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Summary
Textiles
Chapter 1. Textiles and industrialisation.
In international historiography, cotton is inseparably linked with the Industrial Revolution. In the following chapters will be on cotton, too, as a representative of the entire sector of textiles. The Dutch cotton industry of the early 19th Century did not show the dynamics of its foreign counterparts. However, this should not be interpreted as a mere sign of conservatism or ignorance. The new methods of production that had been developed in Britain, could not be used in the existing Dutch setting.
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Chapter 2. Cotton spinning.
In the Southern Netherlands (e.g., Ghent) steam powered spinning began shortly after 1800. In the Northern Provinces spinning mills remained extremely rare. By the time of the Belgian Secession (1830), cheap imports of foreign yarn discouraged various attempts to mechanise spinning in the North. In the East of the country attempts to set up steam powered mills were more successful than in the West.
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Chapter 3. Weaving.
The Belgian Secession virtually meant a new start for Dutch cotton weaving. The traditional cottage industry in the Eastern provinces was rapidly transformed during the 1830s by the introduction of the latest type of handlooms. British experts and skilled labour were of vital importance in this transformation. After 1850 powerlooms began to take over. Foreign technology and expertise were easily accessible to Dutch entrepreneurs, who were also stimulated in upscaling their production through the use of new technologies by the quickly improving infrastructure of canals and railways.
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Chapter 4. Calico printing.
Within a few years after 1830 a number of complete cotton printing works were brought over from Belgium to the Netherlands. The industry's rebirth was based on exports to the East Indies (Java). The special products for this market led to the development of additional technologies. Block printing, obsolete though it may seem, was brought to a very high standard and produced the most expensive products throughout the century.
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Chapter 5. A different pattern.
The Dutch development of the cotton industry differed from the British experience. Mechanisation in spinning and weaving started some 30 years later. Especially from the 1840s onwards, the transfer of new foreign technologies went very fast. The size and type of markets for which the Dutch firms produced, accounted for much of the choice of technology.
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Gas, light and electricity
Chapter 6. The old light.
The Argand lamp of the 1780s was the first step towards a modernisation of interior lighting. At first this improved oil lamp was mainly used in public buildings, like theaters, cafés, shops, and in the homes of the rich. The common people were to use candles and traditional oil lamps until the mid-19th Century. Already in the 17th Century, most towns lit their streets and squares with oil lanterns. This was not just a safety measure, but also a status symbol.
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Chapter 7. Gas.
Experiments by the Rev. Bernardus Koning in 1816 showed gaslight to the Dutch public. Technical problems, fear of unhealthy consequences, high initial costs and government policy put up considerable barriers to a fast development until 1840. Then, however, lower prices, improved
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purification of coal gas and a change in policy made that a increasing number of towns turned to gaslight for the illumination of their streets. The network of gaspipes used for those lamps could also serve the growing market of private consumers.
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Chapter 8. Electricity.
The early period of electricity supply shows three types of installations: private installations, block stations (serving only one block of houses) and central stations. Until the First World War, electric lighting would play only a minor role.
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Chapter 9. The incandescent lamp.
In 1883 the first incandescent lamps were produced in the Netherlands. Between 1887 and 1891, four more manufacturers followed, thereby laying the basis for a new branche of electrotechnical industry.
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Chapter 10. Lighting up the 19th Century.
The various sources of lighting during the 19th Century are compared. In the streets, gaslight gradually replaced oil lantems after 1840. In areas where coal gas was too expensive, oil lanterns or paraffin lamps (after 1860) were used. Electrical street lighting began to appear in 1886. In interior lighting, stearine candles remained the common source of light. Whereas the rich in urban areas gradually turned to gaslight, the paraffin lamp lit the houses of the less wealthy and in the country; electric lighting remained an exceptional luxury until the 20th Century.
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The building trade
Chapter 11. A complex sector.
The building trade is made up of innumerable branches and sub-branches, where innovations of very heterogeneous nature led to new products and new trade relations.
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Chapter 12. Houses and public utilities.
The building process involves various actors: principals, architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers. Each of those groups was influenced in its role by the development of new technologies. New materials, like artificial cement and zinc, and new methods of processing glass and timber, next to mechanisation on the building site and the development of installations revolutionised the entire sector.
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Chapter 13. Hydraulic engineering.
In hydraulic engineering important changes were based on the establishment of a State Department of Waterways and Public Works (Rijkswaterstaat) in 1798, and the rise of large hydraulic engineering companies after 1860. Major changes developed in dike building, drainage, dredging and digging, culminating in the huge Noordzee Kanaal between Amsterdam and the North Sea.
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Chapter 14. Brickmaking.
Dutch brickmaking technology developed slower than, e.g., in Germany or Britain. The evolution of brickmaking machinery and the brickkiln show that, next to entrepreneurial attitudes, the quality of local clay deposits was an important cause for this phenomenon.
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Chapter 15. Iron.
Due to its high price, iron remained rare as a building material. Factories being relatively small, their construction hardly ever required the use of cast iron columns or wrought iron beams. After 1850, international developments in the production of wrought iron and in construction theories stimulated the construction of large railway bridges and innumerable smaller road bridges. Especially the building of railway stations by the end of the 19th Century shows how the scale of operations, speed, organisation and the use of ready made iron parts differed from building projects earlier in the century. Among architects, the use of cast iron and wrought iron remaind a very debatable topic. |
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