Industrial Revolution draft

To date, there were four industrial revolutions which took place throughout history. The first one spanned from the 1760s to some time between 1820 to 1840, starting in Great Britain. Manufacturing shifted from purely handmade items to those made using machinery, and advancements in chemistry, materials science and metallurgy led to increasing use of steam and water power, precision tools, an increase in population growth, and thus various issues such as pollution, child labor and other unscrupulous practices, and it made a major turning point in history, beginning a recurring trend of consumerism and placed the United Kingdom's status a world power.

Standardization and rapid industrialization marked the second industrial revolution in the late 19th to early 20th centuries, where precision machinery and interchangeable parts played a key role in establishing systems such as telegraphs, railroads, automobiles, bicycles and other forms transportation, utilities such as gas, water and sewage, steam engines and electrification, telephones and the assembly line. The second revolution was followed by further developments such as the Machine Age, the Atomic Age where radioactive materials were put to use and computers were in their infancy, and the transistor, the Jet Age and the Space Age, which culminated with mankind's voyage to outer space.

The Digital Revolution marked a shift from mechanical and analogue technology to digital electronics, information storage and retrieval, sparked by the invention and gradual adoption of transistors which then led to the adoption of microprocessors and communication technology as well as the Internet. As with the previous eras it also led to a change in practically all aspects of day-to-day living, from the way we eat to how we conduct business, though it too has its fair share of concerns from privacy, copyright infringement and preservation of cultural, literary and technological heritage.

The fourth Industrial Revolution, also known through its subset "Industry 4.0", gave emphasis to burgeoning technologies such as cloud computing and a cybernetted society, where major aspects of society are interconnected, and use of robotics, autonomous vehicles, the internet of things, 5G connectivity and social media are brought to greater prominence.