Editing Warehouse (section)

===20th century===
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[[File:Pallet racks.jpg|thumb|upright|Aisle with pallets on storage racks in a modern warehouse]]
Two new power sources, [[hydraulics]], and electricity, re-shaped warehouse design and practice at the end of the 19th century and into the 20th century.

Public [[hydraulic power network]]s were constructed in many large industrial cities around the world in the 1870s-80s, exemplified by [[Manchester Hydraulic Power|Manchester]]. They were highly effective to power cranes and lifts, whose application in warehouses served taller buildings and enabled new labour efficiencies.

Public [[Electric power industry|electricity networks]] emerged in the 1890s. They were used at first mainly for lighting and soon to electrify lifts, making possible taller, more efficient warehouses. It took several decades for electrical power to be distributed widely throughout cities in the western world.

20th-century technologies made warehousing ever more efficient. Electricity became widely available and transformed lighting, security, lifting, and transport from the 1900s. The [[internal combustion engine]], developed in the late 19th century, was installed in mass-produced vehicles from the 1910s. It not only reshaped transport methods but enabled many applications as a compact, portable power plant, wherever small engines were needed.
[[File:Adams & Bazemore Cotton Warehouse, 4th near Poplar, circa 1877 - DPLA - 7e9ab74033df525c16cfacddfb85955f.jpeg|thumb|302x302px|Adams & Bazemore Cotton Warehouse in [[Macon, GA]], {{Circa|1877}}]]
The [[forklift]] truck was invented in the early 20th century and came into wide use after [[World War II]]. Forklifts transformed the possibilities of multi-level [[pallet racking]] of goods in taller, single-level steel-framed buildings for higher storage density. The forklift, and its load fixed to a uniform [[pallet]], enabled the rise of [[Logistics|logistic]] approaches to storage in the later 20th century.

Always a building of function, in the late 20th century warehouses began to adapt to standardization, mechanization, technological innovation, and changes in [[supply chain]] methods. Here in the 21st century, we are currently witnessing the next major development in warehousing, [[warehouse automation|automation]].