The Industrial Revolution of the 19th and 18th centuries produced much of the basis of today's pollutants. A series of technological advances in machinery, such as the steam engine, along with the overwhelming shift of other goods from homes and small factories to large industrial environments, have led to ever-increasing pollution. The creation of a more productive manufacturing process used to produce cotton fabrics increased the number of factories located in England and eventually moved to the northeastern United States. The steam engine allowed businesses to relocate production facilities destined for rivers and other waterways to densely populated urban areas. Pollution increased due to the concentration of these industrialized urban centers, which now used coal, which replaced the natural energy of fast-flowing rivers. For example, there is widespread evidence of pollution during the first industrial revolution in England and on the European continent. South Wales, located in south-west England, was described by Adam Markham in A Brief History of Pollution (1994) as a "true witches' cauldron of industrial pollution". Hair samples from historical figures such as Isaac Newton and Napoleon Bonaparte show the presence of antimony and mercury at toxic levels not normally found in human hair. Pollution became a really big problem following the industrial revolution. Manual labor was replaced by mechanical labor, which significantly increased productivity. Coal energy has been widely used to replace manual labor of all types. Railroads were also used to get materials wherever they were needed, replacing riverboats and other more manual ways of moving large quantities of material. All of this helped accelerate the growth of paper and a lot of pollution as the world transformed into an industry-driven economy. People moved to cities, which was followed by heavier demands on city life and city products, and more and more manufacturing activities took the heavy toll of this enormous demand. Like all times of great change, problems occurred and the world reacted to the problems and challenges of the time. Now most industrial pollution is slowly being addressed by local governments and nations, but the latest and most harmful pollution is still a worldwide problem that should not be forgotten. Works Cited Webster, B. (2011, July 07). Making a big stink. The Times, pp. 13. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/875240151?accountid=34899Ross, J. (2010). Auld stinks, it doesn't stink anymore. Retrieved from http://www.reformation21.org/articles/auld-reekie-reeks-no-more.php