Includes bibliographical references and index.

Series foreword -- Preface -- Chronology -- Introduction -- 1: Factory system -- 2: Living machine and the Victorian computer -- 3: Great Exhibition of 1851: the architecture of the machine and the rise of commodity culture -- 4: Shrinking the globe, expanding the Empire -- 5: Social effects of industrialization: protest and reform -- 6: Late Victorian invention -- Conclusion: Gain and loss -- Notes -- Glossary -- Bibliography -- Index.

From the Publisher: Victorian Technology: Invention, Innovation, and the Rise of the Machine captures the extraordinary surge of energy and invention that catapulted 19th-century England into the position of the world's first industrialized nation. It was an astonishing transformation, one that shaped-and was shaped by-the values of the Victorian era, and that laid the groundwork for the consumer-based society in which we currently live. Filled with vivid details and fascinating insights into the impact of the Industrial Revolution on peoples' lives, Victorian Technology locates the forerunners of the defining technologies of the our time in 19th-century England: the computer, the Internet, mass transit, and mass communication. Readers will encounter the innovative thinkers and entrepreneurs behind history-making breakthroughs in communications (the transatlantic cable, wireless communication), mass production (the integrated factory), transportation (railroads, gliders, automobiles), and more.

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