工业革命始于18世纪中期的英国，到19世纪30年代和40年代已经蔓延到世界许多其他地方，包括美国。在英国，这是一个以农村为主的农业社会向工业化的城市社会转变的时期。由于蒸汽动力的发明以及纺织、炼铁和其他工业中新机器和制造技术的引入，曾经由手工制作的商品开始在工厂里由机器大量生产。

The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in the mid-1700s and by the 1830s and 1840s had spread to many other parts of the world, including the United States. In Britain, it was a period when a largely rural, agrarian* society was transformed into an industrialised, urban one. Goods that had once been crafted by hand started to be produced in mass quantities by machines in factories, thanks to the invention of steam power and the introduction of new machines and manufacturing techniques in textiles, iron-making and other industries.

工业革命的基础可以追溯到18世纪初，当时英国发明家托马斯·纽科门设计了第一台现代蒸汽机。纽科门的发明被称为“大气蒸汽机”，最初是用来驱动从矿井中抽水的机器。在18世纪60年代，苏格兰工程师詹姆斯·瓦特(James Watt)开始改造纽科门的一个模型，并成功地使其效率大大提高。瓦特后来与英国制造商马修·博尔顿合作，发明了一种新的蒸汽机，由活塞的向前和向后冲程驱动，而与之相连的齿轮机构产生旋转运动。这是一项关键的创新，它将使蒸汽动力在英国工业中传播开来。

The foundations of the Industrial Revolution date back to the early 1700s,when the English inventor Thomas Newcomen designed the first modern steam engine. Called the 'atmospheric steam engine', Newcomen's invention was originally used to power machines that pumped water out of mines. In the 1760s, the Scottish engineer James Watt started to adapt one of Newcomen's models,and succeeded in making it far more efficient. Watt later worked with the English manufacturer Matthew Boulton to invent a new steam engine driven by both the forward and backward strokes of the piston, while the gear mechanism it was connected to produced rotary motion. It was a key innovation that would allowsteam power to spread across British industries.

煤炭是一种相对便宜的能源，在工业革命期间对煤炭的需求迅速增长，因为它不仅需要用于生产制成品的工厂，而且需要用于蒸汽动力运输。19世纪初，英国工程师理查德·特里维西克(Richard Trevithick)制造了一辆蒸汽动力机车，到1830年，货物和乘客在曼彻斯特和利物浦的工业中心之间运输。此外，蒸汽船和轮船被广泛用于沿着英国的运河和大西洋运输货物。

The demand for coal, which was a relatively cheap energy source, grew rapidly during the Industrial Revolution, as it was needed to run not only the factories used to produce manufactured goods, but also steam-powered transportation. In the early 1800s, the English engineer Richard Trevithick built a steam-powered locomotive, and by 1830 goods and passengers were being transported between the industrial centres of Manchester and Liverpool. In addition, steam-powered boats and ships were widely used to carry goods along Britain's canals as well as across the Atlantic.

几百年来，英国一直生产羊毛、亚麻和棉花等纺织品，但在工业革命之前，英国纺织业是一个真正的“家庭手工业”，工作是在小作坊里完成的，甚至是由个体纺纱工、织布工和染色工完成的。从18世纪中期开始，像珍妮纺纱机和动力织机这样的创新使织布和纺纱线变得更加容易。有了这些机器，生产布料所需的劳动力相对较少，全国各地新开的机械化纺织厂很快就能满足国内外客户对布料的需求。

Britain had produced textiles like wool, linen and cotton, for hundreds of years, but prior to the Industrial Revolution, the British textile business was a true 'cottage industry', with the work performed in small workshops or even homes by individual spinners, weavers and dyers. Starting in the mid-1700s, innovations like the spinning jenny and the power loom made weaving cloth and spinning yarn and thread much easier. With these machines, relatively little labour was required to produce cloth, and the new, mechanised textile factories that opened around the country were quickly able to meet customer demand for cloth both at home and abroad.

英国的铁工业也经历了重大的变化，因为它采用了新的创新。新技术中最主要的是用焦炭(一种通过加热煤制成的材料)来冶炼铁矿石，而不是传统的木炭。这种方法成本更低，而且生产出的金属质量更高，使英国的钢铁生产得以扩大，以应对拿破仑战争(1803-15)和19世纪30年代铁路扩张带来的需求。

The British iron industry also underwent major change as it adopted new innovations. Chief among the new techniques was the smelting of iron ore with coke (a material made by heating coal) instead of the traditional charcoal. This method was cheaper and produced metals that were of a higher quality, enabling Britain's iron and steel production to expand in response to demand created by the Napoleonic Wars (1803–15) and the expansion of the railways from the 1830s.

工业革命的后期也见证了通信方式的重大进步，因为人们越来越意识到远距离高效通信的必要性。1837年，英国发明家威廉·库克和查尔斯·惠斯顿为第一个商业电报系统申请了专利。在19世纪30年代和40年代，塞缪尔·莫尔斯和其他发明家在美国研究了他们自己的版本。库克和惠斯通的系统很快被用于英国的铁路信号。随着新机车速度的提高，必须有一种快速有效的避免碰撞的方法。

The latter part of the Industrial Revolution also saw key advances in communication methods, as people increasingly saw the need to communicate efficiently over long distances. In 1837, British inventors William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone patented the first commercial telegraphy system. In the 1830s and 1840s, Samuel Morse and other inventors worked on their own versions in the United States. Cooke and Wheatstone's system was soon used for railway signalling in the UK. As the speed of the new locomotives increased, it was essential to have a fast and effective means of avoiding collisions.

工业革命对人们生活的影响是巨大的。尽管在工业革命之前，许多英国人就已经开始从农村迁往城市，但随着工业化的发展，这一趋势急剧加快，因为大型工厂的兴起在短短几十年内就把小城镇变成了大城市。这种快速的城市化带来了巨大的挑战，因为过度拥挤的城市受到污染和卫生设施不足的困扰。

The impact of the Industrial Revolution on people's lives was immense. Although many people in Britain had begun moving to the cities from rural areas before the Industrial Revolution, this accelerated dramatically with industrialisation, as the rise of large factories turned smaller towns into major cities in just a few decades. This rapid urbanisation brought significant challenges, as overcrowded cities suffered from pollution and inadequate sanitation.

尽管工业化提高了国家的整体经济产出，提高了中产阶级和上层阶级的生活水平，但许多穷人仍在苦苦挣扎。工厂工人不得不在危险的条件下长时间工作，工资极低。这些条件加上快速变化的步伐助长了对工业化的反对。一群被称为“勒德分子”的英国工人是英国的织布工人和纺织工人，他们反对越来越多地使用机械织机和编织框架。许多人花了数年时间学习手艺，他们担心不熟练的机器操作员会夺走他们的生计。一些绝望的纺织工人开始闯入工厂，砸毁纺织机器。他们称自己为勒德分子，以内德·勒德的名字命名。内德·勒德是一个年轻的学徒，据说在1779年弄坏了一台纺织机。

Although industrialisation increased the country's economic output overall and improved the standard of living for the middle and upper classes, many poor people continued to struggle. Factory workers had to work long hours in dangerous conditions for extremely low wages. These conditions along with the rapid pace of change fuelled opposition to industrialisation. A group of British workers who became known as 'Luddites' were British weavers and textile workers who objected to the increased use of mechanised looms and knitting frames. Many had spent years learning their craft, and they feared that unskilled machine operators were robbing them of their livelihood. A few desperate weavers began breaking into factories and smashing textile machines. They called themselves Luddites after Ned Ludd, a young apprentice who was rumoured to have wrecked a textile machine in 1779.

1811年在诺丁汉市发生了第一起破坏机器的重大事件，这种做法很快就传遍了全国。破坏机器的勒德分子袭击并焚烧工厂，在某些情况下，他们甚至与公司的警卫和士兵交火。工人们希望雇主停止安装新机器，但英国政府对起义的回应是，破坏机器的人将被处以死刑。骚乱最终在1812年4月达到顶峰，当时一些卢德分子在哈德斯菲尔德附近的一家工厂遭到袭击时被枪杀。在接下来的日子里，其他勒德分子被逮捕，数十人被绞死或被送往澳大利亚。到1813年，勒德分子的抵抗几乎消失了。

The first major instances of machine breaking took place in 1811 in the city of Nottingham, and the practice soon spread across the country. Machine-breaking Luddites attacked and burned factories, and in some cases they even exchanged gunfire with company guards and soldiers. The workers wanted employers to stop installing new machinery, but the British government responded to the uprisings by making machine-breaking punishable by death. The unrest finally reached its peak in April 1812, when a few Luddites were shot during an attack on a mill near Huddersfield. In the days that followed, other Luddites were arrested, and dozens were hanged or transported to Australia. By 1813, the Luddite resistance had all but vanished.

* agrarian的:与土地有关的，尤指用于农业的土地

* agrarian: relating to the land, especially the use of land for farming