Threshing Machine
The invention of the threshing machine is credited to Andrew Meikle, a Scottish engineer. The threshing
machine came about in the 1780s.
In the United States, Alexander Anderson created a model in 1782. Since Thomas Jefferson and George
Washington owned farms, threshing machines were an interest to both of them. Together they went to
see the new machine in action in August 1791. A year later, Jefferson ordered one of Meikle’s models
from London, In a letter to James Madison, Jefferson shows his excitement over the new machine.
I expect every day to receive from Mr. Pinckney the model of the Scotch threshing machine…Mr. P.
[Pinckney] writes me word that the machine from which my model is taken threshes 8. quarters (64.
bushels) of oats an hour, with 4. horses and 4 men. I hope to get it in time to have one erected at
Monticello to clean out the present crop.
At his Monticello estate, Jefferson ended up using three threshing machines. One was stationary and
worked by water, while the other two could be moved and worked by horses. In a July 6, 1796 letter from
Washington to Jefferson, the importance of a portable machine can be seen.
If you can bring a moveable threshing machine, constructed upon simple principles to perfection, it will
be among the most valuable institutions in this Country; for nothing is more wanting, & to be wished for
on our farms.
The threshing machine of the yesteryears is the combine of modern times. Both machines remove the
grain from the stalks. The main difference is that the combine is self-propelled and eliminates both the
man-hours and the threshing crew that the old threshing machines used.
The combine allowed farmers to harvest their crops easier and quicker. While the number of acres has
risen over the years, the number of farms has dropped. For example, in North Dakota alone, a 1998 study
showed that the average farm increased over 1,000 acres but the number of farms have decreased close
to 50,000 since 1920.
Mechanical Reaper
Cyrus McCormick of Virginia was responsible for liberating farm workers from hours of backbreaking
labor by introducing the farmers to his newly invented mechanical reaper in July, 1831. By 1847, Cyrus
McCormick began the mass manufacture of his reaper in a Chicago factory.
The invention of two successful reaping machines - independently by Obed Hussey in Ohio, who obtained
the first patent in 1834, and by Cyrus Hall McCormick in Virginia - brought about an end to tedious
handiwork and encouraged the invention and manufacture of other labor-saving farm implements and
machinery. The first reapers cut the standing grain and, with a revolving reel, swept it onto a platform
from which a man walking alongside raked it off into piles. 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.
Meanwhile, Cyrus McCormick had moved to Chicago, built a reaper factory, and founded what eventually
became the International Harvester Company. In 1872 he produced a reaper, which automatically bound
the bundles with wire. In 1880, he came out with a binder which, using a magical knotting device
(invented by John F. Appleby a Wisconsin pastor) bound the handles with twine.
Cotton Gin
In 1793, Eli Whitney invented a simple machine that influenced the history of the United States. He
invented a cotton gin that was popular in the South. The South became the cotton producing part of the
country because Whitney’s cotton gin was able to successfully pull out the seeds from the cotton bolls.
Eli Whitney was born in Westboro, Massachusetts on December 8, 1765 and died on January 8, 1825. As
a young boy he liked to work in his father’s workshop taking things apart, like clocks, and putting them
back together again. When he was a young man, he worked on a Georgian plantation tutoring
children. He noticed the trouble the slaves were having picking seed from cotton bolls. In his spare time,
he put together an instrument that would allow the slaves to clean more cotton in a shorter amount of
time.
The cotton gin was a very simple invention. First, the cotton bolls were put into the top of the
machine. Next, you turn the handle, which turns the cotton through the wire teeth that combs out the
seeds. Then the cotton is pulled out of the wire teeth and out of the cotton gin.
Farmers were able to plant more cotton. Cotton is easy to grow but because it was so difficult to clean,
cotton was not a cash crop. Tobacco and indigo were the South’s cash crops. Tobacco is difficult to
grow. Tobacco wears out the land and the land must be given a rest once every 7 years. But cotton can
grow anywhere, even on land that is drained of its nutrients.
Now that cotton is easier to clean and since it grows easily, cotton became the number one cash crop in
the South. The farmers needed more land to grow cotton. They took the land from the Native
Americans. The farmers needed more workers. Slaves were the free labor that the farmers needed
toharvest the cotton.
This growth of cotton production affected the world. The Northern part of the United States bought more
cotton and built more textile mills. England built more textile mills and demanded much more
cotton. These were two big markets to which the South sold their cotton. The South was not able to build
textile mills because their capital was tied up in their slaves so that they could produce more cotton. The
South also did not have the need or the capital to build up a good transportation system, such as canals
and railroads.
During the Civil War, the South had many disadvantages over the North. Large portions of their
population were uneducated slaves. They had no factories to produce goods and to become self sufficient
when they separated from the North. Because the South had not built up a good transportation system,
they were not able to move men and supplies easily across the country, as the North was able to do.
By 1860, cotton was a cash crop. Cotton production in the South had increased. The number of slaves in
the United States had increased. The dependency on slaves had increased. Capital had been invested in
slaves, not in transportation or factories. All this happened because of a very simple machine, the
cotton gin.
Interchangeable Parts
The system of manufacture involving production of many identical parts and their assembly into
finished products came to be called the American System, because it achieved its fullest maturity in the
United States. Although Eli Whitney (1765-1825) has been given credit for this development, his ideas
had appeared earlier in Sweden, France, and Britain and were being practiced in other arms factories
in the United States. In 1798 Eli Whitney acquired the American government's support to fund him to
mass-produce 10,000 muskets using interchangeable parts. At this time war with France was a
possibility, so the need for weaponry was in high demand.
In 1801, Whitney held a demonstration to show how he could fit ten different lock mechanisms into the
same musket. Even though it was later discovered by historians that the demonstration was staged, he
still paved the way for other engineers and inventors to improve on the concept. He demonstrated that
machine tools - manned by workers who did not need the highly specialized skills of gunsmiths - could
produce standardized parts to exact specifications, and that any part could be used as a component of
any musket. The firearms factory he built in New Haven, Conn., was thus one of the first to use mass
production methods. Principally, Whitney’s method broke down the traditional division of labor into
discrete and separate steps accomplished by a worker who performed only that single job.
Eli Whitney’s commitment to interchangeable military musket production was recognized by the US
Army Ordnance Department following the War of 1812. Not only was his opinion and support sought by
the Ordnance Department for the goal of interchangeable musket production at the national armories,
but also his simplified musket design greatly influenced the musket pattern chosen for future
interchangeable production.
Mass Production
The factory system changed the world of work. In addition, new processes further changed how people
worked in factories and what they could produce.
The Process of Mass Production—Many changes in industry evolved fully in the United States. One of
these changes was the development of mass production—the system of manufacturing large numbers of
identical items. Elements of mass production, including interchangeable parts and the assembly line,
came to be known as the American system.
Interchangeable parts are identical machine-made parts. They made production and repair of
factory-made goods more efficient. Before industrialization, one skilled worker might have made and
entire gun, clock, or other product by himself. He would make or gather all the parts and assemble
them. The process could be slow, and because the parts were all handmade, the finished products were a
little different from each other. With interchangeable parts, though, one worker could put together many
identical products in a short time. Making repairs was easier, too, because replacement parts did not
have to be custom-made to fit.
The other element of mass production related to movement within factories. In early workshops,
the product stayed in one place and workers moved around it, adding parts and making refinements. An
innovation was the assembly line. Perfected by an American, Henry Ford, in an assembly line, the
product moves from worker to worker, as each one performs a step in the manufacturing process. With
this division of labor, workers can make many times quickly.
Effects of Mass Production—Mass production had advantages and disadvantages. A big advantage was a
dramatic increase in production. Businesses that made many items quickly could charge less per
item. As a result, more people could afford to buy these mass-produced goods.
For employees, however, mass production could lead to more repetitive jobs. At first, some
workers protested, refusing to work quickly. But the changes could not be stopped, and mass production
became the norm in factories.
Textile Mill – A clothing factory
The first factory in the United States was begun after George Washington became President. In
1790, SAMUEL SLATER, a cotton spinner's apprentice who left England the year before with the secrets
of textile machinery, built a factory from memory to produce spindles of yarn.
The factory had 72 spindles, powered by nine children pushing foot treadles, soon replaced by
waterpower. Three years later, JOHN AND ARTHUR SHOFIELD, who also came from England, built the
first factory to manufacture woolens in Massachusetts.
First used by bankers and builders, the corporation concept spread to manufacturing. In 1813, FRANCES
CABOT LOWELL, NATHAN APPLETON and PATRICK JOHNSON formed the BOSTON MANUFACTURING
COMPANY to build America's first integrated textile factory, that performed every operation necessary to
transform cotton lint into finished cloth.
Over the next 15 years they charted additional companies in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Others
copied their corporation model and by 1840 the corporate manufacturer was commonplace.
Lowell and his associates hoped to avoid the worst evils of British industry. They built their production
facilities at Massachusetts. To work in the textile mills, Lowell hired young, unmarried women from New
England farms. The "MILL GIRLS" were chaperoned by matrons and were held to a strict curfew and
moral code.
Although the work was tedious (12 hours per day, 6 days per week), many women enjoyed a sense of
independence they had not known on the farm. The wages were about triple the going rate for a domestic
servant at the time.
The impact of the creation of all these factories and corporations was to drive people from rural areas to
the cities where factories were located. This movement was well underway by the Civil War. During the
1840s, the population of the country as a whole increased by 36%. The population of towns and cities of
8,000 or more increased by 90%. With a huge and growing market, unconstrained by European
traditions that could hamper their development, the corporation became the central force in America's
economic growth.
Sewing Machine
Elias Howe was the inventor of the first American-patented sewing machine.
Elias Howe was born in Spencer, Massachusetts on July 9, 1819. After he lost his factory job in the Panic
of 1837, Howe moved from Spencer to Boston, where he found work in a machinist's shop. It was there
that Elias Howe began tinkering with the idea of inventing a mechanical sewing machine.
Elias Howe - Lockstitch Sewing Machine
Eight years later, Elias Howe demonstrated his machine to the public. At 250 stitches a minute, his
lockstitch mechanism out stitched the output of five hand sewers with a reputation for speed. Elias Howe
patented his lockstitch sewing machine on September 10, 1846 in New Hartford, Connecticut.
Telegraph
Developed in the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse (1791-1872) and other inventors, the telegraph
revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid
between stations. In addition to helping invent the telegraph, Samuel Morse developed a code (bearing
his name) that assigned a set of dots and dashes to each letter of the English alphabet and allowed for the
simple transmission of complex messages across telegraph lines. In 1844, Morse sent his first telegraph
message, from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland; by 1866, a telegraph line had been laid across
the Atlantic Ocean from the U.S. to Europe. Although the telegraph had fallen out of widespread use by
the start of the 21st century, replaced by the telephone, fax machine and Internet, it laid the groundwork
for the communications revolution that led to those later innovations.
Canal
Inspired by the English and Dutch systems of canals, Americans began to eye the possibility of man-made
waterways early in their history. George Washington perhaps spurred the activity by publically wishing
that Americans had "the wisdom to improve" our system of waterways. Nevertheless, by the 1790's,
small canals were being attempted--slow to construct and under- financed, these canals were supported
by such public luminaries as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Mifflin. Thus, despite the problems the canal
builders found, improvement of the nation's waterways was inextricably linked with republican
sentiment and nationalism.
Much of the difficulty in early canal building was simply a lack of elementary knowledge. Americans were
not used to such improvements; engineers were either sent to England for training or, more often,
expected to work out for themselves how to take a level, how to dig a channel, remove tree roots, dispose
of tons of earth, mix underwater cement, create locks and a hundred other things. The fact that, for the
most part, American engineers, surveyors, and laborers were able to build a system of canals from this
beginning was widely hailed around the country as further proof that America was an inspired nation
whose ingenuity would carry it far.
The earliest canal ventures began in Pennsylvania and Virginia with the common goal of improving
transportation to the Ohio Valley. In 1791, the Pennsylvania legislature incorporated a private group of
leading citizens and began work on the Schuylkill and Susquehanna Canal. An English engineer, William
Weston, was brought to America to supervise construction. As with many canals, the work was done in
sections, and the short "portage canal" at the Great Falls on the lower Susquehanna was complete first, in
1797, becoming the first working canal in Pennsylvania.
Similarly, building was begun on the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, intended to connect the two bays,
in 1803; there work continued until 1805 when the funds were exhausted. George Washington, Thomas
Jefferson and James Madison all supported another venture begun in 1785, the Potomac Company.
Originally intended to connect the Potomac to the Ohio River, the canal, like many early projects, was
scaled back; it eventually came to act as an improvement for the Potomac trade. Numerous other small
canals were begun with grand ambitions and became controlled partners to the larger rivers they
followed.
It was not until 1825 with the completion of the Erie Canal in New York that canal builders were
vindicated. As the model for most subsequent canals, the Erie ushered in the canal era with great fanfare,
proving to an excited nation caught up in the Great Jubiliee that the American economy and spirit could
indeed benefit from a system of inland waterways.
Steam Engine
While Thomas Savery patented the first crude steam engine in 1698. Thomas Newcomen improved on
this design. However, it wasn't until Scotsman James Watt improved on the steam engine in the second
half of the 18th century that it became a truly viable piece of machinery that helped start the Industrial
Revolution.
Details about the Steam Engine:
Basically, a steam engine is able to harness the energy of steam to move machinery. It is a fairly clean
source of energy. Steam engines were used to great effect to run locomotives and steamships.
Historical Significance of the Steam Engine:
The steam engine was central to the industrial revolution. Only through providing a convenient source of
energy could major forms of transportation grow and prosper. Steamships and steam locomotives
allowed for the quicker transportation of raw materials that could be used to produce finished goods.
Interesting Facts:
Steam engines are still used today to help run nuclear power plants.
The Watt - a unit of power familiar today when dealing with light bulbs - was named after James Watt.
James Watt came up with the term 'horsepower' as a way to help explain how much work his steam
engines could do for a potential buyer.
Steel Plow (Not wooden!)
John Deere developed the first American cast steel plow. The implements being used by pioneer farmers
of that day were cumbersome and ineffective for cutting and turning the prairie soil. To alleviate the
problem, Deere and a partner, Major Leonard Andrus, designed three new plows in 1838. Their cutting
part was made from steel cut from an old sawmill blade and shaped by bending it over a log. The
moldboard, used for lifting and turning, was made of wrought iron and polished on the upper surface to
prevent clogging.
Invention Impact
The plow was so successful that by 1846 Deere and his partner were selling a thousand a year. Deere
then sold his interest in the Grand Detour enterprise to Andrus and organized a plow company in Moline,
Illinois. After experimenting with imported English steel, he had a cast steel plow made for him in
Pittsburgh. By 1855 he was selling more than 13,000 such plows a year.
Inventor Bio
Born in Rutland, Vermont, Deere served a four-year apprenticeship to a blacksmith and worked in that
trade until 1837, when he moved to Grand Detour, Illinois. In 1868 his business was incorporated
as Deere & Company, which is still in existence today.
Steam Boat
In 1769, the Scotsman James Watt patented an improved version of the steam engine that ushered in
the Industrial Revolution. The idea of using steam power to propel boats occurred to inventors soon after
the potential of Watt's new engine became known.
The era of the steamboat began in America in 1787 when John Fitch (1743-1798) made the first
successful trial of a forty-five-foot steamboat on the Delaware River on August 22, 1787, in the presence
of members of the Constitutional Convention. Fitch later built a larger vessel that carried passengers and
freight between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey.
John Fitch was granted his first United States patent for a steamboat on August 26, 1791. However, he
was granted his patent only after a battle with James Rumsey over claims to the same invention. Both
men had similar designs.
Robert Fulton was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, on November 14, 1765. His early education
was limited, but he displayed considerable artistic talent and inventiveness. At the age of 17, he moved to
Philadelphia, where he established himself as a painter. Advised to go abroad because of ill health, he
moved to London in 1786. His lifelong interest in scientific and engineering developments, especially in
the application of steam engines, supplanted art as a career. Fulton secured English patents for machines
with a wide variety of functions. He was also interested in canal systems. In 1797, European conflicts led
Fulton to begin work on weapons against piracy, including submarines, mines, and torpedoes.
He soon moved to France, where he worked on canal systems. In 1800, he built a successful "diving boat,"
which he named the Nautilus. Neither the French nor the English were sufficiently interested to induce
Fulton to continue his submarine design. His interest in building a steamboat continued. In 1802, Robert
Fulton contracted with Robert Livingston to construct a steamboat for use on the Hudson River; over the
next four years, he built prototypes in Europe.
He returned to New York in 1806. On August 17, 1807, the Clermont, Robert Fulton's first American
steamboat, left New York for Albany, inaugurating the first commercial steamboat service in the world.
Paddle Wheels
As the first successful steam engines were developed in the 1700s, many inventors wondered how these
new machines could be harnessed to drive boats. The problem was to transfer the motion of the engine to
some device that would propel the boat. Several odd arrangements were tried, like mechanical oars and
mechanical duck feet. It was natural for many early inventors to try paddlewheels. They took their
inspiration from water wheels, which spun around under the power of running water. If paddles were
attached to a boat and made to spin in such a way that they dug into the water, they might provide
forward motion.
Paddlewheels were first combined with a mechanical power source in the United States and Europe in
the late 1700s. An American engineer, John Fitch, built a steamboat in 1788 that had stern paddles that
moved like ducks' feet, and operated a ferry service with this boat between Philadelphia and Burlington,
New Jersey, beginning in 1790. Fitch continued to improve the paddlewheels until they resembled a more
modern configuration.
Two other American inventors, Samuel Morey and Oliver Evans, also introduced vehicles with
paddlewheels in the late 1700s. While Morey designed a steamboat with paddlewheels, Evans used
paddlewheels to power a strange amphibious vehicle. He built this vehicle--a floating, steam-driven
dredge--at the request of the city of Philadelphia to dig and clear out the harbor area. It could move on
land with wheels, switching to a paddlewheel for river travel.
Power Loom
The power loom was a steam-powered, mechanically operated version of a regular loom, an invention
that combined threads to make cloth.
In 1785, Edmund Cartwright patented the first power loom and set up a factory in Doncaster, England to
manufacture cloth. A prolific inventor, Edmund Cartwright also invented a wool-combing machine in
1789, continued to improve his power loom, invented a steam engine that used alcohol and a machine for
making rope in 1797, and aided Robert Fulton with his steamboats.
Cartwright's power loom needed to be improved upon and several inventors did just that. It was
improved upon by William Horrocks, the inventor of the variable speed batton (1813) and
American, Francis Cabot Lowell. The power loom became commonly used after 1820.
View Image: Power Loom When the power loom became efficient, women replaced most men as weavers
in the textile factories.
The first American power loom was constructed in 1813 by a group of Boston merchants headed
by Francis Cabot Lowell. The city of Lowell and other early industrial American cities grew supporting a
nearby Francis Cabot Lowell's designed power loom, an amended version of the British power loom
invented by Edmund Cartwright. The power loom allowed the wholesale manufacture of cloth from
ginned cotton, itself a recent innovation of Eli Whitney's.
According to the Lowell National Historical Park Handbook, for the first two centuries of American
history, the weaving of cloth was a cottage industry, even after the introduction of power spinning frames
in 1790. Yarn produced by machines in water-powered factories was still put out for weaving on hand
looms in homes. All cloths were woven in basically the same way, although weavers followed patterns to
produce cloths with intricate weaves. Because the operations of a loom focus on such a small working
area, its movements must be exact. And weaving, as opposed to spinning, requires a cycle of sequential
steps and involves reciprocal movement as well as circular. In a power loom, movements coordinated by
human hand and eye have to be replicated through the precise interaction of levers, cams, gears, and
springs. For these reasons, weaving was the last step in textile production to be mechanized.
Successful power looms were in operation in England by the early 1800s, but those made in America
were inadequate. Francis Cabot Lowell realized that for the United States to develop a practical power
loom, it would have to borrow British technology. While visiting English textile mills, he memorized the
workings of their power looms. Upon his return, he recruited master mechanic Paul Moody to help him
recreate and develop what he had seen. They succeeded in adapting the British design, and the machine
shop established at the Waltham mills by Lowell and Moody continued to make improvements in the
loom. With the introduction of a dependable power loom, weaving could keep up with spinning, and the
American textile industry was underway.
Railroad
The development of RAILROADS was one of the most important phenomena of the Industrial Revolution. With
their formation, construction and operation, they brought profound social, economic and political change to a
country only 50 years old. Over the next 50 years, America would come to see magnificent bridges and other
structures on which trains would run, awesome depots, ruthless rail magnates and the majesty of rail locomotives
crossing the country.
The railroad was first developed in Great Britain. A man named GEORGE STEPHENSON successfully applied the
steam technology of the day and created the world's first successful locomotive. The first engines used in the
United States were purchased from the STEPHENSON WORKS in England. Even rails were largely imported from
England until the Civil War. Americans who had visited England to see new STEAM LOCOMOTIVES were impressed
that railroads dropped the cost of shipping by carriage by 60-70%.
Baltimore, the third largest city in the nation in 1827, had not invested in a canal. Yet, Baltimore was 200 miles
closer to the frontier than New York and soon recognized that the development of a railway could make the city
more competitive with New York and the Erie Canal in transporting people and goods to the West. The result was
the BALTIMORE AND OHIO RAILROAD, the first railroad chartered in the United States. There were great parades
on the day the construction started. On July 4, 1828, the first spadesful of earth was turned over by the last
surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, 91-year-old CHARLES CARROLL.
New railroads came swiftly. In 1830, the SOUTH CAROLINA CANAL AND RAIL-ROAD COMPANY was formed to
draw trade from the interior of the state. It had a steam locomotive built at the West Point Foundry in New York
City, called THE BEST FRIEND OF CHARLESTON, the first steam locomotive to be built for sale in the United States.
A year later, the Mohawk & Hudson railroad reduced a 40-mile wandering canal trip that took all day to accomplish
to a 17-mile trip that took less than an hour. Its first steam engine was named the DeWitt Clinton after the builder
of the Erie Canal.
Although the first railroads were successful, attempts to finance new ones originally failed as opposition was
mounted by turnpike operators, canal companies, stagecoach companies and those who drove wagons. Opposition
was mounted, in many cases, by tavern owners and innkeepers whose businesses were threatened. Sometimes
opposition turned to violence. Religious leaders decried trains as sacrilegious. But the economic benefits of the
railroad soon won over the skeptics.