Inventions that changed America and the rise of factories

The Revolution began in great Britain in the 1700’s where textile workers had to do everything by hand, eventually groups of spinners and weaver began working together near a river in order to power their tools to manufacture clothes. This marked the beginning of the revolution.

With the invention of the textile mill and many others the U.S was influenced to begin its own revolution.

Out of the many Americans who contributed to the revolution, Eli Whitney is one that changed the industry.

In 1798 Eli Whitney made a deal with the government saying that he would manufacture 10000 guns in 2 years.

At the time it would take a blacksmith weeks to make parts for a gun, not only did it take long but the parts would only pertain to that certain gun.

So Eli figured that if all the parts used in building the gun were the same then they could be used on any similar gun and would be able to assemble guns faster than a blacksmith.

•his system later became known as the system of interchangeable parts which is now used all around the world as a standard

Besides the invention of interchangeable parts Eli Whitney had another invention that would leave a lasting impression in the industry of that time, that invention being the cotton gin.

With its original purpose being to reduce the amount of slaves put to work Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin which allowed one slave to clean the cotton rather than having ten slaves cleaning cotton. Eli’s intents were good but the plantation owners figured that they could increase production and buy more slaves to work for them in order to increase profits.

With both inventions from Eli the U.S began mass producing goods boosting their economy.

With the increased production of goods manufacturers needed a way to transport their goods so they used river travel although not fast the flat boats transported the goods safely down the Mississippi around Florida and up to the northern ports.

Since river travel was not quick neither was it able to go up river Robert Fulton solved that with the succession of his steam boat. (Using James watt’s invention the steam engine). With this invention passengers and goods were able to run up river and increase trade.

Since river travel was so cheap it was the most used but rivers don’t spread every where so to solve this problem they began digging up artificial rivers or canals. The most famous out of them being the Erie canal which opened in 1804 and connected the Atlantic coast with the great lakes.

• With the creation of the Erie canal New York became a profitable trading center.

As important as canals were to transport goods a more efficient way of traveling and transporting goods was locomotives.

The locomotive developed by both British and American inventors was proven to be able to pull more goods and transport people faster than steam boats..• with the creation of the first railroad connecting Baltimore and Ohio many Americans began relying on locomotives to travel and transport goods because of their efficiency.

The northeast region of America was an ideal place to begin constructing factories because of the fact that raw material was abundant and that rivers joined and created an ideal power source to generate the factories.

The invention of interchangeable parts also greatly contributed to the rise of factories by allowing them to mass produce goods and to be easily repaired.

•With more and more factories being built the need for workers was high and factories usually targeted children as they are working for little money and were ideal to fix machines.

America: pathways to the present http://www.american-rails.com/baltimore-and-

ohio-steam-locomotives.htmlhttp://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/

1981/2/81.02.06.x.html