In the Beginning… 1• Humans have always been able to make and use tools. The first tools were as basic as

stone axes and wooden spears. As time went on, people continued to develop more and better tools.

• The Industrial Revolution is a historical period when hand tools were replaced by powered machinery and large scale industrial production. The Industrial Revolution began in England in the 1700’s and then through Europe and the US. The invention of machine tools and engines changed everything. A piece of clothing that had taken much skill and time to make by hand could be made quickly by a machine. People who had always worked in their homes or

private shops had to find jobs in city factories.• The Industrial Revolution had both positive

effects on people. There were more and

better goods. New forms of transportation

and communication were invented. New

materials and energy sources were

developed. On the other hand, industry

brought pollution, child labor, low wages

and crowded cities.

The Cotton Gin 1793

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• When: 1793• Who: Eli Whitney• What did it do?

Eli Whitney invented a cotton gin, short for“engine,” that allowed for mass processing of cotton. Before this invention, picking cotton required many hours and much labor to remove seeds. With this invention, the cotton industry was revolutionized.

• Effects? The cotton gin increased demand for cotton

to be quickly made in to cloth. The southern plantations became vital to the industrial survival of the country because they grew the cotton. The northern states developed a large factory system which became dependent on southern cotton and in turn slave labor increased. The cotton gin meant more to textile mills and interchangeable parts meant to factories.

The Cotton Gin

The Steamboat

1807 3

• The term steamboat is usually used to refer to smaller steam-powered boats working on lakes and rivers, particularly riverboats; steamship generally refers to larger steam-powered ships, usually ocean-going, capable of carrying a (ship's) boat.

• Robert Fulton was the first to operate steamboats commercially. Fulton may have become interested in steamboats at the age of 12

• The use of steamboats on major US rivers soon followed Fulton's success. In 1811 the first in a continuous (still in commercial passenger operation as of 2007) line of river steamboats left the dock at Pittsburgh to steam down the Ohio River to the Mississippi and on to New Orleans.

• Steamboat traffic including passenger and freight business grew exponentially in the decades before the Civil War. So too did the economic and human losses inflicted by snags, shoals, boiler explosions, and human error.

The Steamboat

Interchangeable Parts

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• Interchangeable parts are parts that are, for practical purposes, identical. They are made to specifications that ensure that they are so nearly identical that they will fit into any device of the same type. One such part can freely replace another, without any custom fitting (such as filing). This interchangeability allows easy assembly of new devices, and easier repair of existing devices, while minimizing both the time and skill required of the person doing the assembly or repair.

• Ford assembly line, 1913. The magneto was the first to be assembled.

• The concept of interchangeability was crucial to the introduction of the assembly line at the beginning of the 20th century, and has become a ubiquitous element of modern manufacturing.

• Interchangeable parts had the same effect in the North that the cotton gin had on the South- products could be produced more efficiently and in a shorter time. Whitney’s invention had a major impact on manufacturing.

Interchangeable Parts

The Lowell Mills 5

• Lowell traveled to Great Britain, where he spent two years studying the inner workings of the textile industry and the power looms being used in those factories.  Lowell brought his knowledge back to the US, and with his brother and business associates, formed the Boston Manufacturing Company, which improved upon the power loom technology that was used in their textile mill in Waltham, Massachusetts. The waterways in Lowell proved to be perfect to power Boston Manufacturing Company’s power looms, and a new textile mill was opened by the company in Lowell, MA.

• Lowell was a pioneer in employing women in his mills, and although they were paid lower wages, they were offered educational and religious freedoms that weren’t offered anywhere else at the time. They were also given superior boarding houses and cash wages, that weren’t afforded to women elsewhere. These pioneering women became known as Lowell Mill Girls, and they were the backbone of Lowell’s thriving cotton industry during the American Industrial Revolution.

The Lowell Mills

The Erie Canal 6

• The Erie Canal is a waterway in New York that runs about 363 miles (584 km) from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Buffalo, New York, at Lake Erie, completing a navigable water route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes. The canal contains 36 locks and encompasses a total elevation differential of around 565 ft. (169 m).

• It was the first transportation system between the eastern seaboard (New York City) and the western interior (Great Lakes) of the United States that did not require portage, was faster than carts pulled by draft animals, and cut transport costs by about 95%. The canal fostered a population surge in western New York State, opened regions farther west to settlement, and helped New York City become the chief U.S. port.

The Erie Canal

The Telegraph

18447

• is the long-distance transmission of messages using some form of on-off coding system. Telegraphy requires that the code (sometimes called a "language") used for translating the message be known to both sender and receiver. Such codes are designed according to limits of a given signalling medium.

• In 1837, American artist-turned inventor Samuel Morse conducted the first successful experiment with an electrical recording telegraph.

• A telegraph message sent by an electrical telegraph operator or telegrapher using Morse code (or a printing telegraph operator using plain text) was known as a telegram. A cablegram (see cablegram) was a message sent by a submarine telegraph cable,[1] often shortened to a cable or a wire. Later, a Telex was a message sent by a Telex network, a switched network of teleprinters similar to a telephone network.

The Telegraph

Mechanical Reaper 1834 8

Mechanical Reaper

• Cyrus McCormick of Virginia was responsible for liberating farm workers from hours of back-breaking labor by introducing the farmers to his newly invented mechanical reaper in July, 1831.

• The first reapers cut the standing grain and, with a revolving reel, swept it onto a platform from which it was raked off into piles by a man walking alongside. It could harvest more grain than five men using the earlier cradles. The next innovation, patented in 1858, was a self-raking reaper with an endless canvas belt that delivered the cut grain to two men who riding on the end of the platform, bundled it.

Sewing Machine1850 9

Sewing Machine

• Sewing machines did not go into mass production until the 1850's, when Isaac Singer built the first commercially successful machine. Singer built the first sewing machine where the needle moved up and down rather than the side-to-side and the needle was powered by a foot treadle. Previous machines were all hand-cranked. However, Isaac Singer's machine used the same lockstitch that Howe had patented. Elias Howe sued Isaac Singer for patent infringement and won in 1854.

Bessemer Steel Process 1855 10

Bessemer Steel Process

• The Bessemer process was the first inexpensive industrial process for the mass-production of steel from molten pig iron. The process is named after its inventor, Henry Bessemer, who took out a patent on the process in 1855. The process was independently discovered in 1851 by William Kelly The key principle is removal of impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. The oxidation also raises the temperature of the iron mass and keeps it molten.

Steam Locomotive 11

Steam Locomotive

• A steam locomotive is a railway locomotive that produces its power through a steam engine. These locomotives are fueled by burning some combustible material, usually coal, wood or oil, to produce steam in a boiler, which drives the steam engine. Both fuel and water supplies are carried with the locomotive, either on the locomotive itself or in wagons pulled behind.

• Steam locomotives were first developed in Britain and dominated railway transportation until the middle of the 20th century. From the early 1900s they were gradually superseded by electric and diesel locomotives.

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