A Look at Manufacturing over the Years, 1790-1982 [Slide Show]
Images from the Archives of Scientific American
By Daniel C. Schlenoff
On supporting science journalism
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The early part of the Industrial Revolution, from about 1760 to about 1840, saw the strength of muscles replaced with the power of machinery. The technological revolution from 1840 to 1950 saw the rise of mass manufacturing. The changes in this later period were based on advances in science--chemistry, physics, electrical and mechanical engineering. Manufacturing was run on the new science of management theory: studies of time, motion and efficiency. And all of these advances were communicated on mass-printed paper cheaply made from wood pulp. Manufacturing in this later stage of the Industrial Revolution was a search for more and larger machines and factories, more and cheaper power sources, capital and manpower. The witness to this evolution was the Scientific American, founded in 1845, and still bringing you the science from the factory age, the atomic age, and the information age. This slideshow is about manufacturing during the golden (but sooty) era of mass production.
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