Unit 2 Knowledge Organiser: 2.3

For hundreds of years we have used coal for energy production. In 1750, the world’s Industrial Revolution began in the UK, later spreading to the USA, and other countries in Europe.

These factories developed the use of steam powered machines to mass produce manufactured goods. 

Coal mines were small-scale, using coal that was near the surface and easy to get at. As coal was needed in greater quantities, coal mines got much deeper, and bigger, and new sources needed to be discovered.

As coal was difficult and expensive to move, the new factories located on coalfields. Towns and cities grew rapidly around the mines and factories to house the workers, for example, Manchester and Swansea.