Improvements in Industry and Transportation in the North
In the year 1800 most things were still done by hand, clothes, shoes, plows etc. It took a long time to get a product made
The first major change was when manufactures made things by dividing the work amongst many workers. For example: One worker would weave all day One worker would sew all day …instead of having a worker sew and weave all day Why was this a faster way of doing things?
This brought all of the specialized workers under one roof instead of in different locations. Why would this speed up the manufacturing process?
IIn the third phase factory workers used new types of “machines” to do their work. Look at the pictures of the machinery and notice how they are being powered by belts attached to shafts that ran the length or breadth of the factory. These shafts were turned by the main source of power for the factory, whether steam or water.
Between 1800 and 1860, the way Americans moved around their world changed drastically. In 1800, the only practical way to travel and trade across long distances was along the nation’s natural waterways.
Robert Fulton demonstrated a reliable steamboat in By 1860 about 3000 Steamboats carried goods and passengers throughout the Northern United States. Why were the steamboats better than sail ships and flat boats pulled by horse?
Between the canals and railroads they transformed the way that America grew, especially in the North. The development of the east-west canal and the rail network allowed grain, livestock and dairy to go directly from the Midwest to the East Coast. This dropped prices since goods could be transported over long distances more cheaply.
Since earliest times human beings have wanted to communicate at a distance. Primitive Man could keep hunting parties in touch about the movement of game by means of smoke signals
The explorer and journalist in the 1800’s, John Stanley was mystified to find that villagers in Africa knew he was coming in advance The answer to the mystery was the talking drum. The drum is made from a tree trunk, hollowed out and shaped. Depending on how you hit it, different notes are produced which can sound like the local language.
Communication was a series of dots…… and dashes--- that spell out words. For instance … “spells” out SOS which means SAVE OUR SHIP
This shrunk the “distance” and “time” it took to communicate and now people knew about events as they happened
In 1837 John Deere invented the “Steel Tipped Plow” This allowed farmers to plow the hardest dirt Next was the mechanical “Reaper” This was a machine that harvested grain mechanically instead of the old way of a farmer with sticks. The third invention was the “Thresher” which separated the grain from the plant mechanically
The Agriculture, Industry and Transportation in the South Before 1800 the South grew rice, indigo and tobacco as their main crops. After the American Revolution demand for Southern cotton grew from Europe.
Growing cotton and harvesting cotton was a messy process. The sticky seeds needed to be separated from the cotton by hand. Then in 1793 Eli Whitney invented the “Cotton Gin”, a machine that mechanically removed the seeds.
Because Southerners made so much money from cotton and slavery they thought they did not need to build any factories. In fact, the state of Pennsylvania had more industry that the entire South.
Because they were mainly an farming area, the South built some railroads between The railroad tracks were mainly local and did not go long distances. This lack of railroads played a major part in the South’s defeat in the Civil War
1. Industry ? 2. Transportation? 3. Communication? 4. Agriculture?