Early Inventions

Thread-Spinning Mill

• Builder: Samuel Slater• Year: 1789• Apprentice in one of Arkwright’s Factories

(Great Britain)• Produced cotton thread• Rapid rate of production

Steamboat

• Builder: Robert Fulton• Year: 1807• First practical steamboat was called the

Clermont• Made traveling on river easier and faster• Canals• Used for trade and the moving of raw materials• First oceangoing steamship wouldn’t be

produced until 1850 in Great Britain

Cotton Gin

• Inventor: Eli Whitney• Year: 1794• Need for cotton by factories in the North• A worker could produce fifty time more

cotton fiber• Increase of slave labor• “Cotton Kingdom:” owners of large

plantations

Telegraph

• Inventor: Samuel Morse• Year: 1844• Revolutionized communication• Morse Code• Factories in the East could now communicate with markets in the West

Metal Plow

• Inventor: John Deere• Year: 1837• Blacksmith• Tough plains soil could not be plowed by

cast iron plows (sticking)• Assisted farmers greatly

Mechanical Reaper

• Inventor: Cyrus McCormick• Year: 1831• Cut wheat many times faster than a human worker could• Enabled farmers to cultivate more land with fewer workers• Great for the prairies of the Midwest

Power Loom

• Builder: Francis Lowell• Year: 1814• Improved versions of English machines• Brought spinning and weaving • Allowed textile work to be done a lot faster

Sewing Machine

• Inventor: Elias Howe• Year: 1846• Made producing clothing efficient• Made cloths less expensive so even the

lower and middle classes could dress like the wealthier Americans

• Ties back to cotton

Vulcanized Rubber

• Inventor: Charles Goodyear• Year: 1839• Made working with rubber easier (sticking

when hot and hard when cold)• Removed sulfur and then heated so it

would retained its elasticity