the world. The mass processing of cotton had begun. Today the Cromford Mill is a recognised World Heritage Site. The same goes for all the other remaining early industrial factories in the valley. Their [...] witness to the start of a new era. This had a lot to do with inventions and factories and especially with the people who worked in the factories. The major burden of the Industrial Revolution – here and [...] Richard Arkwright, a former wigmaker, recognised this fact and promptly invented a hitherto unheard of machine: the water frame. It could spin fine yarn in a way which only hand driven spinning wheels had

The MIK Osnabrück Museum of Industrial Culture is located on the Piesberg in the UNESCO Nature and Geopark TERRA.vita. Sandstone and coal have been quarried on the Piesberg since early modern times. A [...] routes. From the second half of the 19th century onwards, coal was mined industrially in underground mines, but due to problems with water drainage, mining ceased in 1898. The museum opened in 1994 in the Piesberg [...] focuses on the interplay between man, nature and the economy. It tells the social and economic history of the region and illustrates the profound changes that industrialisation has brought to society, culture

range of goods boasting the label “Made in Sheffield”. The Kelham Island Museum, housed on the site of a disused generating station, is an impressive presentation of the city’s industrial heritage. Here [...] Sir Henry Bessemer invented a method of mass-producing steel with his so-called Bessemer converter. Shortly after that Robert Forrester Mushet invented a new form of alloy steel, and in 1913 Harry Brearley [...] Here you can see one of the most powerful steam engines in the world. Alongside it stands a massive Bessemer converter whose invention in 1856 revolutionised steel manufacturing. “Little mesters” symbolise

thanks to the museum of mining. The round tour of the museum entitled "Between Men and Machines" gives a vivid picture of the strict hierarchy at the pit and the close intermeshing of the various working [...] they might have come out of the Middle Ages. Behind them are redbrick buildings which, because of their rich decorations, might easily be mistaken for churches or palaces. From one of the roofs emerges the [...] the slim and graceful steel frame of a pithead tower. It is immediately clear that the historical St Emanuel colliery in the former Belgium coalmining area of “Le Centre” is an architectural jewel. During

masse – in the form of hundreds of slate quarries. In the 19th century the slate tiles on almost every roof in Britain had been mined and cut by Welshmen.The National Slate Museum in Llanberis gives visitors [...] hand-craftsmen revealing the skills and artistry of generations of quarry workers. Much of the site still looks like it did in the 19th century. The gigantic waterwheel that once drove all the machinery is still [...] visitors a vivid impression of their masterly skills. It is located in the Victorian workshops of the vast Dinorwig slate quarry. Here you can see slate-splitting demonstrations by traditional hand-craftsmen

computer programmes, audio-visual scenarios, the smell of oil and the noise of running machines, Verdant Works is a place where the power of the industrial past is made vividly present. [...] else in the world. One of them was the Verdant Works. The last working jute mill in Britain is now an exciting museum. Here visitors can find out more about the past history of the local textile industry [...] In the offices they can eavesdrop on the clerks. Later they can travel alongside the bales of jute in the hold of a clipper from India to Dundee before being confronted with the appalling factory conditions

as an industrial dinosaur. It extends over an area of 600,000 square metres and exemplifies the combined power of more than 100 years of iron and steel manufacturing. It was the first industrial monument [...] the top of the 30 metre high charging platform. Here, where the blast furnace was once charged with coke and ore, you can get the best view of the mill and the surrounding industrial landscape of the Saar [...] inscribed into the United Nations list of World Cultural Heritage Sites. No wonder it is packed with visitors. Here expert guides will take you on a tour through the labyrinths of blast furnaces and air heaters

Dimitsana is a village some 30 km north-west of Tripolis in the Central Peloponnese. The museum, a site of the Museum Network of the Cultural Foundation of the Piraeus Bank Group (PIOP), is close to a [...] was an important source of gunpowder for the Greeks in the War of Independence against the Turks in the early nineteenth century. All the principal structures have been restored of a tannery, including the [...] adjoins the miller’s house. The same building accommodated a fulling mill, of which some 20 fulling vats remain. A powder mill is one of many in Greece where, from the sixteenth century, villages collected and

lives of 5,000 miners and their families? The "Portal of Industrial Heritage" translates this history to the entire Ruhr district: multimedia stations effectively showcase 18 former flagships of large-scale [...] The past is explored by the "Heritage Trail", bringing to life the history and technology of what was once Europe's largest coal mine. What was it like when the rhythm of gigantic machines and conveyor [...] under one roof. The Ruhr Museum in the former coal washing plant focuses on even more immense dimensions. It recounts the natural and cultural history of the Ruhr area over a period of 300 million years - from

network of high technology stretching over more than six square kilometres. This is what the future of industrial heritage looks like. In the Chemical Industry Estate in Marl, on the northern edge of the [...] part of the present. One of Europe’s largest chemical sites is booming here on the former site of the Hüls chemical works. All the necessary prerequisites are in place: a motorway right in front of the [...] is an mind-boggling view over the length and breadth of this gigantic estate, including the town of Marl, the Ruhrgebiet and the southern areas of Munsterland. The Chemical Industry Estate in Marl has

the help of wire. It is no surprise that this museum is located in Altena. The industrial history of the town is brimming over with wire-drawers. Not to speak of hooks and eyes which were some of the first [...] neighbouring town of Iserlohn have remained important centres of the wire industry to the present day. The German Wire Museum exists since 1965. It was originally housed in a part of the mediaeval Altena [...] you visit the German Wire Museum in Altena in the Sauerland region, south of the Ruhr. Here you can see everything which has been made from wire down through the years: a coat of chain mail, a super conductor

Fuel came from the extensive stretches of forest to the west of the Sauerland region. As a rule of thumb, 30 tons of timber would make six tons of charcoal and a ton of smelted iron. This explains the charcoal [...] Smoking chimneys and industrial spires towering into the heavens! Not here! The Luisenhütte in Balve-Wocklum looks almost cosy. No steel, no complicated tangles of pipes, no gigantic engine house. Instead [...] complete blast furnace site in Germany. This was what an industrial plant looked like before the Ruhrgebiet stepped in to create an industrial landscape par excellence. The blast furnace is 10 metres high

wonderful views of the city. This is not only due to the height of the trains but to Wuppertal itself – more precisely to the nature of the Wupper valley, which is the literal translation of “Wupper-Tal” [...] follow the course of the river like the overhead railway. Thus passengers are able to glide over a crowded city landscape of old textile mills, residential areas and squares most of which sprang up in [...] connection between the two ends of the long and winding city. Since most of it was built over the river it also took up very little valuable building space and saved an immense amount of expense in buying up land

transformed into attractive lakes. In the museum itself, visitors breathe the smell of pressed briquettes as if the final shift only ended yesterday. The tour of the machine rooms, blackened by coal dust [...] onwards showcase the skills of 20th century engineers and technicians. This is particularly true of the three steam turbines in the power station: they range from the days of the German Empire to the 1950s [...] touch, and feel: entering the former Knappenrode briquette factory means to explore 100 years of Lusatian industrial history with all your senses. The visit starts by climbing the 22-metre open staircase. From

typical pattern of everyday life in the north German Wool Combing and Worsted Spinning Mill in Delmenhorst. The huge industrial site covering more than 25 hectares of land was one of the largest of its type in [...] the Nordwolle Factory Museum housed in the ornamented red brick building of the old turbine house which used to be the central power station of the works. In the adjacent row of sheds visitors can follow [...] follow the process of turning raw wool into yarn – some of this on working machines – and learn about the history of the many women and men who more or less fell unprepared into the maw of this immense factory

The great medieval city of Norwich offers such a wealth of heritage that it is easy to overlook the variety of industrial buildings from all periods and particularly the nineteenth century that lie within [...] Bridewell Museum, hosting an outstanding collection of industrial and social memories, is itself housed in a former shoe factory and one-time prison. The building encapsulates the contradictions of this medieval [...] within the city centre. The industrial economy of Norwich was built on the diverse mixture of textiles, shoe manufacture, food production and pharmaceuticals. Textiles were an important medieval industry

the turn of the 20th century. Inside: innovative products of Saxon industrial history, the major ones highlighted on a silver strip. The exhibits cover more than 200 years, from the beginning of industr [...] demonstration of machines is a focal point of the museum. In the basement, where the textile tools are located, an entire production line is switched on, illustrating the century-old history of the Saxon textile [...] textile industry by automatically spinning, knitting and weaving. One of the highlights of this fascinating tour is the factory‘s engine house with its attractive frescos, complete with a steam engine

remarkably genuine sound of crackling fire and bursting rock. The Rammelsberg Museum and Visitor Mine near Goslar stages 1,000 years of mining history; from the age-old method of mining ore by laying a fire [...] through a mediaeval system of galleries, to the thunderous roar of modern mining and conveying techniques during a trip on the colliery railway. A fine example of industrial architecture awaits visitors [...] accompanied by vivid sound effects of everyday working conditions. The mine was inscribed as a World Cultural Heritage site in 1992 – along with the former Imperial Town of Goslar.

Outside the gates of Seraing, which is dominated by the huge industrial plant belonging the Cockerill-Sambre concern, lies a truly splendid building on the right bank of the River Maas: the former Cistercian [...] monastery of Val Saint Lambert. Since it was founded it has been heavily damaged many times: the last time in 2006 when the roof of the abbey castle was destroyed by fire. Nonetheless the group of buildings [...] even included its own workers´ quarter. Nowadays visitors to the museum can go on an impressive guided tour which includes a demonstration of glass production at close quarters. A lovingly designed journey

until it was sold to the industrial entrepreneur Antti Ahlström in 1886. After 250 years, the ironworks ceased operations in 1950. Today Strömfors Ironworks is considered one of Finland's best preserved [...] buildings is the brick building of a water-powered forge dating from 1871, which used charcoal for its fresh fire operation. It was in use until 1950. Since 1960, it has housed a museum where visitors can learn [...] in1887, is also used as a museum. The church in the ironworks settlement dates from to the early 1770s and there are still many workers' houses along the riverbank, the oldest of which dates from to the