Timeline

1707  Act of Union between Scotland and England

1747  French government gives Glasgow merchants monopoly over supply of tobacco to France. Provides much wealth   to Scotland for banking system and business investment

1756  Joseph Black discovers carbon dioxide, a major breakthrough in commercial chemistry, and subsequently alkalis used in the bleaching industries. This was the Chemical Revolution that sparked off the Industrial Revolution.

1780s  Beginning of 1st phase of Industrial Revolution when machinery began to replace manual power on a large scale. Old industries became more efficient.

1786  David Dale founds New Lanark Mills, the beginning of the factory system of organised labour and machinery

1800  Caledonian Pottery founded in Garngadhill

1800s  James Watt’s Separate Condensor revolutionises efficiency and power of steam engines freeing factories and mills from water power and transforms mining industry

1807-11  Glasgow-Paisley-Ardrossan canal built

1810  Paisley Canal disaster, 85 drowned

1812  Henry Bell’s Comet, world’s first successful passenger steamship sailing between Glasgow and Greenock triggers off Clyde shipbuilding industry

1821  Falfield Mills built by George Foster

1820-40s Rosehill tenements, Pollokshaws Road built

1828  J B Neilson patents hot blast furnace

1832  Cholera epidemic kills 3000 people in overcrowded Glasgow. Further epidemics in 1848 and 1853

1835  Caledonian Foundry established in Kingston

1837  Queen Victoria comes to the throne aged 18. British Empire covers one quarter of the world with Glasgow as the Second City of the Empire

1837 Govan Iron Works, Glasgow’s first foundry, established by William Dixon. The workers housing, known as the Lower English buildings also dates from around this period

1840s  End of 1st phase of Industrial Revolution when manual work in many industries had been replaced by machinery

1842  Railway between Glasgow and Edinburgh opened

1844  John Hendry manager of Falfield Mills and living in the manager's house on the site

1850s  Beginning of 2nd phase of Industrial Revolution marked by steam powered ships and railways and later in 19th Century by the internal combustion engine and electrical power. This was an era of cutting edge technology

1850  Between 1850 and 1875, Glasgow’s sewerage system was replaced after several cholera epidemics

1856-60  Queen’s Park Terrace, Eglinton Street, built by Alexander ‘Greek’ Thomson

1857  Kingston Street Engine Works opens

1860s  City Improvement Acts. Slums cleared in cities across Scotland

1861  Kingston Lime Works founded

1867  Caledonian Foundry ceases ironworking and moves to making machine tools

1872-4  Caledonian Pottery moves to new site in Rutherglen

1873  Elgin Street United Presbyterian Church opens

1873  Maitland Free Church, Devon Street opens. Later renamed Abbotsford Parish Church in 1876

1879  Fire at former Caledonian Foundry

1881  Paisley Canal closes

1880s  Dixon’s original foundry demolished

1884  Kingston Biscuit factory opens

1888  Scotland Street Engineering Works established on site of former Caledonian Foundry by W & A McOnie

1890  Forth Railway Bridge opens

1890s  Gas fired kilns introduced at Caledonian Pottery

1898  Caledonian pottery bought by W P Hartley, Liverpool jam-makers

1903-6  Scotland Street School built by Charles Rennie Mackintosh

1929  Caledonian Pottery closes

1930  Caledonian Steel Works built on site of Pottery

1930  Scotland Street Engineering Works liquidated

1930s Kingston Biscuit Factory closes

1958  Dixon’s Blazes closes

1960  Kingston Biscuit Factory demolished

1966  Dixon’s Blazes finally demolished