Our Family History

The Genealogy of Robert and Christina Barritt

1844 - Bef 1850 (< 6 years)

	Date	Event(s)
1	1844	1844: UK - Charles Darwin wrote, but didn't publish, an essay presaging the theory of the origin of species. 1844: USA - Samuel Finley Breese Morse demonstrates a telegraph, using a code of his own invention 1844: UK - Parliament passes the Bank Charter Act 1844: Yorkshire, UK - Foundation of the Rochdale Co-Operative Society - Chartist and Owenite workers of Rochdale open Rochdale Pioneers Store (cooperative) in Toad (T'owd) Lane 1844: UK - Royal Commission on the Health of Towns 1844: UK - Two years of railway mania begins across Britain. Massive investment and speculation leads to the laying of 5,000 miles of track 1844: UK - Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children founded 1844: UK - Englishman John Mercer invents mercerized cotton. 1844: UK - Ten Hours Bill limited working hours for women and youths in textile business to 10 hours/day, passes thanks to Lord Shaftesbury's efforts during period to 1847
2	1845	1845: Ireland - Irish Potato Famine kills more than a million people in two years 1845: UK - Frederick Engels publishes The Condition of the Working Class in England 1845: UK - There are reckoned to be 210 accountants in London 1845: UK - General Enclosure Act, further enclosure prohibited 1845: USA - James Polk president of the USA to 1849. 1845: USA - American Elias Howe invents a sewing machine. 1845: UK - Robert William Thomson patents the first vulcanised rubber pneumatic tyre. 1845: India - Conquest of Punjab and Kashmir (to 1849)
3	1846	1846: UK - Repeal of the Corn Laws, Britain moves towards complete free trade 1846: UK - Electric Telegraph Company formed, 17 offices by 1854 1846: USA - Mexican-American War 1846-1848. 1846: USA - Dr. William Morton, a Massachusetts dentist, is the first to use anesthesia for tooth extraction.
4	1847	1847: UK - Flourens discovered the anesthetic properties of chloroform 1847: USA - Levi Strauss invents denim jeans 1847: UK - Hungarian Ignaz Semmelweis invents antisceptics.
5	1848	1848: UK - Major Chartist demonstration in London. 1848: UK - Parliament passes the Public Health Act 1848: UK - Karl Marx publishes The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital 1848: UK - 5000 miles of railway tracks now laid, 2000 of which were equipped with telegraph wires; Britain now produces about half of world's pig iron, trebles output within 30 years 1848: UK - Queen's College for Women founded
6	1849	1849: USA - Zachary Taylor president of the USA 1849-1850. Zachary Taylor died while in office. 1849: UK - Walter Hunt invents the safety pin.
7	1850	1850: USA - American Joel Houghton invented the first dishwasher. He made it out of wood, and gave it a hand-turned wheel that splashed water on the dishes inside. It didn't really work, but it did get the first 'dishwasher' patent 1850: UK - First machine-made paper bag 1850: UK - Mines Inspectorate created, helps protect adult male mine workers 1850: USA - Millard Fillmore president of the USA 1850-1853. Vice president under Zachary Taylor, he was sworn in as president after Taylor's death.