We all know that the reality of our everyday lives wouldn’t exist without the manufacturing industry. The device you’re reading this on, your favorite coffee mug, your warmest sweater, your neighbor’s lawnmower, your child’s dearest toy—all of it was put into your hands by this world’s very long line of great manufacturers.
There’s no way to tell when manufacturing truly began, as there’s evidence our human ancestors were building 2.3 million years ago! Their tools looked a little different than ours do now, made out of stone, wood, or bone. As our ancestors slowly became accustomed to creation, items such as jewelry and weapons, like knives and axes, became more common, and were typically made out of materials like jade or flint. Eventually, humans managed one of the greatest feats of mankind: taming fire. In the grand scheme of things, this one accomplishment completely changed our fate as a species. Fire became a key component within the manufacturing industry, and early on was utilized in methods such as smelting copper and firing pottery. As technology slowly continued to advance, we slowly moved away from using copper and began using bronze and iron.
The earliest examples of machining date back to Mesopotamian times. Currently, their version of the wheel is the oldest in the world. Many archaeologists believed that they invented the wheel in order to make the pottery process more convenient, but the Mesopotamians later used wheels for their chariots. The Mesopotamians also invented their own number system, and their proficiency in mathematics was so profound that we still use their methods to this day! Basic math, such as addition, subtraction, fractions, division, and multiplication originated from Mesopotamia. The way we currently measure time in sets of 60 (sixty seconds to the minute, sixty minutes to the hour) also came from the Mesopotamians. Time is a precious asset in the manufacturing world—machines are judged based off their proficiency in working quickly, employees are measured in their ability to meet quotas on time, etc—and who knows how we would calculate that and keep order if it weren’t for the Mesopotamians!
The Medieval Ages yielded a whole myriad of inventions that we’re all intimately familiar with—clocks, glasses, gun powder, windmills, and more. At first, people were resistant against the expansion of manufacturing, scared by these unfamiliar tools and gadgets. In fact, many believed that these items were created by witchcraft. But as familiarity grew within populations, economies began to grow, creativity flowed, and the evolution of manufacturing picked up speed. Smithing, mining, and smelting were the top three methods used during the Medieval Ages. Mining is where manufacturing began and was the most dangerous step in the whole process, as mines would frequently flood and trap miners in the tunnels (this is why most mines were abandoned, not because there was a lack of material). The most commonly mined material was iron, and once it was collected, the smelting stage would begin. This process is essential because it separates the actual metal from other organic materials, which would create consistency in products made from the iron. After smelting came blacksmithing, which was the process of heating up the hunks of iron in a forge, hammering them into shape, and grinding them down once cooled.
Blacksmithing was a massive breakthrough in manufacturing innovation. Originally, blacksmiths could only be found within castle forges, creating armor and weapons. But once it was realized they were also capable of making farming tools and household items, they became essential to the everyday functions of communities all over.
Things truly began heating up during the Industrial Revolution. This is what is most commonly thought about when people think about the history of manufacturing, and for good reason. Between 1760 to mid 1830s, wave after wave of innovation and advancement washed over the United States and Europe, sling-shotting them into the future of efficient manufacturing.
Steam engines became extremely popular in the mid 1700s due to their fuel efficiency and power. Originally, their main purpose was to pump water out of the previously mentioned flooded mines. However, in 1765 James Watt created a more convenient and even stronger version of the steam engine, they became commercialized and put to work in different forms of transportation (namely trains).
While steam engines are arguably the most powerful inventions to come from the Industrial Revolution, they weren’t the only machine to massively change the manufacturing world. The cotton gin changed the game for textile production. After cotton was picked via slave labor, it was bagged and transferred to factories which used the cotton gin to separate cotton seeds from the actual fluffy material. This enhanced the process of processing cotton so drastically that America became its top manufacturer by 1860, providing nearly 75% of the world’s cotton.
Eventually, the boom of innovation slowed by the end of the First Industrial Revolution, allowing for the perfection and maturation of machinery. During the life of the Second Industrial Revolution, dated from 1867 to 1914, mass production became commercialized, electrical wiring became popular, sewage systems were implemented, and everyday life shifted yet again. This period of time is nicknamed as the Age of Synergy, as new technologies utilizing substances such as petroleum, alloys, and electricity continued to make manufacturing quicker and easier. Convenience continued to spread through communities and consumption levels increased exponentially.
Flash forward to 1952 when the first CNC machine was developed. The CNC machine is now a manufacturing staple, included in nearly every shop that manufactures various items, prismatic parts, gears, and more. CNC machines were created with complex shapes in mind, as creating them via machine requires less time and energy than it does by hand. Then, in 1980, the invention of the all-purpose finishing machine was born from the mind of James Richards. These machines finish parts and gears with repeatable precision, completing larger assemblies for a plethora of industries, such as aerospace, automotive, locomotive, and even kitchenware.
The manufacturing industry was born on a foundation of creativity, innovation, efficiency, and convenience. As cities expanded and the human population grew, both the need and desire for goods provided the perfect breeding ground for all four of these factors. With the expansion of the industry, economies flourished with the influx of created jobs and easily accessible necessities and pleasurable goods. Wages were improved, bringing countless families out of poverty, while simultaneously creating a gap between classes that would only continue to expand into the modern day. The encouragement of urbanization coaxed people out of rural living, and cities formed around factories. Today, cities are epicenters for more than just manufacturing—art, music, politics, education, and more. But without the advancement of the industry, no building would stand as tall and as proud as they do now.