Who improved and patanted the steam …

James Watt improved the steam engine produced by Newcomen and patented the new engine in 1781.
First pace of industrialisation:

• Cotton and metals were the most dynamic industries in Britain.
• During the first phase of industrialization (upto 1840s), cotton was the leading sector.
• The iron and steel industries grew rapidly with the expansion of railways.
• The railways expanded in England from the 1840s and in the colonies from 1860s.
• By 1873, the export of iron and steel from Britain was valued at about 77 million pounds. This was double the value of cotton export.

Second pace:

• At the end of the nineteenth century, less than 20% of total workforce was employed in technologically advanced industrial sectors.
• This shows that the traditional industry could not be displaced by the new industries.

Third pace:

• The cotton or metal industries could not set the change of pace in the traditional industries.
• But the traditional industries experienced many changes which were brought by small and apparently ordinary innovations.
• Food processing, building, pottery, glasswork, tanning, furniture making and production of implements were such industries.

Fourth pace:

• The new technology took a long time to spread across the industrial landscape.
• High cost of machines and costly repair scared the merchants and industrialists.
• The new machines were not as effective as claimed by their inventors and manufacturers.