industrial revolution Definition

a rapid major change in an economy (as in England in the late 18th century) marked by the general introduction of power-driven machinery or by an important change in the prevailing types and methods of use of such machines

the major social and economic changes that occurred in Britain, Europe, and the U.S. in the late 18th and early 19th centuries when new machinery, new sources of power, and new ways of manufacturing products were developed