Industrial Revolution

• The Industrail Revolution (1760-1840), starting in England, was a time of "radical" process of social and economic change. This revolution started with the perfection of the steam engine, by James Watt. Steam power was replacing engery perviously done by using human and animal power. As materials such as iron and steel, factories became more machine driven. Cities were expanding and as a result more people were looking for factory jobs. Costs were lowered by mass production and the demand rose as a result. People now wanted material goods made in factories and the want for handicrafts disappeared.


• 2 Typographical innovations during the Industrail Revolution were, the innovation of the "fat face" and the Sans-seriff. The "fat face" was introduced by Robert Throne and Thomas Cotterell. The innovation was in the contrast in the weight, it was changed in the thickness of each stroke. Sans-seriff was the second innovation. This later became important to graphic design in the 20th century.


• Most types were made from metal, which was not practical. Darius Wells started to make the types from a wood cut, which is now known as Wood Type Poster. These were less expensive, easier to move and just as strudy as the types made from metal. The public could create their own font, give it to the printer since new fonts could easlity be done with the wood cut type. However, posters that were created with the wood type had mixed fonts because they had a limited amount of letters in the font.


• Applegath and Cowper were one of the first printing presses to use a steam press. Newspapers and magazines began using the steam powered press because it was more efficiant than a hand press. The steam powered press could make 32 prints for every 1 done by a hand press. The cost of printing was lowered and speeds increased.


• Joseph Niepce was the first to produce a photographic image. He was looking for a way of putting drawings onto a printing plate. Niepce coated a pewter sheet with bitumen of Judea and placed it in the back of his camera obscura and pointed it towards nature. He left it exposed all day and then washed the pewter sheet with lavender oil, which showed a captured picture, which was blurry or hazy. The first photograph was in 1826, it was a picture of Niepce's house.


• At the end of reading this chapter I thought that image 9-34 was the most intreiguing. It is the picture taken by Julia Margaret Cameron, "Sir John Herschel" (1867). The detail of his face is amazing considering that photography was still in its infant stage. Looking at this picture, the viewer can see all the wrinkles and small hairs on his face.


• This picture, taken by Peter Bower, shows good quality. The foreground is in excellent focus, while the sunsetting in the background is as well.