The Railway Age: 1855 to 1880

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This seventh volume in "The Adventure of Discovery & Inventions" series covers the period 1855 to 1880, the age of the railway. By the mid 19th century the seething dynamism of the Industrial Revolution was settling into a period of economic and political consolidation. The Bessemer process accelerated the steel-making industry and, supplied with strong steel rails, Britain took its railway-building expertise around the world. The French masterminded construction of the Suez Canal, which cut weeks from sailing times to the East. The USA was fast developing into an industrial economy to rival those of Europe. This was the era in which the global market was born. The rural exodus continued as conurbations grew around mining, iron and steel, and also around the newborn oil industry. Inventions that would transform daily life ranged from the internal combustion engine to artificial dyes, and from pasteurisation to the telephone.