8/18/2019 Engineering Consultancy - Research and Industrial Revolution http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/engineering-consultancy-research-and-industrial-revolution 1/39 1 1 ENGINEERING CONSULTANCY 1.1 Engineering Consultancy The consulting engineering industry represents that arm of the engineering profession that engages in the business of converting research and knowledge of the engineering sciences into goods, infrastructure and services that add value to people’s lives. Co nsultancy and engineering companies provide professional services to areas in markets such as construction, transport, energy and utilities. A consulting engineer is a professionally qualified engineer in private practice, maintaining an engineering office, either alone or in association with other engineers and employing staff to provide consultancy services. A consulting engineering firm may be organized as a sole proprietorship, a partnership or a company, depending on the size and type of its operation and the conditions set by the national association. Consulting engineers are key motivators for rapid development and work independently to carry out feasibility studies and conceptualization of projects; preparation of contract documentation; all stages of engineering designs; technical and materials specification; project planning and delivery; bid services and management of tenders; project inspection, supervision, valuation, variation management; post project management; cost and varying of projects; preparation of payment certificates; testing and commissioning of projects, in line with global best practice. These activities fall into the three or four general categories of planning studies, feasibility studies, design studies, and completion/post- completion services. All through a project, quality control is of highest priority involving value engineering In 1988 in the book celebrating FIDIC's 75th year, the following age-old definition of the consulting engineer was given: “A FIDIC consulting engineer is one who, possessing technical scientific knowledge and practical experience, exercises the profession under his own name, independent of any trading, business or function of public administration, acts with full impartiality on behalf of his client and does not receive any remuneration except from the same client.”Consulting Engineers must acquire the knowledge of scientific and technical skills in the traditional and emerging fields of Engineering Consultancy. They must also be abreast of social issues, financial and managerial matters. Furthermore, they must have good working knowledge
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Engineering Consultancy - Research and Industrial Revolution
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8/18/2019 Engineering Consultancy - Research and Industrial Revolution
The consulting engineering industry represents that arm of the engineering profession that
engages in the business of converting research and knowledge of the engineering sciences into
goods, infrastructure and services that add value to people’s lives. Consultancy and engineering
companies provide professional services to areas in markets such as construction, transport,
energy and utilities.
A consulting engineer is a professionally qualified engineer in private practice, maintaining an
engineering office, either alone or in association with other engineers and employing staff to
provide consultancy services. A consulting engineering firm may be organized as a sole
proprietorship, a partnership or a company, depending on the size and type of its operation and
the conditions set by the national association. Consulting engineers are key motivators for rapid
development and work independently to carry out feasibility studies and conceptualization of
projects; preparation of contract documentation; all stages of engineering designs; technical and
materials specification; project planning and delivery; bid services and management of tenders;
project inspection, supervision, valuation, variation management; post project management; cost
and varying of projects; preparation of payment certificates; testing and commissioning of
projects, in line with global best practice. These activities fall into the three or four generalcategories of planning studies, feasibility studies, design studies, and completion/post-
completion services. All through a project, quality control is of highest priority involving value
engineering
In 1988 in the book celebrating FIDIC's 75th year, the following age-old definition of the
consulting engineer was given:
“A FIDIC consulting engineer is one who, possessing technical scientific knowledge and
practical experience, exercises the profession under his own name, independent of any trading,
business or function of public administration, acts with full impartiality on behalf of his client
and does not receive any remuneration except from the same client.”
Consulting Engineers must acquire the knowledge of scientific and technical skills in the
traditional and emerging fields of Engineering Consultancy. They must also be abreast of social
issues, financial and managerial matters. Furthermore, they must have good working knowledge
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of compensation schemes such as the Federal Government Scale of fees and Time based fees.
1.2 Strategic roles of Engineering Consultants
Consulting engineering plays a key role in the development of our national economy by providing independent professional advisory services towards the creation of a viable and
sustainable national infrastructure. Where engineering practice offices are owned or run by
government ministries or departments with different primary objectives, they are usually not
classified as consulting engineering practices. The difference is the independent role of the
consulting engineer, as compared to the dependent roles of departments of companies and
agencies of government. A viable consulting industry represents the nexus where the nations
engineering know-how is articulated and mobilised for the provision of practical solutions for
society’s problems, from whence real life projects are proposed, designed, and their execution
supervised to fruition. An efficient consultancy industry is essential to the creation of sustainable
infrastructure. Practitioners of consultancy are “drivers of development”:
Their professional and independent inputs are crucial to the conception, planning and
implementation of social and economic development project including schools, hospitals,
During the schematic design stage, the consultant determines the feasibility of the project. The
consultant considers and proposes the preliminary concept and estimated cost of the project. As
with all tasks the consultant undertakes to do, in creating this proposal the consultant mustexercise the skill, care and diligence which may reasonably be expected of a person of ordinary
competence, measured by the professional standard applicable at the time the work is being
carried out. The consultant should thus not propose or be involved with a project that he or she
knows, or ought to know, cannot succeed. This is not to say that a consultant unequivocally
guarantees the results of a project, but rather, that the consultant must be conscientious in
performing its role.
In making its proposal regarding the concept and cost of a project, the consultant must review
and consider the characteristics of the chosen site, various design approaches, the types of
construction contracts, and structural, mechanical and electrical design concepts, amongst other
things. Whether the consultant is an architect or an engineer, he or she will have to coordinate
with his or her counterpart at all stages of the project’s development (for example, an architect
consultant will typically coordinate normal engineering services, and vice versa).
The consultant will want to thoroughly review everything that may impact the cost of a project
prior to giving its reasonable estimate of cost, as generally consultants are held to their estimate
unless they can meet the rather stringent test of justifying an increase in costs. Consultants are
bound to possess a reasonable amount of skill in their profession and to use a reasonable amount
of care and diligence in the carrying out of work which they undertake, including the preparation
of plans and specifications. If the cost of the project is not reasonably close to the consultant’s
estimate, it is the responsibility of the consultant to show how the discrepancy arose and why he
or she cannot be blamed for it. Any changes to the cost estimate during the project caused by
forces such as inflation or design changes must be accurately and promptly presented by the
consultant for the consultant to avoid negligence. The Supreme Court has found almost a custom
amongst engineers and architects, that parties relying on estimates should expect a 10% plus or
minus variation.
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It is during this stage that the consultant moves forward with concept approval. It is likely that he
or she will take a more in depth look at some of the items considered during the schematic design
stage, and coordinate and develop the actual design of the project. If not already done during theschematic design stage, the consultant will review the building code, and make a development
permit submission. In some cases, the consultant may be responsible for or involved with
additional tasks like interior design development, promotional presentations, rezoning variance
submissions, geotechnical and/or civil design development, and special studies reports (such as
planning tenant or rental spaces).
It is the consultant’s responsibility to determine which licences and permits must be obtained and
advise the owner regarding the same. The consultant has a duty to ensure the owner is aware of
the options available during this process.
Typically the owner approves the consultant’s design. To the extent the owner has the same or
more experience with any particular aspect of the plan, the consultant may avoid liability
regarding that design component, as the owner may be in a better position to determine whether
the design should proceed with that component as is. Conversely, the owner will only be
responsible for the technical aspects of a design on rare occasions; generally, the owner does not
have the professional background necessary to be held accountable for these parts.
(c) Construction Documents
The consultant is responsible for the specifications, plans and drawings related to a project.
Unless timelines are specifically accounted for in a contract, the consultant is under an implied
obligation to provide the owner with the specifications, plans and drawings within a reasonable
time. The specifications are a detailed and precise written description of the project, while the
plans and drawings are detailed images of the same. It is extremely important that the drawings
provide ample detail because they are used by contractors to both estimate the cost of the work
involved, and to construct the work as designed. If the drawings or specifications do not indicate
unusual features or hazards on a site, for example, the consultant may be held liable for the
increased cost of construction resulting from a contractor’s encounter with these items. This
liability is subject to the terms of the contract between the owner and the contractor. In addition,
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while detailed, it is unusual for drawings and specifications to provide information to the
contractor regarding how the work should be constructed. Unless otherwise stipulated,
contractors are at liberty to choose their own construction methods.
While typically the consultant has been hired before he or she creates the specifications, plansand drawings for a contract, at times, drawings are prepared by a consultant and given to an
owner in the hope that the owner will hire the consultant for the project. In these circumstances,
the consultant cannot expect to be paid for his or her efforts in preparing the drawings. Whether a
consultant is entitled to remuneration in a situation where the owner has asked the consultant to
prepare drawings, but makes them subject to the owner’s approval, is less clear.
1.5 The Role of the Consultant during Bidding and Negotiations
The consultant represents the owner and acts as the owner’s agent in the preparation, issuance
and supervision of tender documents. The consultant also prepares, or co-ordinates and issues the
addenda to the tender documents, if needed. Once bids have been received, the consultant
evaluates them and consults with the owner about them. While the consultant is responsible for a
considerable amount of the tender process, the owner can have some involvement with it. The
consultant owes a duty of care to protect owners, even if there is no contract between them. In
one case, the structural engineer had no contract with the owner; rather, the architect had hiredhim. The engineer became concerned with the soil conditions and warned the architect.
However, he failed to tell the owner and was found liable for failure in his duty of care. It is the
consultant’s responsibility to ensure that the tender documents contain all of the information that
the owner has pertaining to the project. If the tender documents omit or provide inaccurate
information, the consultant must draw this to the contractor’s attention. If new information or
errors come to light after the tender documents have been issued, the consultant must ensure that
all contractors interested in bidding receive an addendum correcting the deficiency. If theconsultant does not comply with this process, the consultant or the owner may be liable to the
contractor for any resulting harm.
In one case, an engineering firm designed and stated the specifications for a road construction
project. A construction firm successfully bid on the project based on the specifications and
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drawings that the engineering firm provided, and was awarded a contract. After beginning
construction, the contractor claimed that the documents the engineering firm prepared were
inaccurate and that they suffered a loss as a result. The Court agreed with the contractor, and
held that because the contractor was relying on the documents the engineering firm provided, the
engineering firm was liable to the contractor. This conclusion was based in part on the fact that
bidding period was too short to allow bidders to conduct a thorough review of the accuracy of
the engineering works; furthermore, duplication of the work would be costly. Thus, bidders must
be able to rely on those who supply information to them.
1.6 The Consulting Industry in Nigeria
The Association of Consulting Engineers Nigeria (ACEN) was founded in 1971, and its
formation involved the participation of about 12 core professionals led by Engr. F.A.O Phillips,
an accomplished mechanical engineer who had to his credit 35 years meritorious service in the
Nigerian Railways, which culminated in a tenure as Chief Executive. Formal registration as an
association was obtained in 1979. ACEN applied for full membership of FIDIC, and was elected
in 1977. From a list of 47 members at the time of application for FIDIC membership, ACEN has
grown to be a national umbrella association of over 200 member firms.
From the start, ACEN has consisted of membership from the elite of senior engineering professionals. Conditions of membership include requirement for 10 years post qualification
experience in design and supervision of important engineering works - for principal partners; and
license to practice from the Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria COREN. A
review of members’ profiles indicates that the Nigerian consulting engineer typically has the best
of training in the secondary and tertiary institutions both within and outside the country. Where
opportunities were given he has given a good account of himself.
Nigerian consulting engineers have designed and supervised many of the country’s high-rise buildings, highways and bridges. They have also participated in some of the more complex
engineering projects such as the large scale dams and reservoirs, irrigation projects, power
generation and transmission, and in the oil and gas sector. ACEN has contributed in the
development and regulation of the practice of consultancy through the setting of industry
standards of competence and expertise, such as in the preparation of conditions of engagement
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and scale of fees for consulting engineering practice in Nigeria, which has been recognised and
endorsed by NSE. It has also been the local industry’s link to international best-practice through
its active membership of FIDIC since 1977. Like FIDIC in the international arena, its operating
principles of independence, competence / qualification and professional ethics have earned for it
a reputation of credibility, and the larger engineering community has come to expect from it and
its members, leadership in setting the standards of professional practice.
1.7 A Case Study – The Afri-Projects Consortium Experience
Nigerian consulting firms have shown that given the appropriate challenges, they are capable of
taking on complex multi-disciplinary assignments, growing to sizes comparable to those of some
international firms, and generally discharging themselves creditably. From 1995 to 1999 the firm
of Afri-Projects Consortium, a Nigerian consulting firm consisting of engineers and allied
professionals, were appointed as Management Consultants to coordinate projects and
programmes funded by the defunct Petroleum (Special) Trust Fund (PTF).
PTF was a body established in 1995 to utilize a part (about 33.65%) of the accruals resulting
from the increase in the price of petroleum products then introduced by the Federal Government
in 1994, in funding mostly the rehabilitation of vital infrastructure across the Nation. During its
tenure, the Fund’s interventions cut across various mandate areas, including the sectors ofTransport – roads, waterways, mass transit Education Health Water supply Agriculture Others,
including Telecommunications and Power. Afri-Projects Consortium’s function as the Fund’s
coordinating consultants was to provide technical assistance in the areas of General Corporate
Development, Sectoral Funds Allocation and Intervention guidelines, Communication and
Information Systems, as well as coordinate the engineering, project management and other
specialist services provided in the Fund’s projects and programmes. During this period, Afri-
Projects Consortium employed the services of about 350 staff, in addition to coordinating the
services of several hundred consulting firms across the country. The PTF’s operations involved
Through the years of Afri-Projects Consortium’s engagement with PTF, projects undertaken
included:
- Rehabilitation of 12,500 km of mostly Federal roads across the country;
- Provision of 126 buses, 5,000 motorcycles, over 57,000 bicycles and 16 ferries for the
national inland waterways – under a mass transit programme;
- Counterpart funding of the Multi-State Roads and Highway Sector Loan; and of several
water supply schemes across the country – all being financed by the World Bank;
-
Rehabilitation works in several hundreds of primary, secondary and vocational / technicalschools, colleges of education and Federal polytechnics and universities;
- Provision of educational materials – textbooks, journals, stationery and other
consumables for educational institutions across the country;
- Rehabilitation works in primary and secondary health care centres; teaching and
specialist hospitals across the country;
- Provision of drugs and consumables to health centres in all LGAs across the country;
- Rehabilitation works at many urban and semi urban water supply schemes across the
country; along with a national rural water supply programme;
- Rehabilitation of over 1,400 tractors and other farm power machinery and provision of
their implements, in all states of the Federation;
- A substantial intervention in the pastoralist livestock sector, including rehabilitation
works in and support to the NVRI, near Jos.
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After an extensive review of the consulting industry and the practicing firms, the greatest
challenge of the Nigerian consulting industry has been the lack of sustainability of the practicing
firms. Membership of ACEN has continued to be dominated by small firms of average size ofless than 10 staff, with a few medium size staff of 30 – 50 staff. Even in higher capital sectors
such as in the power, and the oil and gas sectors, firms with staff strength of over a hundred are
unusual. Other problems listed below are invariably consequences of this fundamental issue.
Lack of Capacity
Most of our Consultancy firms remain weak and incapable of taking on the kind of projects that
will characterise the emerging opportunities: In a presentation by NNPC made to an ACEN
Workshop in 2006, on the Nigerian Contract Policy initiative, ACEN members were encouraged
to partner among themselves to provide larger pooled manpower to undertake consulting services
in: project management, Quality Assurance / Quality Control, EIAs and training. A Firm of 100
staff can hardly accomplish an assignment requiring an annual input 180,000 man-hours in a
year. In a sector such as power generation / transmission or oil and gas, most reasonable sized
projects start from 250,000 man-hours: e.g. the engineering design contract for OK-LNG,
contained an in-country component of about 250,000 man-hours.
Single Specialties
Most of our consulting firms are single specialty firms, meaning that even on a small size
projects such as design and supervision of a small bank branch, there would typically be up to 4
firms providing consultancy services: architectural services, as well as civil / structural, electrical
/ mechanical engineering, quantity surveying and project management.
Innovativeness
In the face of growing innovativeness of the global consultancy industry, where consultants seek
out new ways of helping clients to participate in creating solutions to problems, our firms are
generally not geared up for innovations in both engineering and business approaches.
In the face of growing complicity of projects’ scopes, ownership and financing options, many of
our Firms possess no flexibility in adopting to project approaches. Instead of seeking to play
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Research and development (R&D) is a general term for activities in connection with corporate or
governmental innovation. The activities that are classified as R&D differ from company to
company, but there are two primary models, with an R&D department being either staffed by
engineers and tasked with directly developing new products, or staffed with industrial scientists
and tasked with applied research in scientific or technological fields which may facilitate future
product development. In either case, R&D differs from the vast majority of corporate activities in
that it is not often intended to yield immediate profit, and generally carries greater risk and an
uncertain return on investment.
New product design and development is more often than not a crucial factor in the survival of a
company. In an industry that is changing fast, firms must continually revise their design and
range of products. This is necessary due to continuous technology change and development as
well as other competitors and the changing preference of customers. Without an R&D program, a
firm must rely on strategic alliances, acquisitions, and networks to tap into the innovations of
others. A system driven by marketing is one that puts the customer needs first, and only produces
goods that are known to sell. Market research is carried out, which establishes what is needed. Ifthe development is technology driven then R&D is directed toward developing products that
market research indicates will meet an unmet need.
In general, R&D activities are conducted by specialized units or centers belonging to a company,
or can be out-sourced to a contract research organization, universities, or state agencies. In the
context of commerce, "research and development" normally refers to future-oriented, longer-
term activities in science or technology, using similar techniques to scientific research but
directed toward desired outcomes and with broad forecasts of commercial yield.
Statistics on organizations devoted to "R&D" may express the state of an industry, the degree of
competition or the lure of progress. Some common measures include: budgets, numbers of
patents or on rates of peer-reviewed publications. Bank ratios are one of the best measures,
because they are continuously maintained, public and reflect risk.
In the U.S., a typical ratio of research and development for an industrial company is about 3.5%
of revenues; this measure is called "R&D intensity". A high technology company such as a
computer manufacturer might spend 7%. Although Allergan (a biotech company) tops the
spending table with 43.4% investment, anything over 15% is remarkable and usually gains a
reputation for being a high technology company. Companies in this category include
pharmaceutical companies such as Merck & Co. (14.1%) or Novartis (15.1%), and engineering
companies like Ericsson (24.9%). Such companies are often seen as credit risks because their
spending ratios are so unusual.
Generally such firms prosper only in markets whose customers have extreme needs, such as
medicine, scientific instruments, safety-critical mechanisms (aircraft) or high technology military
armaments. The extreme needs justify the high risk of failure and consequently high grossmargins from 60% to 90% of revenues. That is, gross profits will be as much as 90% of the sales
cost, with manufacturing costing only 10% of the product price, because so many individual
projects yield no exploitable product. Most industrial companies get 40% revenues only.
On a technical level, high tech organizations explore ways to re-purpose and repackage advanced
technologies as a way of amortizing the high overhead. They often reuse advanced
technological innovations to address grand challenges in the areas of sustainable energy sources,
affordable health care, sufficient water supplies, and homeland security.
Engineers take new and existing knowledge and make it useful, typically generating new
knowledge in the process. For example, an understanding of the physics of magnetic resonanceon the atomic scale did not become useful in everyday life until engineers created magnetic
resonance imaging machines and the computers to run them. And researchers could not have
discovered these magnetic properties until engineers had created instrumentation that enabled
them to pursue research on atomic and subatomic scales. Without engineering research,
innovation, especially groundbreaking innovation that creates new industries and transforms old
ones, simply does not happen.
Today more than ever the nation’s prosperity and security depend on its technical strengths. A
country will need robust capabilities in both fundamental and applied engineering research to
address future economic, environmental, health, and security challenges. To capitalize on
opportunities created by scientific discoveries, the nation must have engineers who can invent
new products and services, create new industries and jobs, and generate new wealth.
Applying technological advances to achieve global sustainability will require significant
investment, creativity, and technical competence. Advances in nanotechnologies,
biotechnologies, new materials, and information and communication technologies may lead to
solutions to difficult environmental, health, and security challenges, but their development and
application will require significant investments of money and effort in engineering research and
the engineering workforce.
2.3 Strategies for Improving Engineering Research
Long-Term Research and Industry: Long-term basic engineering research should be
reestablished as a priority for the industry. The federal government should design and implement
tax incentives and other policies to stimulate industry investment in long-term engineering
research (e.g., tax credits to support private-sector investment in university-industry
collaborative research).
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The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in the period from
about 1760 to sometime between 1820 and 1840. This transition included going from hand
production methods to machines, new chemical manufacturing and iron production processes,
improved efficiency of water power, the increasing use of steam power, and the development of
machine tools. It also included the change from wood and other bio-fuels to coal. Textiles were
the dominant industry of the Industrial Revolution in terms of employment, value of output and
capital invested; the textile industry was also the first to use modern production methods.
The Industrial Revolution marks a major turning point in history; almost every aspect of daily
life was influenced in some way. In particular, average income and population began to exhibit
unprecedented sustained growth. Some economists say that the major impact of the Industrial
Revolution was that the standard of living for the general population began to increase
consistently for the first time in history, although others have said that it did not begin to
meaningfully improve until the late 19th and 20th centuries. The steam engine, made of iron and
fueled primarily by coal, propelled the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain and the world.
The Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain, and spread to Western Europe and North
America within a few decades. The precise start and end of the Industrial Revolution is stilldebated among historians, as is the pace of economic and social changes. GDP per capita was
broadly stable before the Industrial Revolution and the emergence of the modern capitalist
economy, while the Industrial Revolution began an era of per-capita economic growth in
capitalist economies. Economic historians are in agreement that the onset of the Industrial
Revolution is the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of
animals, plants and fire. The First Industrial Revolution evolved into the Second Industrial
Revolution in the transition years between 1840 and 1870, when technological and economic
progress continued with the increasing adoption of steam transport (steam-powered railways,
boats and ships), the large-scale manufacture of machine tools and the increasing use of
weaving. Using the spinning wheel it took anywhere from four to eight spinners to supply one
hand loom weaver. The flying shuttle patented in 1733 by John Kay, with a number of
subsequent improvements including an important one in 1747, doubled the output of a weaver,
worsening the imbalance between spinning and weaving. It became widely used around
Lancashire after 1760 when John's son, Robert, invented the drop box.
Lewis Paul patented the roller spinning machine and the flyer-and-bobbin system for drawing
wool to a more even thickness. The technology was developed with the help of John Wyatt of
Birmingham. Paul and Wyatt opened a mill in Birmingham which used their new rolling
machine powered by a donkey. In 1743, a factory opened in Northampton with fifty spindles on
each of five of Paul and Wyatt's machines. This operated until about 1764. A similar mill was
built by Daniel Bourn in Leominster, but this burnt down. Both Lewis Paul and Daniel Bourn patented carding machines in 1748. Based on two sets of rollers that travelled at different speeds,
it was later used in the first cotton spinning mill. Lewis's invention was later developed and
improved by Richard Arkwright in his water frame and Samuel Crompton in his spinning mule.
In 1764 in the village of Stanhill, Lancashire, James Hargreaves invented the spinning jenny,
which he patented in 1770. It was the first practical spinning frame with multiple spindles. The
jenny worked in a similar manner to the spinning wheel, by first clamping down on the fibres,
then by drawing them out, followed by twisting. It was a simple, wooden framed machine that
only cost about £6 for a 40 spindle model in 1792, and was used mainly by home spinners. The
jenny produced a lightly twisted yarn only suitable for weft, not warp.
The spinning frame or water frame was developed by Richard Arkwright who, along with two
partners, patented it in 1769. The design was partly based on a spinning machine built for
Thomas High by clock maker John Kay, who was hired by Arkwright. For each spindle, the
water frame used a series of four pairs of rollers, each operating at a successively higher rotating
speed, to draw out the fibre, which was then twisted by the spindle. The roller spacing was
slightly longer than the fibre length. Too close a spacing caused the fibres to break while too
distant a spacing caused uneven thread. The top rollers were leather covered and loading on the
rollers was applied by a weight. The weights kept the twist from backing up before the rollers.
The bottom rollers were wood and metal, with fluting along the length. The water frame was able
to produce a hard, medium count thread suitable for warp, finally allowing 100% cotton cloth to
be made in Britain. A horse powered the first factory to use the spinning frame. Arkwright and
his partners used water power at a factory in Cromford, Derbyshire in 1771, giving the invention
its name.
Samuel Crompton's Spinning Mule, introduced in 1779, was a combination of the spinning jenny
and the water frame in which the spindles were placed on a carriage, which went through an
operational sequence during which the rollers stopped while the carriage moved away from the
drawing roller to finish drawing out the fibres as the spindles started rotating. Crompton's mule
was able to produce finer thread than hand spinning and at a lower cost. Mule spun thread was of
suitable strength to be used as warp, and finally allowed Britain to produce good quality calico
cloth.
Realising that the expiration of the Arkwright patent would greatly increase the supply ofspun cotton and lead to a shortage of weavers, Edmund Cartwright developed a vertical power
loom which he patented in 1785. In 1776 he patented a two-man operated loom, that was more
conventional. Cartwright built two factories; the first burned down and the second was sabotaged
by his workers. Cartwright's loom design had several flaws, the most serious being thread
breakage. Samuel Horrocks patented a fairly successful loom in 1813. Horock's loom was
improved by Richard Roberts in 1822 and these were produced in large numbers by Roberts, Hill
& Co. The demand for cotton presented an opportunity to planters in the Southern United States,
who thought upland cotton would be a profitable crop if a better way could be found to remove
the seed. Eli Whitney responded to the challenge by inventing the inexpensive cotton gin. With a
cotton gin a man could remove seed from as much upland cotton in one day as would have
previously taken a woman working two months to process at one pound per day.
Other inventors increased the efficiency of the individual steps of spinning (carding, twisting and
spinning, and rolling) so that the supply of yarn increased greatly. This in turn fed a weaving
industry that advanced with improvements to shuttles and the loom or 'frame'. The output of an
individual labourer increased dramatically, with the effect that the new machines were seen as a
threat to employment, and early innovators were attacked and their inventions destroyed. To
capitalise upon these advances, it took a class of entrepreneurs, of whom the best known is
Richard Arkwright. He is credited with a list of inventions, but these were actually developed by
such people as Thomas Highs and John Kay; Arkwright nurtured the inventors, patented the
technique in the 1740s. The raw material for this was blister steel, made by the cementation
process. The supply of cheaper iron and steel aided a number of industries, such as those making
nails, hinges, wire and other hardware items. The development of machine tools allowed better
working of iron, causing it to be increasingly used in the rapidly growing machinery and engine
industries.
3.1.3 Steam power
The development of the stationary steam engine was an important element of the Industrial
Revolution; however, for most of the period of the Industrial Revolution, the majority of
industrial power was supplied by water and wind. In Britain by 1800 an estimated 10,000
horsepower was being supplied by steam. By 1815 steam power had grown to 210,000 hp. Small
power requirements continued to be provided by animal and human muscle until the late 19th
century. The first real attempt at industrial use of steam power was due to Thomas Savery in
1698. He constructed and patented in London a low-lift combined vacuum and pressure water
pump, that generated about one horsepower (hp) and was used in numerous water works and
tried in a few mines (hence its "brand name", The Miner's Friend ). Savery's pump was
economical in small horsepower ranges, but was prone to boiler explosions in larger sizes.Savery pumps continued to be produced until the late 18th century.
The first successful piston steam engine was introduced by Thomas Newcomen before 1712. A
number of Newcomen engines were successfully put to use in Britain for draining hitherto
unworkable deep mines, with the engine on the surface; these were large machines, requiring a
lot of capital to build, and produced about 5 hp (3.7 kW). They were extremely inefficient by
modern standards, but when located where coal was cheap at pit heads, opened up a great
expansion in coal mining by allowing mines to go deeper. Despite their disadvantages,
Newcomen engines were reliable and easy to maintain and continued to be used in the coalfields
until the early decades of the 19th century. By 1729, when Newcomen died, his engines had
spread (first) to Hungary in 1722, Germany, Austria, and Sweden. A total of 110 are known to
have been built by 1733 when the joint patent expired, of which 14 were abroad. In the 1770s,
The Industrial Revolution created a demand for metal parts used in machinery. This led to the
development of several machine tools for cutting metal parts. They have their origins in the tools
developed in the 18th century by makers of clocks and watches and scientific instrument makers
to enable them to batch-produce small mechanisms. Before the advent of machine tools, metal
was worked manually using the basic hand tools of hammers, files, scrapers, saws and chisels.
Consequently, the use of metal was kept to a minimum. Wooden components had the
disadvantage of changing dimensions with temperature and humidity, and the various joints
tended to rack (work loose) over time. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, machines with
metal parts and frames became more common. Hand methods of production were very laborious
and costly and precision was difficult to achieve. Pre-industrial machinery was built by variouscraftsmen - millwrights built water and wind mills, carpenters made wooden framing, and smiths
and turners made metal parts. The first large machine tool was the cylinder boring machine used
for boring the large-diameter cylinders on early steam engines. The planing machine, the milling
machine and the shaping machine were developed in the early decades of the 19th century.
Although the milling machine was invented at this time, it was not developed as a serious
workshop tool until somewhat later in the 19th century.
Henry Maudslay, who trained a school of machine tool makers early in the 19th century, was a
mechanic with superior ability who had been employed at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. He was
hired away by Joseph Bramah for the production of high security metal locks that required
precision craftsmanship. Bramah patented a lathe that had similarities to the slide rest lathe.
Maudslay perfected the slide rest lathe, which could cut machine screws of different thread
pitches by using changeable gears between the spindle and the lead screw. Before its invention
screws could not be cut to any precision using various earlier lathe designs, some of which
copied from a template. Maudslay's lathe was called one of history's most important inventions.
Maudslay left Bramah's employment and set up his own shop. He was engaged to build the
machinery for making ships' pulley blocks for the Royal Navy in the Portsmouth Block Mills.
These machines were all-metal and were the first machines for mass production and making
components with a degree of interchangeability. The lessons Maudslay learned about the need
means of an adit or drift mine driven into the side of a hill. Shaft mining was done in some areas,
but the limiting factor was the problem of removing water. It could be done by hauling buckets
of water up the shaft or to a sough (a tunnel driven into a hill to drain a mine). In either case, the
water had to be discharged into a stream or ditch at a level where it could flow away by gravity.
The introduction of the steam pump by Savery in 1698 and the Newcomen steam engine in 1712
greatly facilitated the removal of water and enabled shafts to be made deeper, enabling more coal
to be extracted. These were developments that had begun before the Industrial Revolution, but
the adoption of John Smeaton's improvements to the Newcomen engine followed by James
Watt's more efficient steam engines from the 1770s reduced the fuel costs of engines, making
mines more profitable.
Coal mining was very dangerous owing to the presence of firedamp in many coal seams. Somedegree of safety was provided by the safety lamp which was invented in 1816 by Sir Humphry
Davy and independently by George Stephenson. However, the lamps proved a false dawn
because they became unsafe very quickly and provided a weak light. Firedamp explosions
continued, often setting off coal dust explosions, so casualties grew during the entire 19th
century. Conditions of work were very poor, with a high casualty rate from rock falls.
3.1.12 Transportation
At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, inland transport was by navigable rivers and roads,
with coastal vessels employed to move heavy goods by sea. Wagon ways were used for
conveying coal to rivers for further shipment, but canals had not yet been widely constructed.
Animals supplied all of the motive power on land, with sails providing the motive power on the
sea. The first horse railways were introduced toward the end of the 18th century, with steam
locomotives being introduced in the early decades of the 19th century.
The Industrial Revolution improved Britain's transport infrastructure with a turnpike road
network, a canal and waterway network, and a railway network. Raw materials and finished
products could be moved more quickly and cheaply than before. Improved transportation also
Wagonways for moving coal in the mining areas had started in the 17th century and were often
associated with canal or river systems for the further movement of coal. These were all horse
drawn or relied on gravity, with a stationary steam engine to haul the wagons back to the top of
the incline. The first applications of the steam locomotive were on wagon or plate ways (as they
were then often called from the cast-iron plates used). Horse-drawn public railways did not begin
until the early years of the 19th century when improvements to pig and wrought iron production
were lowering costs. Reducing friction was one of the major reasons for the success of railroads
compared to wagons. This was demonstrated on an iron plate covered wooden tramway in 1805
at Croydon, U.K. “A good horse on an ordinary turnpike road can draw two thousand pounds, or
one ton. A party of gentlemen was invited to witness the experiment, that the superiority of thenew road might be established by ocular demonstration. Twelve wagons were loaded with
stones, till each wagon weighed three tons, and the wagons were fastened together. A horse was
then attached, which drew the wagons with ease, six miles in two hours, having stopped four
times, in order to show he had the power of starting, as well as drawing his great load.”
Steam locomotives were built after the introduction of high pressure steam engines around 1800.
These engines exhausted used steam to the atmosphere, doing away with the condenser and
cooling water. They were also much lighter weight and smaller in size for a given horsepower
than the stationary condensing engines. A few of these early locomotives were used in mines.
Steam-hauled public railways began with the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825.
On 15 September 1830, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened, the first inter-city
railway in the world and was attended by Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington. The railway
was engineered by Joseph Locke and George Stephenson, linked the rapidly expanding industrial
town of Manchester with the port town of Liverpool. The opening was marred by problems, due
to the primitive nature of the technology being employed, however problems were gradually
ironed out and the railway became highly successful, transporting passengers and freight. The
success of the inter-city railway, particularly in the transport of freight and commodities, led to
Construction of major railways connecting the larger cities and towns began in the 1830s but
only gained momentum at the very end of the first Industrial Revolution. After many of the
workers had completed the railways, they did not return to their rural lifestyles but instead
remained in the cities, providing additional workers for the factories.
3.1.13 Social effects
3.1.13.1 Standards of living
During 1813 – 1913, there was a significant increase in worker wages. Some economists, such as
Robert E. Lucas, Jr., say that the real impact of the Industrial Revolution was that "for the firsttime in history, the living standards of the masses of ordinary people have begun to undergo
sustained growth. Nothing remotely like this economic behavior is mentioned by the classical
economists, even as a theoretical possibility." Others, however, argue that while growth of the
economy's overall productive powers was unprecedented during the Industrial Revolution, living
standards for the majority of the population did not grow meaningfully until the late 19th and
20th centuries, and that in many ways workers' living standards declined under early capitalism:
for instance, studies have shown that real wages in Britain only increased 15% between the
1780s and 1850s, and that life expectancy in Britain did not begin to dramatically increase until
the 1870s.
3.1.13.2 Food and nutrition
Chronic hunger and malnutrition were the norm for the majority of the population of the world
including Britain and France, until the late 19th century. Until about 1750, in large part due to
malnutrition, life expectancy in France was about 35 years, and only slightly higher in Britain.
The US population of the time was adequately fed, much taller on average and had life
expectancy of 45 – 50 years. In Britain and the Netherlands, food supply had been increasing and
prices falling before the Industrial Revolution due to better agricultural practices; however,
population grew too, as noted by Thomas Malthus. Before the Industrial Revolution, advances in
agriculture or technology soon led to an increase in population, which again strained food and