Editing Portsmouth (section)

=== Industrial Revolution to Edwardian ===

[[File:Warrior 1.JPG|thumb|right|{{HMS|Warrior|1860|6}} (launched in 1860) has been restored to its original Victorian condition.|alt=A picture of the iron-clad HMS Warrior docked in Portsmouth's historic harbour. The ship has since been restored to its original Victorian condition.]]
[[Marc Isambard Brunel]] established the world's first mass-production line at [[Portsmouth Block Mills]], making [[pulley]] [[block (sailing)|blocks]] for [[rigging]] on the navy's ships.<ref name="royal">{{cite web |title=Portsmouth Royal Dockyard history: 1690–1840 |url=http://portsmouthdockyard.org.uk/Page%206.htm |publisher=Portsmouth Royal Dockyard |access-date=22 July 2016}}</ref> The first machines were installed in January 1803, and the final set (for large blocks) in March 1805. In 1808, the mills produced 130,000 blocks.<ref name="block">{{cite web |title=Portsmouth Dockyard Block Mills history |url=http://www.portsmouth-guide.co.uk/local/blockmills.htm |website=Portsmouth Guide |publisher=Portsmouth Council |access-date=22 July 2016}}</ref> By the turn of the 19th century, Portsmouth was the largest industrial site in the world; it had a workforce of 8,000, and an annual budget of £570,000.<ref>{{cite web |title=Shipbuilding & The Dockyard |url=http://www.ataleofonecity.portsmouth.gov.uk/topic/shipbuilding-the-dockyard/ |website=A Tale of One City |publisher=Portsmouth City Council |access-date=22 July 2016 |archive-date=20 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160820101524/http://www.ataleofonecity.portsmouth.gov.uk/topic/shipbuilding-the-dockyard/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 1805, [[Horatio Nelson|Admiral Nelson]] left Portsmouth to command the fleet which defeated France and Spain at the [[Battle of Trafalgar]].<ref name="history3"/> The Royal Navy's reliance on Portsmouth led to its becoming the most fortified city in the world.{{sfn|Pevsner|1967|p=422}} The Royal Navy's [[West Africa Squadron]], tasked with halting the slave trade, began operating out of Portsmouth in 1808.<ref name="BBC slave trade">{{cite news |title=From slave trade to humanitarian aid |work=[[BBC News]] |date=19 March 2007 |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/hampshire/6430401.stm |access-date=2 April 2007}}</ref>  A network of forts, known as the [[Palmerston Forts, Portsmouth|Palmerston Forts]], was built around the town as part of a programme led by Prime Minister [[Lord Palmerston]] to defend British military bases from an inland attack following an Anglo-French war scare in 1859. The forts were nicknamed "Palmerston's Follies" because their armaments were pointed inland and not out to sea.{{sfn|Hewitt|2013|p=79}}

In April 1811, the Portsea Island Company constructed the first piped-water supply<ref name="water">{{cite web |title=A History of Portsmouth Water Supply |url=http://www.welcometoportsmouth.co.uk/portsmouth%20water.html |website=Welcome to Portsmouth |publisher=Portsmouth City Council |access-date=10 August 2016 |archive-date=20 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160320130502/http://www.welcometoportsmouth.co.uk/portsmouth%20water.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> to upper- and middle-class houses.<ref name="history2"/> It supplied water to about 4,500 of Portsmouth's 14,000 houses, generating an income of £5,000 a year.<ref name="water"/> HMS ''Victory''{{'}}s active career ended in 1812, when she was moored in Portsmouth Harbour and used as a [[depot ship]]. The town of Gosport contributed £75 a year to the ship's maintenance.{{sfn|Hewitt|2013|p=39}} In 1818, [[John Pounds]] began teaching working-class children in the country's first [[ragged school]].<ref>{{cite web |title=John Pounds Memorial Church |url=http://www.memorials.inportsmouth.co.uk/old-portsmouth/john-pounds.htm |website=InPortsmouth |publisher=CIS |access-date=14 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120410154507/http://www.memorials.inportsmouth.co.uk/old-portsmouth/john-pounds.htm |archive-date=10 April 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfn|Hewitt|2013|pp=66, 67}} The Portsea Improvement Commissioners installed gas street lighting throughout Portsmouth in 1820,<ref name="history3"/> followed by Old Portsmouth three years later.<ref name="history2"/>

During the 19th century, Portsmouth expanded across Portsea Island. [[Buckland, Portsmouth|Buckland]] was merged into the town by the 1860s, and Fratton and [[Stamshaw]] were incorporated by the next decade. Between 1865 and 1870, the council built sewers after more than 800 people died in a [[cholera]] epidemic; according to a [[by-law]], any house within {{convert|100|ft}} of a sewer had to be connected to it.<ref name="history3"/> By 1871 the population had risen to 100,000,<ref name="history2"/> and the national census listed Portsmouth's population as 113,569.<ref name="history3"/> A working-class suburb was constructed in the 1870s, when about 1,820 houses were built, and it became [[Somerstown, Hampshire|Somerstown]].<ref name="history3"/> Despite public-health improvements, 514 people died in an 1872 [[smallpox]] epidemic.<ref name="history3"/> On 21 December of that year, the [[Challenger expedition|''Challenger'' expedition]] embarked on a {{convert|68890|nmi|km|adj=on}} circumnavigation of the globe for scientific research.{{sfn|Rice|1999|pp=27–48}}<ref>{{cite web|title=The Voyage of the Challenger |url=http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio/challenger.html |publisher=Stony Brook University |access-date=22 July 2016 |archive-date=14 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120514202553/http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/marinebio/challenger.html |url-status=dead}}</ref>

When the [[British Empire]] was at its height of power, covering a quarter of Earth's total land area and 458&nbsp;million people at the turn of the 20th century, Portsmouth was considered "the world's greatest naval port".{{sfn|Hewitt|2013|p=24}} In 1900, Portsmouth Dockyard employed 8,000 people{{nbsp}}– a figure which increased to 23,000 during the [[First World War]].<ref name="history2"/>{{sfn|Hewitt|2013|p=91}} The whole of Portsea Island came united under the control of Portsmouth borough council in 1904.<ref name="portsenc"/>

In 1906, {{HMS|Dreadnought|1906|6}} was launched from Portsmouth Dockyard. The ship revolutionised naval warfare and began an arms race with Germany. The ship's entry into service in 1906 represented such an advance in naval technology that her name came to be associated with an entire generation of battleships.