What brought the workers together into a factory was the invention of machines for spinning that could spin more than one thread at a time and then the application of water power first to spinning and then to weaving .
The Newcomen Engine filled a cylinder with steam and then condensed it to draw the piston down. It was 1/2% efficient, but widely used to pump water out of coal mines. James Watt first created a Watt engine in 1774 had had a separate condenser, making the engine much more efficient In 1760, James Watt had perfected a steam engine which could pump water three times as quickly as previous engines. He added automatic control mechanism and double acting engine made for much smoother power. Steam powered engines could now be applied to spinning and .
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weaving cotton. By 1787 Britain was importing more than 22 million pounds of cotton thus increasing the market for coal. Steam powered cotton mills required coal to operate and spin cotton. As the market and demand for cotton increased so did the need for coal-it was necessary to produce cotton. .
By 1720 most iron in England was imported due to a shortage of charcoal for smelting. In 1709 Abraham Darby invented a way of smelting iron using coke (processed coal) instead of charcoal. The iron industry took off after 1760 since iron ore and coal were both very plentiful in England. In 1779 England constructed their first Iron Bridge. Iron was not a very profitable margin in Britain until 1780 when Henry Cort developed a system called "puddling". This method burned away impurities in pig iron and produced an iron of higher quality. By 1852, Britain was producing almost three million tons of iron, more than the rest if the world combined. .
Transportation technology was another key factor in the British industrial revolution. From 1750 to1815 Britain built more roads and improved the already existing ones which helped reduced transportation cost to about 30%.