Industrial revolution[1]

Industrial Revolution

Chapter 11 Section 1

What was the Industrial Revolution?• Industrial Revolution began in the

late 1700’s (18th Century) in England

• New methods were changing the way goods would be produced, starting with agriculture and textiles.

Textiles

• James Hargreaves invented the Spinning Jenny- – It produced more threads at a time than

spinning wheels

• 1784-Edmund Cartwright developed a loom powered by water- more cloth produced more quickly

• Samuel Slater-memorized the workings of the Arkwright mill in England and brought the technology to Moses Brown to use in his mill in Rhode Island. He later started a company with his brother making his wife’s patented thread.

• Hannah Slater- came up with way to make thread stronger; 1st to get a U.S. Patent

• Francis Cabot Lowell-• Began producing thread and cloth

in same mill in Massachusetts• The Lowell System took young

girls from the farms and put them in his town complete with dormitories, churches, and educational activities. They did not make as much as men, but many saw it as an opportunity.

• Elias Howe- invented a sewing machine that used two threads to lock them together-preceded the more successful Singer machine that was later found in many homes

Agriculture• Eli Whitney used

interchangeable parts to create the cotton gin, which removes seeds from cotton. Many companies “pirated” the idea, so it took many court battles to make money from it.

• Although the South grew cotton, they continued to send it north to be milled into cloth.

• Whitney’s use of interchangeable parts was used to fill a government contract for 10,000 muskets. It took a long time to get the factory set up with the right tools, but the concept finally worked.

• Whitney’s descendents sold the factory to the Winchesters, who became famous for their rifles. The IP concept was used for making clocks, hardware, etc.

• John Deere – A blacksmith, escaping a bad economy in Vermont, went westward to Illinois and cured the problem of iron plows getting stuck. He invented the steel plow.

• Cyrus McCormick invented the mechanical reaper to help harvest grain more quickly

Click here for an encyclopedia of inventions from this time period!