topic 3

question: did the Industrial revolution affect the way people lived and worked in the 19th century for the better or worse?


Industrial revolution is the invention of new machines and the discovery of new sources of power to drive these machines brought about changes that led to industrial revolution.

In my opinion, i think that it had helped our society for the better and many things such as communication had improved.

Firstly, many machines were invented for the welfare of the people at that time. for example, making cloth by hand was a slow process in Britain in the 18th century and workers could only produce enough cloth for themselves. However, it did not end there, new machines like the spinning machine were inventedand they greatly changed the way goods were produced and even shortened the production time.

Also, a steam machine was invented. it worked when coal was burnt in the steam-engine to turn water into steam. the pressure from the steam provided the energy for machines to produce goods in great quantities. Hence, the use of machines also spread to the rest of Europe.

As machines increased, they were located in factories and thus, many workers tend to work there. instead of working at home. Europeans also started to produce their goods in great quantities and at a faster rate.

From then on, many european and american made Singapore their port-of-call and that meant that more people would come to Singapore and the possibility of trade prospering would certaintly increase. As Singapore was situated at the right position of being a port-of-call, the collection of goods from the East and the distribution of manufactured goods from the West gained importance.

Lastly, communication had improved rapidly as a result of the arrival of the steamships. Letters , which usually took about four to five months to arrive from Europe in the days of the sailing ships reduced to around five weeks. With the reduced time, our country came into closer contact with Britain and the rest of the world.

In conclusion, i think that industrial revolution affected our society greatly.