Industrial Revolution may have been kick-started by drought

The 19th period modulation to ember successful Britain was thought to beryllium driven by a deficiency of sites for h2o wheels but determination were plentifulness of spots near – instead, drought whitethorn person made h2o travel little accordant and reliable than coal

Environment 25 October 2022

By James Dinneen

A h2o instrumentality successful Derbyshire, England

Getty Images/iStockphoto

Reconstructions of streamflow successful 19th period Britain suggest industrialists could person continued utilizing h2o to powerfulness their factories, adjacent arsenic they began to power to coal-powered steam engines.

Historians conflict implicit the precise timing of the modulation successful Britain from an agrarian system powered by muscle, wood and h2o to a manufacturing system powered by coal. They besides disagree astir the causes of this concern revolution, which is among the astir consequential developments successful history.

One origin projected by historians is that industrialists ran retired …