Revolution in industry, 1810 to 1855 - Reader's Digest

This sixth volume in "The Adventure of Discovery & Inventions" series covers the period 1810 to 1855, which was above all an age of industrialisation. The growth of factories swelled the populations of towns and cities, public buses and passenger trains were introduced, railway lines criss-crossed the land and steamships started to plough the seas. The invention of the telegraph was a breakthrough in long-distance communication, while photography would change the way that everyone saw the world. The discovery of atomic weights laid the foundation of atomic theory, while the understanding of electricity and magnetism progressed in leaps and bounds. On the universal scale, the rotation of the Earth was demonstrated, the speed of light was measured and an eighth planet, Neptune, was added to the solar system.