Industrial Revolution Biography
40 points
Due November 24, 2009
During the Industrial Revolution, many engineers created inventions that changed the
way people lived their lives and made money. Your task is to write a 1-2 page, typed
biography of one of the inventors from this time period. You must find and read at least
three sources on your inventor and use the information as research for you paper. One
source must be encyclopedic, one must be a book, and the other will be an internet
source.
Here is the format for your paper.
Introduction Paragraph
a. Opening Sentence
b. Thesis - One clear statement that sums up your inventor
c. Supporting Statement - One sentence that summarizes your inventors childhood
and education
d. Supporting Statement – Once sentence that explains what the invention your
person created.
e. Supporting Statement - Once sentence that briefly explains the importance that
your inventor had on the world
Body Paragraph #1
a. Opening Sentence – Were your inventor was born
b. Sentence two, three - explain what type of child hood your inventor had
c. Sentence – four, five- give an anecdote about the inventors childhood
Body Paragraph #2
a. Opening Sentence- Restate the invention(s) that your person is known
for
b. Sentence two, three- explain how they came up with the idea
c. Sentence four, five - explain how it was used and who used it.
Body Paragraph #3
a. Opening Sentence – Explain what happened at the end of your inventors life
b. Sentence two, three- What other accomplishments is your person known for?
c. Sentence four five – Describe their family (were they married, have kids?)
d. Sentence six- When and how did they die
Concluding Paragraph
a. One statement that describes your inventor.
b. A statement that explains why the invention they created was
important
c. How did the invention contributed to the Industrial Revolution or
impact the world in general.
d. What is the overall legacy of the your person and their invention
List of Possible Inventors
Thomas Edison – Light Bulb
Eli Whitney – Cotton Gin
Jethro Tull – Seed Drill
Thomas Newcomen- Steam Engine
James Watt- Improved Steam Engine
John Kay- Flying Shuttle
James Hargreaves- Spinning Jenny
Richard Arkwright- Water Frame
Eli Whitney – Cotton Gin
George Stephenson – Steam-powered Locomotive
Alexander Graham Bell – Telephone
George Eastman- Camera
George Washington Carver- many uses for peanut
Marie Curie- radium
Henry Ford- car
Enrico Fermi- nuclear fission
John Deere- the plow
Edmund Cartwright – power loom
Robert Fulton- Steamboat
Samuel Morse- morse code
Guglielmo Marconi- radio
Levi Strauss- jeans
Nicola Tesla- radio
Charles Goodyear tires
Benjamin Franklin- conduction of electricity
Emile Berliner- Microphone
Samuel Colt-gun
Alfred Nobel- dynamite