Which two developments were characteristic features of the Industrial Revolution?

The Industrial Revolution, which really took off in the late 1700s and throughout the 1800s, was a period of massive change in Britain. Think of it as a shift from making things by hand to making them with machines in factories. The two key ingredients that powered this transformation were machinery and steam power. New machines, like the power loom for weaving textiles, dramatically increased production speed and efficiency. But these machines needed a power source, and that's where steam came in. James Watt's improved steam engine, patented in 1769, provided a reliable and powerful way to drive these machines. This combination of machinery and steam power revolutionized industries like textiles, mining, and transportation. While medical advances and changes in the law were also happening during this time, they weren't the *driving forces* behind the Industrial Revolution's core transformation of production methods. It was all about the machines and the steam that made them go!