Christine Sink Bozeman, MT January 2011

“Inventions Change History”

National History Standards Met: • Chronological Thinking • Historical Comprehension • Historical Analysis and Interpretation

Objectives: Students will be able to:

• Identify major inventions of the late 18th century • Explain the cause of each invention • Analyze the effects of each invention • Design and create a poster

MATERIALS:

• Poster Directions • Invention Information Packets • Chart paper and markers • Invention Information Graphic Organizer

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: The Industrial Revolution is known as an era that led handmade production to machine and factory. The first industrial revolution was important for the inventions of spinning and weaving machines operated by waterpower that was eventually replaced by steam. This helped increase America’s growth. However, the industrial revolution truly changed American society and economy into an industrial state. Industrialization in America involved three important developments. First, transportation was expanded. Second, electricity was effectively harnessed. Third, improvements were made to manufacturing and communication.

INTRODUCTION: 1. Ask the question, “What kind of work did Americans do before the Civil War?” (farming, merchants, trades people, etc.) 2. Write the answers down on chart paper for all students to see. 3. Go back to each response and ask the following questions (or others) depending on what the work was.

“What tools did people use for this type of work?” “How did they move their goods?” “How did they communicate?”

4. Write answers down next to previous responses. 5. Tell students that new inventions changed life for Americans after the Civil War. They will be researching one particular invention to teach the rest of the class. ACTIVITY ONE 1. Distribute Poster Directions and go over with students clarifying any questions. 2. Give each group the following:

• chart paper • markers • “Invention Information Packet” • “Invention Information” Graphic Organizer

3. Give groups time to work. Let them know when they have 5 minutes left. ACTIVITY TWO 1. Each group presents their poster following the presentation guidelines. 2. Participants fill in their graphic organizers during presentations. ACTIVITY THREE 1. Have a whole class discussion on the cause and effects of the industrial period. 2. Ask students to compare this time period to modern inventions and their cause and effect. ASSESSMENT: Have students write a summary explaining the cause and effect of one invention from the Industrial Revolution.

POSTER DIRECTIONS: Each poster must include: • Name of invention • Inventor, year of invention and any other pertinent

information • Purpose of invention • Drawing of invention • Probable cause of invention • Effects of invention • BE CREATIVE!

Presentation: • Every group member should present some part of the

information. • All poster requirements must be presented to whole class. • At the end of the presentation ask for questions from the

audience. POSTER DIRECTIONS: Each poster must include: • Name of invention • Inventor, year of invention and any other pertinent

information • Purpose of invention • Drawing of invention • Probable cause of invention • Effects of invention • BE CREATIVE!

Presentation: • Every group member should present some part of the

information. • All poster requirements must be presented to whole class. • At the end of the presentation ask for questions from the

audience.

INVENTION INFORMATION GRAPHIC ORGANIZER NAME OF INVENTION INVENTOR AND

YEAR INVENTED PURPOSE OF INVENTION

PROBABLE CAUSE OF INVENTION

EFFECTS OF INVENTION

INVENTION INFORMATION GRAPHIC ORGANIZER

The History of Steamboats JOHN FITCH AND ROBERT FULTON

John Fitch - Design Sketch ca. 1787 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.

(It should be noted that on February 1, 1788 the very first United

States patent for a steamboat patent was issued to Briggs &

Longstreet.)

John Fitch constructed four different steamboats between 1785 and 1796 that successfully plied rivers and lakes and demonstrated, in part, the feasibility of using steam for water locomotion. His models

utilized various combinations of propulsive force, including ranked paddles (patterned after Indian war canoes), paddle wheels, and screw propellers. While his boats were mechanically successful, Fitch failed to pay sufficient attention to construction and operating costs and was unable to justify the economic benefits of steam navigation. Robert Fulton (1765-1815) built his first boat after Fitch's death, and it was Fulton who became known as the "father of steam navigation." Then came American inventor, Robert Fulton, who successfully built and operated a submarine (in France) in 1801, before turning his talents to the steamboat. Robert Fulton was accredited with turning the steamboat into a commercial success. On August 7, 1807, Robert Fulton's Clermont went from New York City to Albany making history with a 150-mile trip taking 32 hours at an average speed of about 5 miles-per-hour. In 1811, the "New Orleans" was built at Pittsburgh, designed by Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston. The New Orleans had a passenger and freight route on the lower Mississippi River. By 1814, Robert Fulton together with Edward Livingston (the brother of Robert Livingston), were offering regular steamboat and freight service between New Orleans, Louisiana and Natchez, Mississippi. Their boats traveled at the rates of eight miles per hour downstream and three miles per hour upstream.

Photo: Steamship at Landing - between 1852 and 1860 http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsteamship.htm

How Steam Engines Work A steam engine is a device that converts the potential energy that exists as pressure in steam, and converts that to mechanical force. Early examples were the steam locomotive trains, and steamships that relied on these steam engines for movement. The Industrial Revolution came about primarily because of the steam engine. The thirty seconds or so required to develop pressure made steam less favored for automobiles, which are generally powered by internal combustion engines. The first steam device was invented by Hero of Alexandria, a Greek, before 300BC, but never utilized as anything other than a toy. While designs had been created by various people in the meanwhile, the first practical steam engine was patented by James Watt, a Scottish inventor, in 1769. Steam engines are of various types but most are reciprocal piston or turbine devices. The strength of the steam engine for modern purposes is in its ability to convert raw heat into mechanical work. Unlike the internal combustion engine, the steam engine is not particular about the source of heat. Since the oxygen for combustion is unmetered, steam engines burn fuel cleanly and efficiently, with relatively little pollution. Most notably, without the use of a steam engine nuclear energy could not be harnessed for useful work, as a nuclear reactor does not directly generate either mechanical work or electrical energy - the reactor itself does nothing but sit there and get hot. It is the steam engine which converts that heat into useful work. http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blenginehistory.htm

science.howstuffworks.com

phy.ntnu.edu.tw

JAMES WATT

elec-intro.com ROBERT FULTON

industrialrevolutionresearch.com

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.

Power Loom - Circa 1833 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. http://inventors.about.com/od/cstartinventors/a/power_loom.htm

http://www.picturehistory.com/product/id/1181

POWER LOOM A loom works by holding lengthwise threads, called the warp, under tension. The vertically-oriented threads are attached to two or more harnesses which move up and down, separating warp threads from each other and creating a space called the shed. Another thread, called the weft, is wound onto spools called bobbins, which are placed in a shuttle and passed through the shed, which creates the weave. In the early 20th century, the shuttleless loom, also known as the rapier loom, was invented. This type of power loom moves the weft through the shed using jets of air or water, steel rods, or a dummy shuttle that leaves a trail of yarn rather than using a weft. The power loom was brought to the United States in 1813 by Francis Cabot Lowell, who memorized plans for the machine because export of the technology from Great Britain was illegal. Lowell worked with Paul Moody to make additions and improvements to the power loom, and in 1814 established the Boston Manufacturing Company mill in Waltham, Massachusetts, the first textile mill in America to combine all actions for turning raw cotton into cloth under one roof. While power looms are mechanized looms, the source of the power that allows them to operate varies. Originally these looms were powered by water, but after some time that morphed into steam power and eventually air powered and electricity powered looms were created. A loom works by holding lengthwise threads, called the warp, under tension. The vertically-oriented threads are attached to two or more harnesses which move up and down, separating warp threads from each other and creating a space called the shed. Another thread, called the weft, is wound onto spools called bobbins, which are placed in a shuttle and passed through the shed, which creates the weave. In the early 20th century, the shuttleless loom, also known as the rapier loom, was invented. This type of power loom moves the weft through the shed using jets of air or water, steel rods, or a dummy shuttle that leaves a trail of yarn rather than using a weft. http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-power-loom.htm

invention.smithsonian.org

Bifocals Bifocals — lenses featuring both concave and convex lenses for

correcting both types of vision problems — are believed to have been

developed around 1760 by Benjamin Franklin (though some place the

exact year to be 1874). These original bifocal reading glasses used

a top lens for distant viewing and a lower lens for reading. In this era,

they were referred to as bi focal reading glasses or bi-focal reading

glasses.

Benjamin Franklin's Bifocals

Benjamin Franklin, born on January 17, 1706, was a great American

inventor and intellectual credited with many influential and

groundbreaking discoveries and inventions.

Legend has it Ben Franklin bifocals came to be as a result of his

growing tired of having to alternate between two different sets of

eyeglasses. So he grafted two different prescriptions (two different

lenses) into a single frame. This empowered him to see both far and

near distances by simply looking down through the one lens or up

through the other. This is why these glasses will be forever referred to

as Benjamin Franklin bifocals or Benjamin Franklin glasses.

The discrepancy between claimed dates of invention (1760 and 1784)

seems to simply be when he worked it out in a rough manner for

himself and then when he refined the process and went public with it.

To further confuse matters, the bifocal reading glasses as invented

by Benjamin Franklin were only formally announced on May 23rd,

1785.

John Isaac Hawkins — who invented the trifocals — provided the

actual title of “bifocals” in 1824 and credited Dr. Benjamin Franklin for

their invention.

Ben Franklin’s bifocals featured convex lenses for close vision in the

bottom half and concave lenses for far vision in the upper half. Bifocals

were similarly constructed until the early 20th century.

http://bifocalreading-glasses.com/history-of-bifocal-reading-glasses/

HISTORY OF BIFOCALS Glass lenses, for use as magnifiers or for starting fires, date to about 300 BC, but the first eyeglasses to aid or correct vision were almost certainly invented in 1280 in Florence, Italy by the Dominican friar Alessandro della Spina and / or his friend, the physicist Salvino degli Armati. Prescribed for far-sightedness, the glasses had convex lenses and were worn by Armati, who had injured his eyes while performing light refraction experiments and discovered that it was possible to enlarge the appearance of objects by looking through two pieces of convex glass. It was in the early fourteenth century that concave lenses were used to correct near-sightedness. In fact, Pope Leo X was depicted wearing glasses, with concave lenses, in a 1517 painting by Raphael. Whereas early eyeglasses were made of polished quartz, by the sixteenth century developments in glassmaking made it possible to mass produce them from glass. Bifocals, the combination of both concave and convex lenses for both types of vision correction, a top lens for distant viewing and a lower lens for reading, were developed around 1760 by the American statesman and inventor Benjamin Franklin.

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/bifocals.htm

BEN FRANKLIN Adapted from the important key article by Dr. Charles Letocha, also the wonderful book by Dr. John Levene and finally the comprehensive paper (yet unpublished) by Stuart Green. In 1990 the year of the bicentennial celebration of Benjamin Franklin’s death (1706-1790) a comprehensive article was published by Dr. Charles Letocha, “The Invention and Early Manufacture of Bifocals”. It presented Benjamin Franklin as the inventor of bifocals. It is still considered the definitive paper on this topic because no new information has surfaced to the contrary during the past 15 years. This current year 2006 is the tercentenary of Franklin’s birth and therefore we can again recognize Franklin for his major role in the development of bifocal eyeglasses. No one else deserves this esteemed honor: Ben Franklin-Father of the Bifocal. The invention of bifocals had been reviewed in great detail by Dr. John R. Levene in Chapter 6 of his book Clinical Refraction and Visual Science, Butterworth’s, 1977. Highly regarded as a diplomat and as a scientist, Franklin is generally acknowledged for all his ingenious contributions to many very practical inventions. He had talents and also numerous interests and his natural curiosity led to the search to discover ways to make things work better. One of his greatest innovations was “my double spectacles” and Franklin has been quite appropriately recognized and universally admired as their inventor.

Certainly among the most useful inventions of all time bifocals have serviced billions of people over the past 200 + years. Compound corrective lenses, usually bifocals or trifocals, and with increasing frequency, progressive multifocal length eyeglasses are the modern-day result of the remarkable evolution from Benjamin Franklin’s original simple and practical creation.

THE EVIDENCE SUPPORTING FRANKLIN

1). Benjamin Franklin was a hyperope who likely required eyeglasses originally in the 1730s. By the late 1750s he was usually described wearing them and they became an integral part of his face, at least for distance use. Many paintings and contemporary sketches and satirical cartoons show him represented wearing his eyeglasses. He admitted that he could

not “distinguish a letter or even of large print without them”.

2). The Library Company of Philadelphia, founded by Franklin and some of his friends, became America’s first lending library. In its print archives there exists a 1764 political cartoon which depicts Franklin wearing an unusual pair of eyeglasses, interpreted by some knowledgeable people as bifocals because the upper portion of each lens appears different from the lower portion. Take a close look and decide for yourself.

3). Von Rohr and several others credit optician Samuel Pierce with making bifocals for Franklin. Pierce described people wearing bifocals in 1775 and he himself may have worn them in the 1760’s. Although this is all noted in the Levene’s chapter no hard evidence is presented.

4). Mr. H. Sykes, an English optician living in Paris, with a business on the Place du Palais-Royale, wrote to Franklin April 24, 1779 and explained the delay in sending Franklin’s order, complained he was having difficulty making the eyeglasses. “I should have sent your spectacles sooner, but in compliance with your favor of the 20th inst., have cut a second pair, in which I have been unfortunate for I broke and spoilt three glasses.”Sykes had apparently damaged them while “cutting” them in half. The word “cut” is emphasized as opposed to the word “grind”. Even Sykes’ charge for this service (18f a pair) was quite excessive when compared to the normal fee of making simple ordinary glasses.

5). During his stay in Passy, outside of Paris, Franklin (serving as the American envoy to the Court of Louis XVI) described in a letter dated August 21, 1784 to his close friend and philanthropist George Whatley: …….”I cannot distinguish a letter even of large print; but am happy in the invention of double spectacles, which serving for distant objects as well as near ones, make my eyes as useful to me as ever they were: If all the other defects and infirmities were as easily and cheaply remedied, it would be worth while for friends to live a good deal longer…..”

6). In a letter dated November 15, 1784 Whatley wrote back: “I have spoken to Peter Dollond about YOUR invention of double spectacles, and, by all I can garner,…….”

7). Another correspondence with Whatley May 23, 1785 further explains Franklin’s basic position on this matter. Noted London optician Peter Dollond had stated they were only good for “particular eyes”. Franklin’s reply is certainly very persuasive evidence that he was the

inventor: …………..”By M. Dollond’s saying that MY double spectacles can only serve particular eyes, I doubt he has not been rightly informed of their construction. I imagine it will be found pretty generally true, that the same convexity of glass, through which a man sees clearly at distance proper for reading, is not the best for greater distances. I therefore had formerly two pairs of spectacles, which I shifted occasionally, as in traveling I sometimes read, and often wanted to regards the prospects. Finding the change troublesome, and not always sufficiently ready, I had the glasses cut and half of each kind associated in the same circle, thus

(his well-known drawing is in this letter which now resides in the Library of Congress).

By this means, as I wear my spectacles constantly, I have only to move my eyes up or down, as I want to see distinctly far or near, the proper glass being always ready. This I find more particularly convenient since my being in France, the glasses that serve me best at table to see what I eat, not being the best to see the faces of those on the other side of the table who speak to me; and when one’s ears are not well accustomed to the sounds of a language, a sight of the movements in the features of him that speaks helps to explain, so that I understand French better by the help of my spectacles.”

8). Whatley’s next reply dated July 22, 1785; ……….”The Dollonds are obliged by what you have been at pains to say, and describe of your double spectacles. They fully comprehend it at eh same time say, for such sight as yours are common. That therefore they only make for such as like yours when bespoke.”

9). Charles Wilson Peale painted Benjamin Franklin in 1785 and the

painting is the only one showing Franklin wearing double spectacles. The bifocals are a prominent feature of this famous artwork. No earlier depiction of anyone else wearing bifocals is known to exist anywhere in the world! This unique art treasure is at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

10). In 1788 Peale made his own bifocals, as noted in his diary for August 25th. These became quite helpful when he painted miniatures. “It would appear that Charles Wilson Peale helped to popularize bifocals in America because he probably taught their method of manufacture to John McAllister, Sr. first American optician” (the Letocha article).

11). Correspondence from John Fenno, editor of the Gazette of the United States, to his wife March 8, 1789 described a meeting in Philadelphia during the last year of Franklin’s life. The evidence in this letter points strongly to Franklin. It currently is housed at the William C. Clements Library, University of Michigan.

“He informed me that he had worn spectacles for 50 years. He had them on and as they appeared to be differently constructed from any I had seen the circumstance led to some inquiry - each eye appeared to be formed of two pieces of glass divided horizontally – he informed me that he had always worn such – the upper part was to view distant objects, the lower to read with. ….”

12). In 1790 Dr. William Rowley published the book A Treatise on One Hundred and Eighteen Principal Diseases soon after Franklin passed away. He quoted the May 23, 1785 letter to Whatley… “A species of spectacles has been recommended by the late Dr. Franklin…” Thus he was the first to inform the medical community of Franklin’s invention. He also went on to say that he recommended double spectacles to some of his friends, “by whom they are highly approved.”

13). In the August 1791 issue of Massachusetts Magazine, the general public first learned of Franklin’s double spectacles. Lewis Leprelete wrote to the editors quoting the same May 23, 1785 letter from Franklin to Whatley announcing that “A species of spectacles has been recommended by the late Dr. Franklin…..as it is an important object, I have no doubt but you will be pleased to gratify the publick with it,…”

14). President Thomas Jefferson communicated with John McAllister Sr. and also with Charles Peale in a fascinating group of letters between 1806

and 1808. referring to the Franklin bifocal on Nov. 12, 1806. This letter is held by the Library of Congress:

“You have heretofore furnished me with spectacles, so reduced in size as to give facility to the looking over their top without moving them. This has been a great convenience………Those who are obliged to use spectacles know what a convenience it would be to have different magnifiers in the same frame. Dr. Franklin tried this by semicircular glasses joined horizontally, the upper & lower semicircles of different powers, which he told me answered perfectly. I wish to try it and therefore send you a drawing No. 2 agreeably to which, exactly, I will ask another pair of spring frames to be made.”

Jefferson had been in France during the 1784-9 period, being successor to Franklin as minister. Obviously he observed Franklin wearing his bifocals when they were together. Later in 1807 Jefferson showed his satisfaction with his new bifocals in a letter to Peale March 29th 1807. He noted that he had “adopted Dr. Franklin’s plan of half glasses of different focal distances, with great advantage” Jefferson wrote to McAllister on March 16, 1808 that he was “extremely satisfied with Dr. Franklin’s method of joining the spectacles by composing each glass of two half-glasses of different magnifying powers, and those you made for me answer positively except that the frames being circular, the glasses are always turning around and bringing the seam between the two half glasses in the way of the eye. To prevent this the frame should be oval.”

McAllister had earlier replied to Jefferson, who was by then President of the United, that he had already made such glasses for members of the Peale family and instructed Jefferson how to measure the distance between his pupils and determine the focal length of his current glasses.

15). The well-known French optician-engineer Jean Gabriel Augustin Chevallier discussed the 'Besicles a la Franklin' in the Gazette de Sante (June 11, 1806) which was subsequently reprinted in his Conservateur de la Vue (1810) and later editions of this well known book.

16). Seventeen years after Franklin died, Charles Wilson Peale painted a portrait of himself wearing bifocals.17). John Isaac Hawkins, engineer and inventor of the trifocal in 1826, coined the term bifocal in 1824 and he credited Franklin with the invention of the bifocal. http://www.antiquespectacles.com/topics/franklin/franklin.htm

Cotton gin A cotton gin (short for cotton engine[2]) is a machine that quickly and easily separates the cotton fibers from the seeds, a job previously done by hand. These seeds are then used to grow more cotton, or to produce cottonseed oil, or, if they are badly damaged, they are disposed of. It uses a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through the screen, while brushes continuously remove the loose cotton lint to prevent jams. The earliest versions consisted of a single roller made of iron or wood and a flat piece of stone or wood. Evidence for this type of gin has been found in Africa, Asia, and North America. The first documentation of the cotton gin by contemporary scholars is found in the fifth century AD. Visual evidence of the single-roller gin exists in the form of fifth-century Buddhist paintings in the Ajanta Caves in western India. These early gins were difficult to use and required a great deal of skill. A narrow single roller was necessary to expel the seeds from the cotton without crushing the seeds. The design was similar to that of a metate, which was used to grind grain. The earliest history of the cotton gin is ambiguous because archeologists likely mistook the cotton gin's parts for other tools.[3]

Between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, dual roller gins appeared in India and China. The Indian version of the two roller gin was prevalent throughout the Mediterranean cotton trade by the sixteenth century. This mechanical device was, in some areas, driven by water power.[4]

The modern version of the cotton gin was created by the American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793 to mechanize the cleaning of cotton. The invention was granted a patent on March 14, 1794. There is slight controversy over whether the idea of the cotton gin and its constituent elements are correctly attributed to Eli Whitney. The popular version of Whitney inventing the cotton gin is attributed to an article on the subject in the early 1870s and later reprinted in 1910 in The Library of Southern Literature. In this article the author claims that Catherine Littlefield Greene suggested to Whitney the use of a brush-like component instrumental in

separating out the seeds and cotton. To date there has been no independent verification of Greene's role in the invention of the gin.

Many people attempted to develop a design that would process short staple cotton and Hodgen Holmes, Robert Watkins, William Longstreet, and John Murray were all issued patents for improvement to the cotton gin by 1796.[5] However, the evidence indicates that Whitney did invent the saw gin, for which he is famous. Although he spent many years in court attempting to enforce his patent against planters who made unauthorized copies, a change in patent law ultimately made his claim legally enforceable—too late for him to make much money off of the device in the single year remaining before patent expiration.[6]

Effects of the cotton gin The invention of the cotton gin caused massive growth of the production of cotton in the United States, concentrated mostly in the South. The growth of cotton production expanded from 750,000 bales in 1830 to 2.85 million bales in 1850. As a result, the South became even more dependent on plantations and slavery, making plantation agriculture the largest sector of the Southern economy.[7] In addition to the increase in cotton production,the number of slaves rose as well, from around 700,000, before Eli Whitneyʼs patent, to around 3.2 million in 1850.[8] By 1860 the United States' South was providing eighty percent of Great Britainʼs cotton and also providing two-thirds of the worldʼs supply of cotton.[9]

Cotton had formerly required considerable labor to clean and separate the fibers from the seeds; the cotton gin revolutionized the process. With Eli Whitneyʼs introduction of “teeth” in his cotton gin to comb out the cotton and separate the seeds, cotton became a tremendously profitable business, creating many fortunes in the Antebellum South. New Orleans and Galveston were shipping points that derived substantial economic benefit from cotton raised throughout the South.

According to the Eli Whitney Museum site:

Whitney (who died in 1825) could not have foreseen the ways in which his invention would change society for the worse. The most significant of these was the growth of slavery. While it was true that the cotton gin reduced the labor of removing seeds, it did not reduce the need for slaves to grow and pick the cotton. In fact, the opposite occurred. Cotton growing became so profitable for the planters that it greatly increased their demand for both land and slave labor. In 1790 there were six slave states; in 1860 there were 15. From 1790 until Congress banned the importation of slaves from Africa in 1808, Southerners imported 80,000 Africans. By 1860 approximately one in three Southerners was a slave.[10]

Function Whitney's cotton gin model was capable of cleaning 50 pounds of lint per day. The model consisted of a wooden cylinder surrounded by rows of slender spikes which pull the lint through the bars of a comb-like grid.[11] The grids are closely spaced, preventing the seeds from passing through.

The modern process

Cotton arrives at the gin either in trailers or in compressed "modules" which weigh about ten metric tons each. The use of the trailer for hauling product to the gin has been drastically reduced since the introduction of the module. Cotton arriving in trailers is sucked into the gin via a large (approximately 16" diameter) pipe that is swung over the cotton. This pipe is usually a manual operation, but has also been automated. If the cotton is shipped in modules, the module feeder breaks the modules apart using spiked rollers and extracts some foreign material from the cotton. The module feeder's loose cotton is then sucked into the same starting point as the trailer cotton. The cotton now enters the dryer, which removes excess moisture. The cylinder cleaner uses six or seven rotating spiked cylinders to break up large clumps of cotton. Finer foreign material such as dirt and leaves passes through rods or screens for removal. The stick machine uses centrifugal force to remove large foreign matter such as sticks and

burrs while the cotton is held by rapidly rotating saw cylinders. The gin stand uses the teeth of rotating saws to pull the cotton through a series of "ginning ribs", which pull the fibers from the seeds which are too small to pass through the ribs. The cleaned seed is then removed from the gin via an auger system. The seed is reused for planting or is sent to an oil mill to be further processed into usable items. The lint cleaners again use saws and grid bars, this time to separate immature seeds and any remaining foreign matter from the fibers. The bale press then compresses the cotton into bales for storage and shipping.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cotton_gin

art.com

ctinventor.wordpress.com

bluesprint.org

lookingglassreview.com

CYRUSMcCORMICK Cyrus Hall McCormick Born Feb 15 1809 - Died May 13 1884

Improvement in Machines for Reaping Small Grain Mechanical Reaper Patent Number(s) Patented June 21, 1834 Inducted 1976 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. Invention Impact His timesaving invention allowed farmers to more than double their crop size and spurred innovations in farm machinery. Inventor Bio Born in Rock bridge County, Virginia, Cyrus McCormick derived his interest in invention from his father; a Virginia landowner who patented several improved farming implements and worked without success for many years to perfect a mechanical reaper. In July 1831 McCormick succeeded where his father had failed, producing a model reaper with all the essential components of later commercial machines. An astute businessman, McCormick increased his sales with door-to-door canvassing and written guarantees for his ready-to-assemble machinery. McCormick amassed a large fortune and invested widely in later years in railroad and mining enterprises. http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://www.invent.org

CYRUS McCORMICK

(1809-1884)

Mechanical Reaper

Cyrus McCormick, the "Father of Modern Agriculture," made one of the most significant contributions to the United States' prosperity, when he invented the horse-drawn reaper in 1831.

Cyrus Hall McCormick was born in 1809. He grew up on his family's 532-acre farm, "Walnut Grove", north of Lexington, Virginia. As a boy, McCormick had a talent for both agriculture and inventing. At the age of 15, he invented a lightweight cradle for carting harvested grain (1824). Meanwhile, McCormick's father, Robert, was working from time to time in the farm's smithy on an invention of his own, a horse-drawn reaping machine. When Robert McCormick finally gave up on producing a working model, in the early fall of 1831, his son took over the challenge.

At that time, grain was harvested by the same manual process that had been used since the dawn of agriculture: the reapers mowed down the standing grain with a hand-swung scythe, and the binders followed behind them, tying the crop into bales, which were then carted away, usually for storage in barns. Because reaping was a much more painstaking process than sowing, even farmers with land and seed to spare were forced to limit their crop to what they could reap in a given season.

Using his father's incomplete model as a starting point, McCormick sketched out plans for a machine that would automatically cut, thresh and bundle grain while being pulled through a field by horses. Within six weeks --- before the 1831 harvest was over --- he had built, field-tested, remodelled, and successfully demonstrated to the public the world's first mechanical reaper. McCormick had singlehandedly increased farms' potential yield at least tenfold, with a minimum of effort by farmers. Astonishingly, they remained uninterested or at least unconvinced: for nine years, sales were virtually zero.

Farmers were leery of change, and were put off by a machine that would later be described as a "contraption seemingly a cross between a wheelbarrow, a chariot, and a flying machine." Undaunted, McCormick spent ten years making improvements, earning his first patent along the way (1834). He also utilized novel business practices, including lenient credit for purchases, written performance guarantees ("15 acres a day"), readily available replacement parts, and advertising that educated farming communities about the benefits of technology.

Beginning in 1841, the mechanical reaper finally caught on: so much so that McCormick was later forced to move production out of his family farm's blacksmith shop and into a factory in Chicago (1847). For McCormick's machine meant that the prairies of the Midwest could now become the "breadbasket" of the nation.

In 1851, McCormick's machine became an international sensation. He won the Gold Medal at the London Crystal Palace Exposition of that year, then went on to stun audiences in Hamburg, Vienna, and Paris. McCormick was elected to the French Academy of Sciences, "as having done more for agriculture than any other living man."

Returning to the US, McCormick still faced substantial challenges. For years, he was forced to defend his patent rights in court. The Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed his factory. But by the time he died, in 1884, both his fame and his business were secure.

Because his reaper enabled much fewer farmers to produce much more grain, Cyrus McCormick not only transformed agriculture, but also diversified American industry. In 1831, 90% of the US population was involved in farming; today, only 2% of the population produces more food than the country can consume. The machines manufactured by McCormick's company and its successor, International Harvester Co., which now harvest hundreds of acres a day, have enabled the vast majority of Americans to apply their talent and energy to fields like engineering, medicine, and the arts. http://inventors.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/mccormick.html

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Plow & Moldboard

By definition a plow (also spelled plough) is a farm tool with one or more heavy blades that breaks the soil and cut a furrow (small ditch) for sowing seeds. A moldboard is the wedge formed by the curved part of a steel plow blade that turns the furrow. Plow Advances & Farm Tractors

From the single plow advances were made to two or more plows fastened together, doing more work with approximately the same man power. The sulky plow, allowed the plowman to ride rather than walk. Such plows were in use as early as 1844, perhaps earlier. The next step forward was to replace animals that pulled the plows with traction engines. By 1921, farm tractors were pulling more plows, and doing the work better. Fifty horsepower engines could pull sixteen plows, and harrows, and a grain drill, performing the three operations of plowing, harrowing, and planting at the same time and covering fifty acres or more in a day.

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entions/a/plow.htm

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SPINNING JENNY 1764 - Increased Yarn and Thread Production During Industrial Revolution

The spinning jenny used eight spindles of instead of the one found on

spinning wheels.

Engraving T. E. Nicholson

In 1764, a British carpenter and weaver named James Hargreaves invented an improved spinning jenny, a hand-powered multiple spinning machine that was the first machine to improve upon the spinning wheel by making it possible to spin more than one ball of

yarn or thread.{p] Spinner machines like the spinning wheel and the spinning jenny made the threads and yarns used by weavers in their looms. As weaving looms became faster, inventors had to find ways for spinners to keep up.

http://inventors.about.com/od/indrevolution/ss/Industrial_Revo_3.htm

The Spinning Jenny

was one of the machines that launched the Industrial Revolution and the modern industrial age. Until the 18th century, cloth was manufactured

largely by means of what was known as the "putting out" system. A cloth merchant would provide raw wool, cotton, or flax to spinners and weavers, who would then process it into bales of cloth and return it for marketing to the merchant, who would pay them at the current piecework rate. It was a true cottage industry for the most part, as the vast majority of the spinners

and weavers worked out of their cottage homes.

James Hargreaves (ca. 1722-1778), who lived in the village of Standhill, Lancashire, England, was one of those cottage weavers who owned his own spinning wheel and loom. According to his own story, the idea for the spinning jenny came about in 1764, when his daughter Jenny tipped over a spinning wheel by accident and the spindle continued to revolve. It made Hargreaves think that a whole line of spindles could be worked off one

wheel.

Hargreaves built his first model of the jenny using eight spindles onto which the thread was spun from a corresponding set of rovings. All eight

threads could then be spun by the muscle power of one person. The jenny's primary limitation was that the thread it produced was coarse and lacked a

certain degree of strength, making it suitable only for the filling or weft, the threads woven across the warp.

Hargreaves began to build his machines for more general sale, and gradually improved them to the point where each could work up to 30

spindles.

After a group of local weavers broke into his house and smashed all of his machines, Hargreaves moved to Nottingham and established a partnership with a businessman. The two constructed a small mill which used jennies

to spin hosiers' yarn.

Unfortunately, Hargreaves delayed in applying for a patent for his spinning jenny, and did not get it patented until 1770. Although he did make money on his invention, his resulting fortune was far less than it could have been.

In 1779, Samuel Crompton invented the spinning mule, an adaptation of Hargreaves' jenny. Crompton's machine produced yarn of a tensile quality matching that produced by hand spinning. The mule also applied some of the principles of the water frame developed by Richard Arkwright some 10 years earlier. One operator on the mule could spin up to 1,000 threads.

Like Hargreaves, Crompton failed to profit from his invention. Although there were 360 mills using the spinning mule by 1812, most manufacturers

neglected to honor guarantees given to him. A parliamentary grant of £5,000 went some way toward compensating him, but he sank most of that

money into business ventures that

failed.http://www.robinsonlibrary.com/technology/manufactures/textile/spinjenny.htm

Export of technology While profiting from expertise arriving from overseas (e.g. Louis Paul), Britain was very protective of home-grown technology. In particular, engineers with skills in constructing the textile mills and machinery were not permitted to emigrate — particularly to the fledgeling America.

Horse power (1780–1790) The earliest cotton mills in the United States were horse powered. The first mill to use this method was the Beverly Cotton Manufactory, built in Beverly, Massachusetts. It was started August 18, 1788 by entrepreneur John Cabot and brothers. It was operated in joint by Moses Brown, Israel Thorndike, Joshua Fisher, Henry Higginson, and Deborah Higginson Cabot. The Salem Mercury reported that in April of 1788 that the equipment for the mill was complete, consisting of a spinning jenny, a carding machine, warping machine, and other tools. That same year the mill's location was finalized and built in the rural outsets of North Beverly. The location had the presence of natural water, but it was cited the water was used for upkeep of the horses and cleaning of equipment, and not for mass-production.

Much of the internal designs of the Beverly mill were hidden due to concerns of competitors stealing designs. The beginning efforts were all researched behind closed doors, even to the point that the owners of the mill set up milling equipment on their estates to experiment with the process. There were no published articles describing exactly how their process worked in detail. Additionally, the mill's horse powered technology was quickly dwarfed by new water-powered methods. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Textile_manufacture_during_the_Industrial_Revolution

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THE STEEL PLOW

John Deere Born Feb 7 1804 - Died May 17 1886 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. http://www.invent.org/hall_of_fame/39.html

John Deere (inventor) .

John Deere

Born February 7, 1804 Rutland, Vermont

Died May 17, 1886 (aged 82) Grand Detour, Illinois

Nationality American Occupation Inventor Known for Deere & Company Spouse Demarias Lamb Deere (Married on January 28, 1827, until Demarias'

death in 1865) and Lucenia Lamb Deere (Demarias' sister, Married from 1867 until John's death in 1886) [1]

Children Francis Albert (1828-1848), Jeanette (1830-1916), Ellen Sarah (1832-1897), Frances Alma (1834-1851), Charles (1836-1907), Emma Charlotte (1840-1911), Hiram Alvin (1842-1844), Alice Marie (1844-1900), Mary Frances (1851-1851) [1]

John Deere (February 7, 1804 – May 17, 1886) was an American blacksmith and manufacturer who founded Deere & Company, one of the largest and leading agricultural and construction equipment manufacturers in the world. Born in Rutland, Vermont, Deere moved to Illinois and invented the first commercially successful steel plow in 1837.

Early life

After a meager education, he was apprenticed in 1821 at age 17, to Captain Benjamin Lawrence, a prosperous Middlebury blacksmith, and entered the trade for himself in 1825.

He married in 1827, and fathered nine children. But as he was having trouble with creditors, Deere's business suffered. Facing bankruptcy, Deere sold the shop to his father-in-law and departed for Illinois.[

Steel plow

Deere settled in Grand Detour, Illinois. As there were no other blacksmiths in the area, he had no difficulty finding work. Growing up in his fatherʼs Rutland, Vermont, tailor shop, Deere had polished and sharpened needles by running them through sand. This polishing helped the needles sew through soft leather. Deere found that cast-iron plows were not working very well in the tough prairie soil of Illinois and remembered the polished needles. Deere came to the conclusion that a plow made out of highly polished steel and a correctly shaped moldboard (the self-scouring steel plow) would be better able to handle the soil conditions of the prairie, especially its sticky clay.

There are varying versions of the inspiration for Deere's famous steel plow. In another version he recalled the way the polished steel pitchfork tines moved through hay and soil and thought that same effect could be obtained for a plow.

In 1837, Deere developed and manufactured the first commercially successful cast-steel plow. The wrought-iron framed plow had a polished steel share. This made it ideal for the tough soil of the Midwest and worked better than other plows. By early 1838, Deere completed his first steel plow and sold it to a local farmer, Lewis Crandall, who quickly spread word of his success with Deere's plow. Subsequently two neighbors soon placed orders with Deere. By 1841, Deere was manufacturing 75-100 plows per year.

In 1843, Deere partnered with Leonard Andrus to produce more plows to keep up with demand. However, the partnership became strained due to the two men's stubbornness - while Deere wished to sell to customers outside Grand Detour, Andrus opposed a proposed railroad through Grand Detour - and Deere's distrust of Andrus' accounting practices. In 1848, Deere dissolved the partnership with Andrus and moved to Moline, Illinois, because of the city's location on the Mississippi River, which helped make it a transportation hub. By 1855, Deere's factory sold more than 10,000 such plows. It became known as "The Plow that Broke the Plains" and is

commemorated as such in a historic place marker in Vermont.

From the beginning, Deere insisted on making high-quality equipment. He once said, "I will never put my name on a product that does not have in it the best that is in me." Following the Panic of 1857, as business improved, Deere left the day-to-day operations to his son Charles. In 1868, Deere incorporated his business as Deere & Company.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Deere_(inventor)

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