be taken down
by their owners. Cartways to markets had to be at least 20 feet wide,
and horseways 3 (later 8) feet wide. There were ditches, drains, and
gutters to carry off water. Names and abodes of owners were to be put on
carriages, wagons, and carts or forfeit 2-5 pounds, except for carriages
or coaches of a nobleman or gentleman for his private use or those drawn
by only one horse or two oxen, or those with wide wheels and a light
load. There were town name signs, direction posts, and milestones. In
1773, the Surveyors and the Commissioners of Turnpikes were given
authority to requisition local men, carts and draught animals for
compulsory labor, or money instead, in maintaining the roads and making
new ditches and drains. They could take any local sand, gravel, chalk,
or stone from waste or common land or, if not needed by and satisfaction
was made to the owner, from enclosed land. The surveyor was to be chosen
locally for a year and could be given an allowance. New roads required
the consent of the landowners and a negotiated price.