In 1738, John Wyatt, a ship's carpenter who also invented the harpoon shot from a gun, patented a spinning machine whereby carded wool or cotton was joined together to make a long and narrow mass. One end of this mass was drawn in between a pair of rotating rollers, of which one surface was smooth and the other rough, indented, or covered with leather, cloth, shagg, hair, brushes, or points of metal. From here, the mass went between another set of rollers, which were moving faster than the first pair. This stretched the mass and drew it into any degree of fineness of thread by adjusting the speed of the second pair of rollers. Then the thread went by a flier, which twisted it. After this the thread was wound off onto spindles or bobbins, whose rotation was regulated by the faster pair of rollers. Or the mass could be drawn by rotating spindles directly from one pair of rollers. This machine was worked by two donkeys and was tended by ten female workers. Because of bankruptcy in 1742, the invention was sold to Edward Cave, the editor of "Gentleman's Magazine". He set up a workshop with five machines, each fitted with fifty spindles and worked by water wheels. Carding was done by cylindrical carding machines invented by Lewis Paul.

In 1764, the plant was bought by carpenter and weaver James Hargreaves. He was watching his wife spin when the spinning wheel tipped over onto its side. It continued to revolve, while the thread, held between two fingers, seemed to be spinning itself, even though the spindle was in a vertical instead of a horizontal position. It occurred to him that a large number of vertical spindles arranged side by side could be turned by the same wheel and that, therefore, many threads could be spun at once. He named his machine the "the Jenny" after his wife. This "spinning Jenny" could spin a hundred threads at a time. He patented it about 1770. The machine consisted of a rectangular frame on four legs. At one end was a row of vertical spindles. Across the frame were two parallel wooden rails, lying close together, which were mounted on a sort of carriage and slid backwards and forwards as desired. The cotton, which had been previously carded, stretched, and twisted passed between the two rails and then was wound on spindles. With one hand the spinner worked the carriage backwards and forwards, and with the other he turned the handle which worked the spindles. In this way, the thread was drawn and twisted at the same time. The jenny did the work of about 30 spinning wheels. No longer did it take ten spinners to keep one weaver busy. But manufacturers refused to pay him royalties for his invention. He was offered 3,000 pounds for his rights in the jenny, but refused it. The courts held that the model of his jenny had been used in industry before it was patented and any rights he may have had were declared to have lapsed. Nevertheless, he made over 4,000 pounds. The spinning jenny was used in many homes.

Richard Arkwright came from a poor family and was taught to read by an uncle. He became a barber and made wigs. He taught himself crafts necessary to invent and patent in 1769 a spinning frame worked by a water wheel, which he called a" water frame". He strengthened cotton thread by adding rollers to the spinning process which were able to strengthen the cotton thread and make it of even thickness so that it could be used instead of costly linen as the warp. With capital from two rich hosiers, he set up a workshop next to a swift and powerful river running down a narrow gorge. Then he turned his attention to weaving this thread with multiple spinning wheels in the first practical cotton mill factory. In 1773, he set up weaving workshops making pure cotton calicoes which were as good as Indian calicoes. This was the first all-cotton cloth made in England. He had confronted and solved the problem of a statute of 1721 which proscribed wearing or using printed, painted, stained or dyed calicoes e.g. in apparel, bed, chair, cushion, window curtain, and furniture, except those dyed all in blue, or else forfeit 20 pounds by a seller, 5 pounds by a wearer, and 20 pounds by other users. The purpose was to provide wool-working jobs to the poor, whose numbers had been increasing excessively because of lack of work. Arkwright argued that the statute should not include printed or painted cloth made in Great Britain in its ancient tradition of fustians with an all linen warp for strength and a cotton weft for fineness. This statute was so "clarified" in 1735. When wool-weavers had expressed their opposition to imported printed cottons and calicoes by tearing them off people, a statute of 1720 provided that any one who willfully and maliciously assaulted a person in the public streets or highways with an intent to tear, spoil, cut, burn, or deface the garments or clothes of such person and carried this out was guilty of felony punishable by transportation for seven years. The prohibition against the manufacture and wearing and using of pure cotton fabrics came to an end in 1774 on arguments of Arkwright made to Parliament that his pure cottons would bleach, print, wash and wear better than fustians.

In 1775, Arkwright added machines to do work prefatory to spinning. Raw cotton was first fed by a sloping hose to a feeder that was perpetually revolving. From here it went a carding machine of three rollers of different diameters covered with bent metal teeth. The first, with teeth bent in the direction of its revolution, caught up the cotton fibers. The second, revolving in the same direction but much faster, carded the fibers into the requisite fineness by contact with the third, whose teeth and motion were in the opposite direction. Next, a crank and comb detached the carded cotton so that it came off as a continuous ribbon. Then the ribbon went into a revolving cone, which twisted it on itself. Eventually Arkwright became rich from his creation of the modern factory, which was widely copied. He established discipline in his mills and he made his presence felt everywhere there, watching his men and obtaining from them the steadiest and most careful work. He provided housing and services to attract workers.

After cotton, the inventions of the spinning jenny and the water- powered frame were applied to wool. Silk and cotton manufacture led the way in using new machinery because they were recently imported industries so not bound down by tradition and legal restraint. Yarn production so improved that weavers became very prosperous. Cards with metal teeth challenged the use of wood and horn cards with thistles on them in carding wool. Merchants who traveled all over the world and saw new selling opportunities, and therefore kept encouraging the manufacturers to increase their production and improve their methods. Factory owners united to present suggestions to Parliament.

Manufacturing broke loose from traditional confines in several ways. To avoid the monopolistic confines of chartered towns, many entrepreneurs set up new industries in Birmingham or Manchester, which grew enormously. Manchester had no municipal corporation and was still under the jurisdiction of a manor court. It sent no representative to the House of Commons. All over the country the Justices of the Peace had largely ceased regulating wages, especially in the newer industries such as cotton, where apprenticeship was optional. Apprenticeship lapsed in many industries, excepting the older crafts. Several legal decisions had declared seven years practice of a trade as good as an apprenticeship.

Apprentices still lived in their masters' houses and were still treated as family members. The regulations of the Cutlers' Company remained in force as its masters used their great manual skill to make cutlery in their own homes with the help of their children and apprentices. Trades in some towns which had guild regulations that had the force of law hung on to their customs with difficulty.

Although there were few large factories in the country under effective management of a capitalist, trade unionism was beginning as two distinct classes of men were being formed in factories. The factory owner was so high above his workmen that he found himself on the same level as other capitalists, the banker, who gave him credit, and the merchant, who gave him customers. Journeymen in factories could no longer aspire to become masters of their trade and no longer socialized with their employers. Hard and fast rules replaced the freedom of the small workshops. Each worker had his allotted place and his strictly defined and invariable duty. Everyone had to work, steadily and without stopping, under the vigilant eye of a foreman who secured obedience by means of fines, physical means, or dismissals. Work started, meals were eaten, and work stopped at fixed hours, signaled by the ringing of a bell. Factory hours were typically fourteen hours or more. Organized resistance, as usual, began not with those most ill-treated, but with those men who had some bargaining power through their skills.

Wool-combers, who worked next to a charcoal stove where they heated the teeth of the comb, were the most skilled of the cloth industry were hard to replace. Since they were nomadic, they quickly organized nation-wide. They agreed that if any employer hired a comber not in their organization, none of them would work for him. They also would beat up and destroy the comb-pot of the outsider. In 1720 and 1749, the Tiverton wool-combers objected to the import of combed wool from Ireland by burning Irish wool in clothiers' stores and attacking several houses. They had strike funds and went on strike in 1749. Their bloody brawls caused the military to intervene. Then many of them left town in a body, harming the local industry. The earnings of wool-combers was high, reaching from 10s. to 12s. a week in 1770, the highest rate of a weaver.

In 1716, the Colchester weavers accused their employers of taking on too many apprentices. When the weavers organized and sought to regulate the weaving trade, a statute was passed in 1725 making their combinations void. Strike offenses such as housebreaking and destruction of goods or personal threats had penalties of transportation for seven years. Still in 1728, the Gloucester weavers protested against men being employed who had not served their apprenticeship.

When the journeymen tailors in and around London organized a union, a statute made their agreements entering into combinations to advance their wages to unreasonable prices and to lessen their usual hours of work, illegal and void, because this had encouraged idleness and increased the number of poor. Tailors' wages were not to exceed 2s. per day and their hours of work were to be 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. for the next three months, and 1s.8d. per day for the rest of the year. A master tailor paying more would forfeit 5 pounds. A journeyman receiving more was sent to the House of Correction for 2 months. Justices of the Peace could still alter these wages and hours depending on local scarcity or plenty. Despite this statute, the journeymen tailors complained to Parliament of their low wages and lack of work due to their masters calling them to work only about half the year. There was much seasonal fluctuation in their trade as there was in all trades. The slack period for the tailors was the winter, when the people of fashion retired to their country estates. After their complaint, their wages then rose from 1s.10d. per day in 1720, to 1s.8d.- 2s. in 1721, to 2s.- 2s.6d. in 1751, to 2s.2d.- 2s.6d. in 1763, to up to 2s.7 1/2 d. in 1767, and to 3s. in 1775. Foremen were excluded from wage control. When they complained of their long hours, which were two hours longer than the 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. of most handicraft trades, their hours were reduced in 1767 by one hour to 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. and their pay was set at 6d. per hour for overtime work at night during periods of general mourning, e.g. mourning for a deceased courtier. Their work hours were lowered another hour to 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. in 1768.

The stocking frame-knitters guild, which had been chartered in 1663, went on strike to protest the use of workhouse children as an abuse of apprenticeship which lowered their wages. They broke many of their frames, which belonged to their employers, to limit their number.

In 1749, combinations to advance wages, decrease hours of work, or regulate prices were declared void for journeymen dyers, journeyman hot pressers, all wool workers, brickmakers and tilemakers, journeymen servants, workmen, laborers, felt and hat makers, and silk, linen, cotton, iron, leather, and fur workers in and around London. The penalty was prison or hard labor at a House of Correction for three months without bail. In 1756, Justices of the Peace were to determine the rates of wages of wool workers according to numbers of yards. But this was repealed the next year to prevent combinations of workers. Wage agreements between clothiers and weavers were declared binding. Clothiers not paying wages within two days of delivery of work forfeited 40s.

In 1763 the silk weavers in east London drew up a scale of wages, and upon its being rejected, 2000 of them broke their tools, destroyed the materials, and left their workshops. A battalion of guards had to take possession of the area. In 1765, the silk weavers marched on Westminster to stop the import of French silks. In 1768, the weavers rebelled against a 4d. per yard reduction in their wages, filling the streets in riotous crowds and pillaging houses. After the garrison of the Tower came, the workmen resisted with cudgels and cutlasses, resulting in deaths and woundings. The throwsters [those who pulled the silk fibers from the cocoons of the silk worms and twisted them together to make a thread] and the handkerchief weavers also became discontent. A battle between soldiers and silk weavers at their meeting place resulted in several men on both sides being killed. In 1773, wages and prices for the work of journeymen silk weavers in and around London were designated to be regulated by the Mayor and Justices of the Peace. Foremen were excluded. No silk weaver could have more than two apprentices or else forfeit 20 pounds. Journeymen weavers entering into combinations forfeited 40s. This statute satisfied the weavers, but they formed a union to ensure that it was followed.

In 1750, 1761, and 1765, there were strikes which stopped the work of the coal industry and harbor at Newcastle for weeks. In 1763, the keelmen formed a combination to force their employers to use the official measure fixed by statute for the measurement of loads of coals.

The book "Consideration upon the East-India Trade" dating from 1701 advocated free foreign trade. It argued that the import of goods from India not only benefited the consumer but also the nation, because it was a waste of labor to use it in producing goods which could be bought cheap abroad. This labor could be better put to use at easily learned plain work in the new industries. Also the low cost of imported goods would motivate the invention of machines in the nation which would be even more efficient in manufacturing these goods. But English manufacturers were still suspicious of free trade.

Making beer and distilling gin from barley were widespread. The pastimes of gambling and drinking were popular with all classes. In the trades, this was promoted by the uncertainties of life and work and a general sense of instability. Many London tradesmen started their day with a breakfast of beer, bread, and cheese, the traditional breakfast of countrymen. Gambling and dissipation reduced some London men with good businesses to destitution, the work house, or street begging. Drunken gentlemen played pranks such as imitating a woman in distress or throwing a person in a horse trough. Some innkeepers had "straw houses" where customers who were so drunk they were unable to walk home could sleep in fresh straw. A person could get drunk for a few pence. Gambling with cards was a popular pastime after dinner. Cricket matches were played by all classes instead of just by humbler people; there were county cricket matches. Gentlemen often took their coachmen with them to public events such as cricket matches. Tennis was a sport of the wealthy classes. Billiards, chess, and games with cards or dice were played, especially in alehouses. There was horse racing on any open ground to which people brought their horses to race. Jockeys tried to unseat each other. Hunting of rabbits and then foxes replaced deer hunting. Bird and duck hunting was usually with flint lock guns instead of hawks, as the hedges provided cover from hawks. There was fishing with line, hook, and bait. Watching the hanging of felons, about 35 a year in London, was popular, as was going to Bedlam to watch for a fee the insane being flogged. People went to the Tower to try to get a glance at a famous prisoner looking through a window or taking a walk along the battlements. Besides the grand pleasure gardens for gentry, there were lesser pleasure gardens in London for working families, which offered fresh air, tea, beer, swimming, fishing, courting, bowling, and cheap entertainment. Running, vaulting, and leaping were still popular in the countryside. Fairs had amusements such as fire swallowers, ventriloquists, puppet shows, acrobats, jugglers, animal performances, pantomimes, boxing, dwarfs, and albinos, but less trading. In 1769 was the first circus. Circuses included feats of horsemanship and clowns. There was also eating and drinking competitions, foot races, football, archery, some wrestling, and some bowling on greens or alleys. In winter there was ice skating with blades and sliding. The right of public access to St. James Park became entrenched by the 1700s. There was sailing, rowing, swimming, and hopscotch. George III made sea-bathing popular and it was supposed to be good for one's health. There was steeple chasing as of 1752. Horse-racing was given rules. On Sunday, there was no singing, music playing, dancing, or games, but the Bible was read aloud, prayers were said, and hymns were sung. Sabbath-breakers were fined by magistrates. Men often spent Sunday in a tavern.

In general, commodity prices were stable. But when harvests were poor, such as in 1709 when there was famine, and between 1765 and 1775, bread prices rose. The price of wheat in London, which since 1710 had been between 25s. and 45s., rose to 66s. in 1773. Then the poor engaged in food riots. These riots were often accompanied by mob violence, burning, and looting of grain mills, shops, and markets. The English economy was so dependent on foreign trade, which had trebled since the 1710s, that the slightest disturbance in the maritime trade threatened the English with starvation. In many localities the men in need of parochial relief were sent around from one farm to another for employment, part of their wages being paid from the poor rates. The poor often went from parish to parish seeking poor relief. Settled people tended to fear wandering people. Parishes sought to keep down their poor rates by devices such as removing mothers in labor lest the infant be born in the parish. So a statute was passed that a child born to a wandering woman could not have the place of birth as his settlement, but takes the same settlement as his mother. Another device to prevent others from establishing settlement in a parish was for its farmers to hire laborers for only fifty-one weeks. Also, some apprentices were bound by means other than indenture to avoid settlement. Laborers who came to work in industries were refused settlement and sent back to their original parishes whenever they seemed likely to become dependent on the rates. Statutes then provided that a parish must give settlement to apprentices bound for forty days there, not only by indenture, but by deed, writings, or contracts not indented. In 1722, parishes were authorized to purchase houses in which to lodge or employ the poor and to contract with any person for the lodging, keeping, maintaining, and employing of the poor. These persons could take the benefit of the work, labor, and service of these poor, which was then used for the relief of other poor. The poor refusing such lodging could not then get relief. Many of the poor starved to death. The propertied classes turned a blind eye to the predicament of the poor, opining that they were idle or could save more and did not need higher earnings.

Charitable organizations gave to the poor and set up all day Sunday schools to set wayward children on a moral path. The Sunday schools could accommodate children who worked during the week. Punishment of children by parents or others could be by whipping or even sitting in stocks. About half of the people were dependent on poor relief or charities.

Desertion by a man of his family was a common offense. Parishes providing upkeep for the family sent men to find the errant husbands. The parish would ask unmarried mothers who was the father of their child and then force him to marry her or pay for the upkeep of the child. He often made a bargain with the parish to release him of his obligation for a sum of money paid to the parish. But many young parish children died of neglect, and later, parishes were required to list children under four to aid in accounting for them. Divorces were still few and expensive, but increasing in number; there were more 60 in this period. It was easier for a man to get a divorce for one act of adultery by his wife, than for a wife to get one for habitual unfaithfulness.

Vagrants and other offenders could be committed to Houses of Correction as well as to county gaols, because of the expense of the latter.

Crime was exacerbated by orgies of liquor drinking by the common people, especially between 1730 and 1750, the sale of which did not have to be licensed as did ale. In 1736, it was required that retailers of brandy, rum, and other distilled spirituous liquors be licensed and to pay 50 pounds a year for their license, because excessive use had been detrimental to health, rendering persons unfit for useful labor and business, debauching their morals, and inciting them to vices. Only persons keeping public victualing houses, inns, coffee houses, alehouses or brandy shops who exercised no other trade were allowed to obtain a license. This excluded employers who had sold liquors to their journeymen, workmen, servants, and laborers at exorbitant prices. Street vendors who sold liquors had to forfeit 10 pounds. A duty of 20s. per gallon was imposed on the retailers. There were riots in London against this statute and its new duties. There had been a tremendous growth in liquor drinking, which did not stop but went underground after this statute. In 1753, a penalty of 10 pounds or hard labor for two months was made for selling spirituous liquors without a license. Also licenses were restricted to people who were certified by four reputable and substantial householders to be of good fame and sober life and conversation. Sellers had to maintain good order in their premises or else forfeit 10 pounds. About 1754 only innkeepers, victualers, and vendors paying rent of at least 200 shillings could sell gin at retail. The punishment for the second offense was whipping and imprisonment. That for the third offense was transportation out of the country. In 1751, additional duties were placed on spirituous liquors to discourage immoderate drinking going on by people of the meanest and lowest sort to the detriment of the health and morals of the common people. In 1761, these duties were again raised. In 1768, officers were authorized to seize all horses, cattle, and carriages used to transport foreign spirituous liquors for which duties had been evaded. In 1773, the penalty for selling without a license was raised to 50 pounds, which could not be mitigated below 5 pounds. Half the forfeiture was to go to the suer.

The informer system for enforcing laws had its drawbacks. Informers were not trained and were sometimes retaliated against for informing. Sometimes this meant being tortured to death. Sometimes there were schemes in which a leader of thieves, would take a profit in the stolen goods by posing as a good citizen who tracked down and returned them to the owners for a fee. Also he might inform on his companions to get the reward for informing or to punish a troublesome one. Sometimes the owner of goods was involved in a fake robbery. An effort in 1749 to turn the whole haphazard system of informers, into a specialized organization for the detection and apprehension of criminals had caused a mob to form and make threats. Englishmen associated a police force with French tyranny. Nevertheless, about 1750, Sir John Fielding, a Bow Street magistrate, and his half-brother picked men to police the street under the direct control of the Bow Street magistrates. This first police district made an impact on the increasing violence of the times. In 1753, a proposal before Parliament to have a national census was also defeated by public fear of liberty being curtailed by having to make account of the number and circumstances of one's family and giving out information that could be used by enemies both in the realm and abroad.

In 1714, the mercury thermometer was invented by Gabriel Fahrenheit of Germany; this was much more accurate than the alcohol and water thermometers. Sweden's Anders Celcius invented the Celsius scale. The hydrometer, which measures air humidity, was also invented. These made possible weather forecasting. In 1718, the French chemist Etienne Geoffroy published a table of affinities among chemical substances, a precursor to the periodic table of elements. Carolus Linneaus, a Swedish naturalist and botanist, established the scientific method of naming plants and animals by genus and species. When he showed that there was a sexual system in plants, church authorities were so shocked that they suppressed this knowledge as they did other scientific knowledge. Rev. Stephen Hales made ventilators for ships, prisons, and granaries, using the method of injecting air with bellows. This saved many lives in the prisons. In 1727, he discovered that water that plants lost by evaporation was restored by the roots up the stems. He found that gas could be obtained from plants by dry distillation and invented a way to collect gases by heating certain substances.

Hans Sloane, the son of a receiver-general of taxes, who became a physician, had collected hundreds of species of plants in Jamacia while physician to its governor. He became physician to George II and was a benefactor to many hospitals and devised a botanic garden in London for the Society of Apothecaries.

Italian Luigi Marsigli started the science of oceanography with a treatise discussing topography, circulation, ocean plants and animals, along with many measurements. Frenchman Jean-Etienne Guettard prepared the first true geological maps, showing rocks and minerals. He identified heat as the causative factor of change in the earth's landforms. John Mitchell studied earthquakes.

In 1735, George Hadley, a London lawyer and philosopher, determined that the cause of the prevailing westerly winds was the rotation of the earth to the east. Benjamin Franklin in 1743 observed that a particularly violent storm occurred in Boston a day after a particularly violent occurred in Philadelphia, and realized that they were the same storm, even though the storm's surface winds were from the northeast. He determined that Atlantic coastal storms traveled from the southwest to the northeast. In 1770, he prepared the first scientific chart of the Gulf Stream.

Daniel Bernoulli, a Swiss university lecturer in physics, mechanics, medicine, and anatomy, proved his theorem that any degree of statistical accuracy can be obtained by sufficiently increasing the observations, thereby also representing the first application of calculus to probability theory. In 1738, he showed that as the velocity of horizontal fluid flow increases, its pressure decreases. This followed from his theorem that the total mechanical energy of a flowing liquid, comprising the energy associated with fluid pressure, the gravitational potential energy of elevation, and kinetic energy of fluid motion remains constant; that is, the mechanical energy is conserved. This was the first mathematical study of fluid flow. He demonstrated that the impact of molecules on a surface would explain pressure, and that assuming the constant random motion of molecules, pressure and motion will increase with temperature. He explained the behavior of gases with changing pressure and temperature, establishing the kinetic theory of gases. Jean Nollet from France discovered osmosis, the passage of a solution through a semi-permeable membrane separating two solutions with different concentrations.

In 1754, Scotsman physician Joseph Black identified carbon dioxide, the first gas recognized as distinct from everyday breathing air. He did this by using a balance to weigh alkalies before and after exposure to heat. They lost weight by losing carbon dioxide. His development of the concept of latent heat, the quantity of heat absorbed or released when a substance changes its physical phase at constant temperature, was the first application of quantitative analysis to chemical reactions. He ascertained the effects of carbon dioxide on animals and its production by respiration, fermentation, and burning of charcoal. At this time, all flammable materials were thought to contain "phlogiston", which was given off as they burned and was associated with the transfer of heat. Plants were thought to remove phlogiston from the air and therefore burned when they were dry.

In 1773, Joseph Priestly, a nonconformist minister, schoolmaster, and tutor, discovered oxygen by heating red oxide of mercury. He became interested in the study of gases by watching the process of fermentation in a brewery next to his house. His gas collection techniques enabled him to work with gases soluble in water. He showed that the processes of combustion, respiration, and putrefaction caused one-fifth of air exposed over water to disappear, and that plants restored air vitiated by these processes. When he isolated oxygen, he noted that it was better than air in supporting respiration and combustion produced by heating certain metallic nitrates. It was called "respirable air".

Hydrogen (inflammable air) and nitrogen were discovered. The differences between acids, bases, and salts and their relationship to one another became understood. There was some theoretical as well as empirical knowledge about metals, e.g. in boiling points, intermetallic compounds, and changes in properties.

In 1742, Benjamin Frankin invented the Franklin stove, which greatly improved heating efficiency. As a freestanding cast-iron fireplace, it supplied heat in all directions instead of only from the one direction of the usual wall fireplace. Also, the heat absorbed by its cast-iron sides provided warmth even after the fire went out.

Static electricity was being discerned. It had been noticed that shaking a mercury barometer produced a strange glow in its "vacuum". Experiments showed that a glass rubbed in vacuo would shine brightly and that an exhausted glass globe rapidly whirled on a spindle and rubbing against the hand produced a brilliant glow. And further, as Newton wrote: "if at the same time a piece of white paper or white cloth, or the end of ones finger be held at the distance of about a quarter of an inch or half an inch from that part of the glass where it is most in motion, the electric vapor which is excited by the friction of the glass against the hand, will by dashing against the white paper, cloth, or finger, be put into such an agitation as to emit light, and make the white paper, cloth, or finger, appear lucid like a glowworm". In the study of electricity, conductors and insulators were recognized. There were demonstrations of electrical phenomena such as seeing the ignition of brandy by a spark shooting from a man's finger and the feeling the transfer of an electrical impulse created from a rubbed glass globe among a circle of people by their holding hands. In 1733, Frenchman Charles DuFay discovered that there are two types of static electric charges, and that like charges repel each other while unlike charges attract, linking electricity to magnetism.

In 1750, Benjamin Franklin "caught" lightning with a sharp pointed wire attached to the top of a kite which led down to a key at the other end. When a thunder cloud electrified the kite, a charge was seen coming from the key to an approaching finger. This charge was then stored in an early type of capacitosr, a1745 Leyden jar, and then reproduced to create the same feeling of transfer of electrical impulse among a circle of hand-holders, thereby illustrating that it was the same phenomenon as electricity. This countered the theological belief that thunder and lightning were signs of divine displeasure or the work of the devil. Franklin invented the lightening rod, which was then used to protect buildings. About ten years later, the first lightening rod on an English church was erected, which showed the church's acceptance of his theory. Franklin theorized that there were electric charges everywhere and designated them as positive or negative. He observed that opposite charges attracted each other, but that like charges repelled each other. In 1766, Joseph Priestly did an experiment suggested by Franklin and showed that electrical force follows the same law as gravitational force; that is, that the attraction or repulsion between two electrical charges varies inversely in proportion to the square of the distance between them.

 Joseph-Louis LaGrange from France developed differential equations.
Natural history museums were established. A group split off from the
Royal Society to show collections of curiosities.

In 1754, a self-educated mechanic founded the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. It had sections on agriculture, manufactures, mechanics, chemistry, liberal arts, and trade and colonies. It sponsored contests at which prizes were given, such as that in 1761 for the best invention of a machine that would spin six threads of wool, flax, cotton, or silk at one time with only one person attending it.

Machines still mostly relied on human, animal, and water power.

Abraham Darby was a Quaker and millwright who made large cooking pots of iron, which cost less than bronze. Around 1709, he experimented with various substances to take the place of wood charcoal in iron smelting. Coal was a remote possibility. In forging or working metals coal had more or less the same qualities as wood charcoal, but this was not the case in smelting ores, especially iron ore. Coal contained sulphur compounds which caused the iron ore to deteriorate. So he controlled the burning of coal to burn out these impurities, which produced coke. His son took over after his death and improved the methods of coking, strengthened the bellows, and added ore limestone and other reagents to the mixture. By 1756, his large blast furnace using both pit coal and wood charcoal was very productive. He made iron goods of such quality as those imported.

In 1767, Richard Reynolds replaced the wooden rails connecting a blast furnace to mines with cast iron rails. He had apprenticed as a grocer and then became a partner in a large ironworks of Darby with a man whose daughter he married. After Darby died and before Darby's sons became of age, Reynolds was in charge of the ironworks. He cast cylinders of the early steam engines.

In 1749 John Roebuck, a physician and son of a prosperous manufacturer of Sheffield goods, found a cheaper way to manufacture sulphuric acid. He did this by using leaden chambers instead of glass globes to collect the vapor from burning nitre and sulphur over water. This reduced the cost of sulfuric acid to one-fourth of its previous cost, so that sulfuric acid came to be used to bleach linen instead of sour milk. He also made cast iron into malleable iron by smelting iron using coke from pit-coal instead of charcoal. But flooding in his mines and further ventures resulted in his ruin and bankruptcy.

Thomas Newcomen, a Baptist ironmonger, blacksmith, and locksmith, supplied iron tools to mine workers. He was aware of the problem of flooding of mines and the awkward system of pumps which were used one above the other and were powered by teams of horses. He made a very valuable contribution to power generation by inventing the atmospheric pressure steam engine with piston around 1712. He did this by connecting theory with experiment, through the use of scientific knowledge, especially the Royal Society's investigation into atmospheric pressure. First cold water was poured on a cylinder in which a piston could move up and down. This caused steam inside the cylinder to cool and condense into water. The vacuum created inside the cylinder under the piston caused atmospheric pressure on top of the piston to push the piston down. The piston was attached by a rod to the end of a beam which end then swung down from a point on a vertical stand to which it was attached. When the beam swung, its other end, which was attached to a rod connected to a pump, rose, thus working the pump. Then steam from water heated in a boiler under and communicating with the cylinder was allowed into the cylinder under the piston. This overcame the atmospheric pressure on the piston from above and allowed the piston to rise by a counterweight on the rod over and connecting to the pump. Boys opened and closed the steam valve, which let steam into the cylinder from below, and the water valve, which let cold water pour on the cylinder from above. Then the boys were replaced by the valves being connected to the swinging beam which caused them to open and close at perfectly regular intervals. A story gives the credit for this improvement to an inventive valve boy who wanted to play with his friends. In 1712, the mining industry used this steam engine to pump water out of mine-shafts which had flooded. These engines were also used to supply water to reservoirs' locks at canals, and drinking water facilities in towns. One such engine developed power equivalent to fifty horses working at one sixth the cost. It was the first automatic machine since the clock.

Then James Watt invented the steam engine which used steam as a force acting on the piston. Watt made his living making scientific instruments for Glasgow University. Around 1764, he was fixing one of Newcomen's engines belonging to the university, when he saw its inefficiencies, such as the loss of heat when the cylinder was cooled. He saved this heat energy by having the steam condensed in another vessel distinct but connected to the cylinder. This condenser was kept constantly cool by cold water. So the condensed steam was pumped back into the boiler and it circulated continuously, thus obviating the need for constant resupply of water. In order to avoid the necessity of using water to keep the piston air-tight, and also to prevent the air from cooling the cylinder during the descent of the piston, he used the expansion of the steam to push the piston instead of atmospheric pressure. Then, in order to expand the use of the steam engine beyond that of a pump, he converted the oscillating motion of the beam into rotary motion. He formed a partnership with John Roebuck, who had a two-thirds interest. But when Roebuck needed money, he sold his interest to Matthew Boulton. Boulton wanted better power that that of his watermill for his workshops that made metal buttons, watch chains, shoebuckles of engraved steel, ornamental bronzes, vases, chandeliers, tripods, silver and plated wares, and imitation gold and tortoiseshell work. In dry weather, about eight horses were needed to aid in driving the machinery. A steam pump could pump water from the bottom of the watermill to the top to be used again. He had built up this factory of five buildings and six hundred workers, with 9,000 pounds derived from his marriage to an heiress. By 1774, the partnership had built a model steam engine with rotary power whose design could be sold. The price of the engine was set as the amount of money saved on fuel costs in the first three years of its operation. This machine was a relatively economical user of energy, capable of performing almost any kind of work.

About 1750, John Wilkinson, the son of a farmer who also oversaw an iron furnace, substituted mineral coal for wood charcoal in the smelting and puddling of iron ore. In 1766, he made it possible to transport coal out of mines on rail wagons drawn by horses. As father of the iron industry, he made iron chairs, vats for breweries and distilleries, and iron pipes of all sizes. With his invention of the first precision boring machine, he provided Watt with metal cylinders of perfectly accurate shape, which were necessary for the smooth working of Watt's steam engine. In 1775 he bought a pumping steam engine from Boulton and Watt's company for his ironworks. It pumped three times as fast as Newcomen's engine.

Watt's steam engine came to be used for power-loom weaving and then for all sorts of manufactures. It would put England ahead of every manufacturing country in the world. Millwrights built, installed, and later designed not only steam engines but the machinery that they drove. These men were essential in setting up the first factories. They were the most imaginative and resourceful craftsmen. They knew how to use a turner's, a carpenter's and a blacksmith's tools and had supervised or done smith work, brick-laying or stone-mason's work in erecting and maintaining windmills with their many gears and bearings. There was a good deal of variety in mills, as well as in the structure and workmanship of them, some being worked by horses, some by wind, and others by water. They had some knowledge of arithmetic and practical mechanics. They could draw out a plan and calculate the speed and power of a wheel. Although technically in a branch of carpentry, the millwrights learned to work with metal as well. Metal was superior to wood not only because of its strength but because wood parts were irregular in motion and wore out rapidly. So iron and brass parts came to replace wood and leather parts.

In 1728, J. Paine got a patent for rolling iron instead of hammering it. The iron bars, being heated in a long hot arch or cavern passed between two large metal rollers, which had certain notches or furrows on their surfaces.

Clockmaker and Quaker Benjamin Huntsman was struck with the difficulty of finding finely tempered steel for the springs of his watches and pendulums of his clocks. He experimented for years to find a homogeneous and flawless metal, and finally, in 1740, invented cast steel, which had high tensile strength and was much harder than ordinary steel. He did this by remelting refined high quality wrought iron bars at very high temperatures in sealed fireclay crucibles, together with small quantities of charcoal and ground glass as reagents. This distributed the carbon evenly in the metal, which hammering could not do. He approached the Sheffield cutlers, who finally agreed to try his cast steel for fear of losing their business to some other manufacturers who were approaching Huntsman. Since Huntsman had no patent, he worked at night and employed only men who would keep his secret. His steel was made at night. His factory became prosperous about 1770 and the excellence of his steel manufacture was never equaled. Steel and wrought iron was scarce and expensive.

Around 1748, iron founder Samuel Walker, discovered Huntsman's secret by appearing at Huntsman's factory disguised as a shivering tramp who asked to warm himself by the furnace fire. He feigned sleep while watching the whole process. When he began to make cast steel, his annual output grew from 900 pounds in 1747 to 11,000 pounds in 1760 and he made a fortune.

Silver was plated over copper from 1751. White metal from tin and antimony was used from about 1770.

The brass industry was beginning to produce brass from copper and zinc that was as good as foreign brass. The secret of plate-glass manufacture came to England in the 1770s.

In 1773, a corporation was set up for the manufacture of plate glass. It could raise joint-stock because of the great risk and large expense of the undertaking.

In 1775, chemist William Cookworthy was given a fourteen year patent for the discovery of certain clay and stone in England from which he made England's first true porcelain, i.e. that which could sustain the most extreme degree of fire without melting, and also had grain as smooth and lustrous, and the transparency and beauty of color, equal in degree to the best Chinese or Dresden porcelain.

The import duties on diamonds, pearls, rubies, emeralds and other precious stones and jewels was dropped to increase the business of cutting and polishing them.

The world's first chocolate factory was set up in England in 1728. Milk was added to chocolate.

The Fanmakers were incorporated in 1709.

A linen company to sell cambricks [a fine white linen] and lawns [a thin and fine linen] was incorporated in 1763.

A free market for fish was established in Westminster to supplement the free fish market in London to prevent forestalling and monopolizing of the fish industry and to increase the number of fishermen. Duties for its maintenance were paid by the fishermen. Certain men were given the right to incorporate fisheries of white herring for twenty one years to improve the fisheries and give employment to the poor. They were authorized to sell subscriptions and to build ships provided the fishery employ 100,000 in such fishery. There were restrictions on taking fish from rivers during their breeding season. Herring fishermen were allowed to land and dry their nets and erect tents and pickle, cure, and reload fish on uncultivated land up to 100 yards beyond the high water mark all any shore, forelands, harbors, and ports, without paying the landholder. Later, a bounty of 30s. per ton was authorized to be given for vessels that were fitted out and used for white herring fishery.

Anyone wishing to be admitted to the Levant (Turkey) trading company was to be made free of such on paying 20 pounds, so that this trade might be increased.

 In the 1760s the first cooking school was established by Mrs. Elizabeth
Raffald, a servant.

As for health, there were many occupational hazards. These included paralysis by mercury of refiners of silver and gold, paralysis by mercurial fumes of molten lead by plumbers, palsy of glaziers working with melted lead and of watch gilders, lead poisoning of painters, blinding by sawdust of sawyers, and the affects of fumes on pewterers and letter founders. Particles of copper were breathed in by copper workers, whose hair and beards then turned green. Braziers became deaf. Hairdressers, bakers, masons, bricklayers' laborers, coal heavers, chimney sweeps, flax and feather dressers, and workers in leather warehouses suffered pulmonary diseases. Chimney sweeps also had warty skin cancer from their bodies being habitually covered with soot and the lethal cancer of the scrotum. Working with charcoal fires affected confectioners, chocolate makers, and sail-cloth makers. Tanners, catgut makers, and tallow-candle makers became nauseous. Heavy work weakened many bodies and caused hernias. Bending over work for long hours caused stooped posture and hump backs.

The association between dirt and disease was just beginning to be made. The principles of infection and hygiene were not well understood. Bathing every couple of months was not unusual. There was some theological feeling that cleanliness betokened pride and filthiness humility. Most houses had a bathtub that could be placed beside the fire in a bedroom. About 80% of the population had been getting smallpox, which blinded, maimed or disfigured many. Deaths from smallpox were only occasional in the country, but constant in London, where about 13% of every generation died from it. Making death commonplace, especially in the winter months when thick, dirty clothes were worn day and night, were typhus, which was carried by lice; typhoid, which was spread by flies from horse dung; tuberculosis; and influenza. Dysentery and diarrhea made death commonplace especially in the summer when flies transmitted bacteria from filth to food and the water was its most foul. There was great meaning in the prayer "Now I lay me down to sleep; I pray the Lord my soul to keep; if I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." Thyphus spread easily in hospitals and gaols where vermin could live in the beds made of wood. Colds and toothache were also common. Venereal disease was not uncommon among the well-to-do in London. Condoms were used to deter disease, but were still crude, coarse, uncomfortable, and unreliable. London had almost double the mortality rate of the nation. The number of baptisms in London were about 80% of its burials. About 40% of the deaths in London were among children under two, due to infantile diseases fostered by malnutrition, maternal ignorance such as giving babies adult food, ill-health, bad water, dirty food, poor hygiene, and overcrowding. Many children died from diptheria, measles, scarlet fever, and smallpox. Ten or twelve children with three or four surviving was a common family pattern. Many well-to-do in London kept their children in the country for their better health. No matter what the ailment, physicians regularly bled patients and often gave them enemas with wooden funnels. Sometimes a blister or irritant was applied to the skin to draw out the evil humors. Cupping was used to provide suction to remove pressure from various parts of the body. Also used were poultices, ointments, and herbal treatments, notably quinine. Opium was given to deaden pain. There were about 70 drugs in use. Charms, spells, astrology, and folk remedies still played a major role in medicine. A physician attended surgeries to give advice. Physicians could visit apothecary shops once a year and throw away any drugs falling below an arbitrary standard of excellence. In 1703 the House of Lords decided a jurisdictional contest between the College of Physicians and the Society of Apothecaries. It permitted the apothecaries to direct the remedies as well as to prepare them, although they could only charge for the drugs they provided. The poor sought advice from apothecaries.

There was progress in health. Scurvy virtually disappeared as a cause of death due to the eating of more vegetables. People were cleaner when wearing cotton, which had to be washed. In 1721, free inoculations for smallpox began in England, pioneered by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, also a poet and letter writer. She led the way by having herself and her son inoculated. Theologicians denounced this practice as a diabolical interference with disease sent by Providence for the punishment of sin. Sarah Wallen Mapp was a famous bone-setter. In 1727 surgeon William Cheselden, whose master was specially licensed to perform the operation of removing stones in the hospital, reduced the death rate for removing stones due to hemorrhage, shock, and infection down to 17% by his invention of a lateral operation. He also published an anatomy book and treated certain kinds of blindness by forming an opening in the eye to serve as an artificial pupil. In 1736, Claudius Aymand conducted the first successful appendectomy.

Nutritional deficiency diseases were beginning to be understood. In 1753, James Lind, a surgeon in the navy who noted that more men died of scurvy than in battle, published his work on his dietary controlled experiment on seamen showing that oranges, lemons, limes, green food, and onions cured scurvy. He published his methods of prevention and cure of malarial fevers and his method of disinfecting ships with the smoke of wood and gunpowder. In 1761, he discovered that steam from salt water was fresh, and proposed a method of distillation to supply ships with fresh water. In 1761 Giovanni Morgagni from Italy opined that disease resulted from a breakdown of organs and tissues that was viewable on autopsy. He wrote an extensive book showing the anatomy of diseases, e.g. affections of pericardium and aorta, (e.g. aneurysm), valve diseases, ulceration, rupture, dilation, and hypertrophy. He associated clinical observation with anatomy of disease. For example, pain on the left upper chest, numbness of the left arm, and difficulty breathing occurring together with exertion were associated with dilation of the aorta and hardening of arteries, which caused delay of blood in the aorta, in the heart, and in the lung vessels. Bernoulli showed that the living human body constantly changes so that all its particles are renewed in a certain number of years. Stephen Hale described the first quantitative estimate of blood pressure and fundamental characteristics of blood circulation. In 1728, Frenchman Dr. Pierre Fauchard, the father of dentistry, recommended rubbing one's teeth and gums with a piece of sponge.

Since three out of four babies died shortly after birth, beds in hospitals for pregnant women were established starting in 1739. The next year physicians began to replace midwives. A hospital was established for abandoned foundling children in 1739 so they wouldn't die, as they usually did, in the care of parishes or workhouses or be exposed in the streets or left on door steps of the wealthy. It was besieged by women with babies in their arms. In 1762 a statute made the principles of the foundling hospital obligatory for all London parish children under six; they were to be sent to nurses outside London who were to be paid at least 2s. a week by the parish. In 1766, this was extended to all parishes, and nurses who cared for a child well for a year was given a reward of at least 10s. Also, parish children were not allowed to be apprenticed for more than seven years or until age 21 and an apprentice fee of at least 4 pounds, 2s. was to be paid to the master or mistress by the parish.

After 1740, there was a steady growth of population due to improved midwifery. William Smellie taught scientific midwifery in London from 1741 and wrote a "Treatise on Midwifery" in 1752, which had a clear explanation of the mechanism of labor. At this time there were several maternity hospitals. Forceps existed for difficult deliveries. In 1750, Dr. Cadogan wrote his book: "An Essay on the Nursing and Management of Children, which made a great improvement in the care of young children. For instance, it recommended loose clothing, no tight swaddling clothes, and a simple diet. Swaddling clothes were used to retain a baby's evacuations but produced discomfort and serious skin conditions. A hospital was founded for venereal diseases in 1746, another as an asylum for the penitent and orphaned girls who might otherwise be inclined to prostitution, and yet another for prostitutes in 1758. Coitus interruptus was widely used for birth control. There were also clandestine abortions and intentional neglect of newborns.

Melancholy was widespread. Suicides were frequent and drugs were sold for this purpose. In 1725, the mentally ill were classified as curable or incurable. There were many private asylums. A lunatic who was furiously mad and dangerous was required to be safely locked up or chained in his place of settlement. There were frequent and dangerous abuses in madhouses, so in 1774, no one was to keep or confine more than one lunatic without a license granted by the Royal College of Physicians or else forfeit 500 pounds. A Justice of the Peace and a physician inspected all madhouses to observe conditions and care of patients there. If refused admittance, the license was forfeited.

In 1712 was the last time a monarch touched a person to cure him of a malady such as scrofula.

In 1743 surgery students began to dissect corpses with their own hands to better learn anatomy. In 1744 the Company of Surgeons was separated out of the Company of Barber-Surgeons. The barbers were proscribed from performing surgery and had to have a separate corporation from the surgeons because of the ignorance and unskillfulness of barbers healing wounds, blows, and hurts e.g. by blood letting and drawing of teeth. There was a Surgeon's Hall, officers chosen by the surgeons, and bylaws. The surgeons were required to examine candidates for the position of surgeon in the king's army and navy. They were exempted from parish, ward, and leet offices, and juries. In 1752, a statute provided that the corpses of murderers were to be sent to the Surgeon's Hall to be anatomized, for the purpose of deterring murders. The penalty for rescuing the corpse of a murderer was to suffer death.

The first dispensary for the poor was established in 1769 to give free medicine and treatment to the infant poor, and then to the infants of the industrious poor.

The progress of science was seen to threaten the authority of the church. There was a general belief in God, but not much attention to Jesus. Feared to come were free thought, rationalism, and atheism. There was still a big gap between local parsons and bishops, who were educated, well-off, and related to the aristocracy. On the whole, preachers talked about morality and Christian belief. They stressed good works and benevolence. But many Protestant clergy were more concerned with their own livings than with their parishioners. They were indolent and did not set a good example of moral living.

From 1715, Freemasonry spread and swiftly provided a spiritual haven for those who believed in God and desired ritual and mysticism.

About 1744, John Wesley, the son of an Anglican clergyman, became a religious leader for mining and industrial laborers, who were crowded into the slums of industrializing cities, and largely ignored by the Church of England. He had been led to this by a profound religious experience. He led an evangelical revival with a promise of individual salvation. He lead an aesthetic life, eating bread, and sleeping on boards. The person to be saved from the horrors of eternal damnation in hell was to discipline himself to regular prayer, self-criticism, and hard work and to forsake worldly pleasures such as drinking, overeating, and even frivolous talk. This methodical regularity of living led to the movement being called Methodist. Wesley believed in witchcraft and magic. He opined that bodily diseases and insanity could be caused by devils and that some dreams are caused by occult powers of evil. The Methodists engaged increasingly in philanthropic activities. They gave to the poor, and visited the sick and the imprisoned. Wesley preached in the open air where all who wanted to attend could attend and also wear whatever clothes they had. Large crowds of poor people gathered for these meetings. Crowds of poor people were generally feared because of their mob potential. These Methodist meetings were stormed as were Quaker meetings, with shouts of "the church in danger". The Methodists' homes were invaded and their belongings destroyed or taken or their persons beaten with tacit permission of authorities. Some Justices of the Peace drafted preachers into the army or navy as vagabonds. Eventually, however, the Methodist revival imbued energy and piety into the lethargic clergy of the established church. A new moral enthusiasm and philanthropic energy grabbed the nation. Prisons were reformed, penal laws made more wise, slave trade abolished, and popular education given momentum. In the established church, charity gained precedence over theology and comfort over self-examination and guilt. Evangelist George Whitfield preached Calvinism and it split off from Methodism. Then Calvinism went into full decline. Presbyterianism collapsed into Unitarianism and a general tendency towards deism developed.

Church sanctuary was abolished for those accused of civil offenses.

There was much travel by scheduled coaches, which usually carried several passengers and were drawn by four horses. Regular service of public vehicles to and from London went four miles an hour; it took two days to go from London to Oxford. It was not unusual for a coach to bog down or overturn. Sometimes it had to detour around an impassable stretch of road or borrow a couple of oxen from a nearby farm to get out of a quagmire. Men and horses drowned in some of the potholes. Robbery was endemic and some of the roads were so unsafe from highwaymen that bands of armed horsemen were hired to accompany the coaches. It was not unusual to come across gibbets for hanging at crossroads. In London inns at coach stops, there were casual workers who were associated with gangs of thieves specializing in passengers' goods. These workers would inform their associate thieves of specific goods that had been loaded onto certain coaches, which were then robbed selectively. Traveling merchants preferred packhorses to carts because they could cross overland or through watercourses more easily. These pack horses traveled in regular caravans in single file. The leader had a bell around his neck to warn, from a distance, riders or carts coming in the opposite direction. Carts traveled about two miles an hour. In 1711 the trustee system superseded administration by the Justices of the Peace of the turnpike system, including tolls and toll booths. The toll booths were frequently attacked by riotous mobs. So anyone pulling down or destroying turnpike gates at which tolls were to be paid went to prison or was put to hard labor in a House of Correction for three months without bail. He was also whipped in the market place between 11:00 and 2:00. If he offended a second time, he was transported for seven years. Later the penalty of prison up to three years was added as an alternative. The hundred had to pay the damages up to 20 pounds. The penalty for threatening the toll collector or forcibly passing through was 5 pounds for the first offense, and 10 pounds for the second offense with imprisonment for one year for those who couldn't pay.

By 1750, about 60 miles could be made in a day. The turnpike trusts took over most of London's major highways during the 1700s. There was no travel on Sundays until 1750.

In 1745, shocked by the difficulty caused by bad roads in concentrating the royal army to stop the Scottish invasion, the king began systematically to improve all the roads. There was much road and highway widening and repair, and also river bank and pier repair, going on all over the country. Marsh lands were drained. Harbors were deepened. There were numerous statutes trying to adjust the needs of travel with the condition of the roads. For instance, there had to be a pole between wheel horses or double shafts. Carriages, wagons, or carts drawn by more horses, oxen, or animals, or with very heavy loads, or with wheels bound with iron tires were observed to cause more damage, so they were restricted or had to pay higher tolls. Then broad and smooth iron tires were observed to not cause the amount of damage as did narrow or irregular iron tires and their use was encouraged. From 1741, weighing machines were kept at toll gates. By 1766, turnpike roads had to be at least 30 feet wide, and hedges and fences thereon had to be taken down by their owners. Cartways to markets had to be at least 20 feet wide, and horseways 3 (later 8) feet wide. There were ditches, drains, and gutters to carry off water. Names and abodes of owners were to be put on carriages, wagons, and carts or forfeit 2-5 pounds, except for carriages or coaches of a nobleman or gentleman for his private use or those drawn by only one horse or two oxen, or those with wide wheels and a light load. There were town name signs, direction posts, and milestones. In 1773, the Surveyors and the Commissioners of Turnpikes were given authority to requisition local men, carts and draught animals for compulsory labor, or money instead, in maintaining the roads and making new ditches and drains. They could take any local sand, gravel, chalk, or stone from waste or common land or, if not needed by and satisfaction was made to the owner, from enclosed land. The surveyor was to be chosen locally for a year and could be given an allowance. New roads required the consent of the landowners and a negotiated price.

A driver of a carriage, wagon, or cart on the public highway who by negligence or misbehavior caused any hurt or damage to a person or any other carriage or hindered free passage of any other carriage was to forfeit up to 20s. Anyone leaving an empty cart or other obstruction on a public highway was to forfeit up to 20s. Any cart, wagon, or carriage driven without a person on foot or on horseback leading it had a forfeiture up to 20s. Any driver of an empty cart, wagon, or carriage who refused or neglected to make way for any coach or loaded cart, wagon, or carriage was to forfeit up to 20. Any offender could be apprehended without warrant by anyone who saw his offense, and who was then to deliver him to a constable or other peace officer.

By 1719, the mail service was well-regulated. Letter rates within 80 miles of London were 3d. per piece of paper, then 12d. per ounce. Within 60 miles of New York City in America there were 4d. per piece of paper, then 1s.4d. per ounce. Letters were still carried by post horses. From London to New York, they were 1s. per piece of paper for the first three pieces, then 4s. per ounce. In 1765, this rate was extended to all colonial ports.

In 1754, canals began to be constructed linking the main rivers. The barges were hauled by horses or men from the land near the river's edge. Now goods of many inland towns cheapened and reached a national instead of just a local market. In 1761 an almost illiterate man called James Brindley cut the first real canal at Worsley for the Duke of Bridgewater, who owned the coal deposits there. He kept the line of the canal at one level to avoid having to make locks. It crossed one river as a forty foot high aqueduct. He refused to use the beds of small rivers, whose sluggish flow gave no adequate security against silting. Coal at the destination point of Manchester fell to half its former price. After Wedgwood headed a campaign to persuade Parliament to construct a certain canal, he bought adjacent land on which he built his great factory.

In 1713, the maximum interest rate that could be charged was reduced to 5% for the advancement of trade and improvement of lands because that rate was the norm in foreign lands. Thus the maximum interest rate fell from 10 to 8 to 6 and then to 5%. When Issac Newton was Master of the Mint, he noted that too restricted a currency caused a high interest rate to prevail, which was bad for commerce and the plans to set the poor to work, but that too large a quantity of money in circulation caused interest rates to fall, which encouraged luxury imports and the export of bullion.

The Bank of England provided a safer deposit and lower interest than goldsmiths or scriveners. It also issued notes for 10 and 15 (since 1759), and 20 pounds. Outside retail trade and wages payments, business was conducted on a credit basis with a paper promise to pay at some future date. Check use was still formal and rare. Tradesmen typically authorized their apprentices to "write off or draw" from their accounts, bringing their bank books. Depositors authorized other people such as certain servants, relatives, cashiers, or company secretaries to make use of their accounts. After 1721, the Bank dividend was about 6% a year.

Promissory notes were assignable and endorsable and the holder could recover against the signer or any endorser as was the case with bills of exchange. In 1775, no more promissory or other notes, bills of exchange, draughts, or undertakings in writing and being negotiable or transferable could be made for under 20s., because it was hard for the poorer sort of manufacturer, artificer, laborer and others to use them without being subject to great extortion and abuse. Cash was to be used instead.

By 1711, government finances had become so chaotic that the Chancellor of the Exchequer sought to re-establish public credit by means of a chartered commercial company, the shares of which were offered in substitution for government stock. This South Sea Company was established in 1711 with a monopoly to trade in South America. The prospects of huge profits sent the share prices soaring. There was also an increase in the money supply. These factors led to a speculation bubble in 1720 in this stock. Also, many stock-jobbers promoted companies of every description, such as one to extract gold from seawater. There was an insurance boom with about seventy insurance companies in existence, many virtually gambling in life contingencies. There was speculation in insurance for all types of occurrences, such as housebreaking, highway robbery, death by gin-drinking, and horses becoming disabled. The total capital invested in all these enterprises rose to over five times the cash resources of all Europe. When the bubble burst, 100 pound South Sea stock had gone up to 1050 pounds and back down again to 120. Since the government had in effect bought this stock at a low price and paid off its debt with this stock at a high price, this bubble relieved the government of much of its massive debt. It also redistributed wealth. After the bubble burst, investors took refuge in investing in 3-4% government fixed-interest securities. A result of this bubble burst was the chartering of two corporations for marine insurance and prohibition of such by any partnership or firm. Private persons could continue to write policies, and they chose Lloyd's Coffeehouse as their headquarters; it came to dominate the world of marine insurance after the two chartered companies came to concentrate on fire and life insurance. Lloyd's list became the foundation for a new newspaper. There were specialty boxes at Lloyd's such as on America or the Baltic. Many ships were reported captured by enemies or pirates, but underwriting insurance was a lucrative business for many.

In 1717 the gold guinea was assigned a value of 21s. In 1774, the gold standard was introduced. In 1774, clipped and deficient gold coin was called in to be exchanged for new coin.

Local taxes were collected for the church, the poor, county courts of justice, borough administration, and highways. National taxes included the income, customs, and excise taxes. When the government tried to levy excise taxes on wine, tobacco, and then on cider, there was a public protest with mobs demonstrating against the power given to excise inspectors to search in people's homes. These excise taxes were no longer levied.

Duties were placed on items for encouraging industries within the country and to pay the expenses of government. There were more and higher duties to pay for war. At various times there were duties on hides, skins, seal skins, gilt and silver wire, malt, mum [strong beer made from malted wheat], cider, perry, spices, tea, coffee, cocoa nuts, chocolate, cocoa paste, snuff, chinaware, drugs, calicoes, herrings, apples, oysters, raw Italian and Chinese silk, gum arabic, gum senega, tallow, hogs-lard, grease, beaver skins and wool, imported brandy, raisins, coals and coal dust, coaches for one's own use or for hire, except licensed hackney coaches; silver plate owned by persons, corporations, and bodies politic; leases, bonds, and other deeds; licenses for retailing wine, beer, and ale; 5% of salaries, fees, and perquisites from office and employments including royal pensions and gratuities over 100 pounds. When the price of wheat was high, as in 1765, when it was 6s. per bushel, wheat products could not be exported. At other times, they could not be imported. Duties on imported wheat, barley, rye, oats, beans, rice, Indian corn were also dropped. The prohibition of importing salted beef, pork, bacon, and butter was dropped. In 1770, no live cattle, pigs, mutton, pork, beef, either fresh or salted could be exported or forfeit 50 pounds for every such animal or 5s. per pound of such meat. In 1773, peas, beans, bacon, hams, and cheese could be imported duty free, and in 1775 Labrador codfish. In 1775, raw goat skins could be imported duty-free to improve the domestic manufacture of red, green, and blue leather.

In 1773, there were given costs above which various commodities could not be exported: wheat at 44s. per quarter, rye, peas, or beans at 28s., barley and beer at 22s., oats at 14s. or else forfeit the goods, 20s. per bushel and the ship or boat in which laden. (There are 8 bushes in a quarter.)

A window tax replaced the hearth tax. These duties were 2s. on dwelling houses, increased by 6d. per window for houses with 10-14 windows, and increased by 9d. per window for houses with 15-19 windows, and increased by 1s. per window for houses with 20 or more windows, per year to be paid by the occupant. These were increased three more times, until the dwelling house duty was 3s. and the duty for 25 or more windows was 2s. Another duty for war was that on imported starch, certain imported clothes, cards, dice, soap, vellum, parchment, and paper made in the realm (4d.-1s.6d. per ream depending on quality) or imported (1-16s. per ream). For pamphlets and newspapers made in the realm there was a duty of 2d. per sheet and 12d. for every advertisement. When the duty was paid, the paper was stamped. The penalty for nonpayment was 10 pounds for sellers and 5 pounds for those writing or printing on the paper. Later, there was a penalty of imprisonment in a House of Correction up to three months for sellers or hawkers of pamphlets or newspapers, and the apprehender received a reward of 20s. A parson marrying a couple without publishing banns or license could forfeit 100 pounds.

Not paying duties was punishable by various forfeitures of money. Officers for duties could search warehouses on suspicion of concealment of coffee, tea, chocolate, or cocoa beans with an intent to avoid duties after making an oath before a duty commissioner or Justice of the Peace setting forth the grounds of such suspicion. A special warrant could be issued authorizing the officer to seize such goods.