Inventions, Inventers, and
Innovations
Charles Goodyear discovered “vulcanized” rubber by accident. Mid-19th
century rubber products cracked in the cold or melted in the heat. While showing off one
of his “improved rubber experiments” in a general store, Goodyear accidentally dropped
some rubber mixed with sulfur on a pot-bellied stove. The resulting tough substance –
patented in 1844 as vulcanized rubber - revolutionized the rubber industry.
Elias Howe first heard the term sewing machine while working in Boston for Ari
Davis, who made and repaired precision instruments. People had been trying to invent
such a device for half a century in America and abroad, without any great success. As he
began to build his device, misfortune dogged him. His workshop burned down, and his
machines turned out to cost some $300 each, far more than most households could afford.
In an 1845 demonstration, his invention out-sewed five seamstresses, but he was unable
to sell a single machine. Armed with an 1846 patent, he tried to promote sales of the
device in England but was swindled out of his British royalties. Then, unemployed and
desperate, Howe accepted a meager three pounds a week offered by the swindler to
improve the pirated design. Once that had been achieved, however, Howe was fired. He
managed to ship his family home, then pawned his patent model and papers to buy his
own passage back to America. Soon after his return to Boston, his loyal wife died.
John Deere began his career as a blacksmith. Upon moving from Vermont to
Illinois in search of better economic opportunities, he found that cast iron plows brought
from the East were too flimsy for farming the Midwest soil. In 1837, using a broken saw
blade, he fashioned a steel plow that proved to be perfect for prairie needs. His small
blacksmith shop grew into the industrial giant that today serves more than 160 countries.
Cyrus Hall McCormick invented the mechanical reaper, which combined
all the steps that earlier harvesting machines had performed separately. Patenting his
invention in 1834, after Obed Hussey had announced (1833) the construction of a reaper
of his own, McCormick started to manufacture the machine on the family estate in 1837.
Six years later he began to license its manufacture in other parts of the country. In 1847
he set up a factory in Chicago, founding what eventually became one of the greatest
industrial establishments in the United States. His timesaving invention allowed farmers
to more than double their crop size and spurred innovations in farm machinery.
Samuel F. B. Morse conceived of an electromagnetic telegraph in 1832 and
constructed an experimental version in 1835. He did not construct a truly practical system
until 1844, when he built a line from Baltimore to Washington, D.C. Within ten years
after the first telegraph line opened, 23,000 miles of wire crisscrossed the country. The
invention profoundly affected the development of the West, made railroad travel safer,
and allowed businessmen to conduct their operations more profitably.
Canals: In Europe and then in the young United States, inland canals preceded the
development of railroads during the earliest phase of the Industrial Revolution; some
canals were later drained and used as railroad rights-of-way. Navigable canals reached
into previously isolated areas and brought them in touch with the world economy. The
Erie Canal, for instance, opened up a connection from the populated Northeast to the
fertile Great Plains.
Lowell, Massachusetts, considered to be "The Cradle of the American Industrial
Revolution," has 6 miles of canals, built from around 1790 to 1850, that provided
waterpower and a means of transportation for the city.