Early Industries and Inventions Chapter 11, sec. 1

One American’s Story Britain was the first country with the ability to make machines to make thread and cloth. It was illegal for textile workers to leave the country In 1789 Samuel Slater brought the secret of textile machines to the United States. With the backing Moses Brown this man built the first water-powered textile mill in America.

The Industrial Revolution Begins def: the time when factory machines began replacing hand tools and manufacturing replaced farming as the main form of work.

The Industrial Revolution Begins The War of 1812 led to an Industrial Revolution in the United States like the one that started in Britain in the late 18th century. The British blockade  kept out imported goods, so US had to start manufacturing their own goods  stopped investors from spending money on shipping and trade so they invested in new American industries

The Industrial Revolution Begins The factory system brought many workers and machines together under one roof.  Most factories were built near water to power the machines.  People left farms and crowded into cities where factories were located.  They worked for wages, on a set schedule.

Factories Come to New England New England was a good place to set up factories.  fast moving rivers = water power  ships and access to the ocean = transportation of goods and raw materials  poor soil meant difficult farming = willing labor force

Factories Come to New England Slater’s Mill  first spinning mill (spun cotton into yarn) – opened in 1790  hired eight children between the ages of 7-12 and payed a low wage  built a larger mill and employed whole families  others began opening mills and used Slater’s system of family employment

The Lowell Mills Hire Women Francis Cabot Lowell built a factory in Waltham, Massachusetts. The Lowell mill not only spun cotton into yarn, but wove it into cloth on power looms Like Samuel Slater, Lowell had brought secrets to America. He had seen power looms in English mills and figured out how to build them.

The Lowell Mills Hire Women Waltham factory was so successful that Lowell and his partners built a factory town, Lowell, near the Merrimack and Concord Rivers

The Lowell Mills Hire Women The Lowell Mills were textile mills around which the town was based. The Lowell Mills employed a new labor force - young women  girls lived in a company-owned boardinghouse  worked 12 ½ hour days  followed strict rules and had to attend church  girls read books, went to lectures, and published a literary magazine – The Lowell Offering  most girls only worked for a few years until they married

The Lowell Mills Hire Women Wages and Working Conditions  Initially wages were good, between $2-$4 per week  By the 1830s falling profits meant lower pay and working conditions worsened

The Lowell Mills Hire Women Factories move beyond New England  The Lowell Mills and other early factories ran on water power.  Factories built after the 1830s were run by steam engines.  Because steam engines used coal and wood, not fast-moving water, factories could be built away from rivers and beyond New England.

A New Way to Manufacture Eli Whitney’s task  The US government hired Eli Whitney to make 10,000 muskets for the army in two years.  Guns were made one at a time by gunsmiths from start to finish. Each gun was slightly different. If a part broke, a new one had to be custom made to replace it.

A New Way to Manufacture A better way to make things.  Whitney developed the idea of interchangeable parts, or parts that are exactly alike. sped up production made repairs easy allowed the use of less-skilled, lower-paid workers  Machines that produced exactly matching parts soon became the standard.

Moving People, Goods, and Messages New inventions increased factory production and improved transportation and communication. The telegraph and the steamboat brought more national unity

Moving People, Goods, and Messages Fulton’s Steamboat  Robert Fulton invented a steamboat that could move against the current or a strong wind.  Launched the Clermont on the Hudson River in  Steam engine turned two side paddle wheels which pulled the boat through the water.  Made the trip from New York to Albany and back in a record 62 hours.

Moving People, Goods, and Messages Expanding on Fulton’s idea.  1811 the first steamship traveled down the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers but could not return upriver.  Henry Miller Shreve designed a more powerful engine and installed it on a double-decker boat with a paddle wheel on the back. This boat made it back up the Mississippi and launched a new era of transportation and trade.

Moving People, Goods, and Messages The Telegraph  Samuel F.B. Morse first demonstrated his telegraph in  Machine sent long and short pulses of electricity along a wire which could be translated into the letters of a message.  With the telegraph it took only seconds to communicate with someone in another city.  Telegraph lines spanned the country by 1861

Technology Improves Farming John Deere’s Plow  John Deere invented a lightweight plow with a steel cutting edge.  Old plows were designed for light New England soil and didn’t work in heavy Midwestern soil.  Deere’s plow made preparing the ground easier and more farmers moved to the Midwest.

Technology Improves Farming Cyrus McCormick  reaper cut ripe grain  threshing machine separated kernels of wheat from husks  Made harvesting grain more efficient so more land could be farmed

Impact of Technology New technologies linked regions and contributed to national unity.  Midwestern farmers grew food for Northeastern factory workers  Midwestern farmers became a market for Northeastern manufactured goods.  Growth of textile mills led to an increased demand for Southern cotton which led to the expansion of slavery