Primer - Britain’s future i s in t echnology and innovation

7 The d evelopment of t he locomotive a nd t he electric t elegraph i ncreased c onnectivity – b ut they also s erved a s a driver for f urther i nnovation through creating a unified s tandard time, which then h elped form the basis f or our current s ystems o f communication and travel. [...] The markers of p rogress: H ow technology benefits humanity Like t he invention of railways and the e lectric telegraph and the standardisation of time, the m odern w orld has b een s haped b y the p rogress of s cience a nd technology. [...] T he late Hans Rosling, Professor of I nternational H ealth a t the Karolinska Institute, went so far a s to s ay that t he washing machine w as the greatest invention of the industrial revolution for the way i t enabled 12 T homas H ager, Ten Drugs: H ow Plants, Powders, and P ills Have Shaped the H istory o f M edicine (New Y ork: Abrams Press, 2019). [...] T he e xpansion of B ritain’s r ural manufacturing industries led to a n increase in d emand f or labour and to increases in the wages and living standards of workers i n the UK, to the extent that they were the highest in the world. [...] An article in The Times i n 1882 noted: There was nothing more irritating than the unburnt carbon floating i n the air; it fell on the air tubes of the human system, and formed a dark expectoration which was so injurious t o the c onstitution; it g athered on the lungs and there accumulated.