The Technological Revolution
The 19th century was a time of great innovation and momentum. Major advances were made in communication, agriculture, transportation, and with domestic items. These technological developments improved the lives of many people regardless of social class; the laborers, poor, middle class, and the elite all benefitted in some fashion. Let’s explore just a few of these inventions and think about what life would be like without them.
Mary G.
These next three inventions are closely related to each other as they all are a particular form of communication that involves the transmission of messages.
Telegraph
Photo Retrieved from website September 12, 2010
Samuel Morse was a successful painter. As a widower raising three young children, he made a pivotal decision in giving up painting which provided his only income to purse his obsession with electricity and inventions. There were other attempts to set up airway communication but it took Morse 12 long years to complete the process. He developed the Morse code which laid the groundwork for the invention of Telegraph providing the link to communication around the world.
Telephone
Retrieved from website September 12, 2010
It was a fierce competition between two inventors – Elisha Gray and Alexander Graham Bell – in the development of the telephone, rushed to the patent office literally within hours of each other, sparking an ensuing legal battle that ultimately Bell won. Bell was actually working on improving the telegraph – both wire-based electrical systems - when he invented the telephone.
Radio
Photo retrieved from website September 12, 2010
Also closely connected to the telegraph and telephone is the radio, considered “wireless telegraphy”, by the use of electromagnetic waves transmitting data invisibly through the air. There were several contributors in the development of the radio. In fact, it was Guglielmo Marconi who initially took credit for the invention as having the first patent but this was later overturned by the Supreme Court in favor of Nikola Tesla.
Retrieved from website
Dawn B.
Eli Whitney was a young imaginative man who had momentous ideas. Whitney later became known as the man who revolutionized the cotton industry. Whitney was an educated man who graduated from Yale University. He began his process of making American History when he came up with the idea, in 1798, to use interchangeable parts to make muskets. The importance of using interchangeable parts made by machines was that more products could be produced more quickly. In 1794, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. The cotton gin made the separation of cotton seeds from fibers much faster. These were important inventions at a time when the Industrial Revolution in America was booming, which led to other inventions that would seriously modify the American way of life.
Photo retrieved September 10, 2010
In 1846, Elias Howe was issued a patent for the first successful sewing machine in America. Other people had attempted to patent a sewing machine but the machines did not work well or the creator did not have faith in the product being successful. All of these inventions combined altered the American way of life as we know it today. Selling clothes in shops that were made on sewing machines grew in popularity. During that era families had more money to spend, had leisure time and the women had a newfound hobby, going into town and shopping for clothes sewing machine made by someone else. These inventors had no idea how their inventions would change how Americans lived.
Photo retrieved September 10, 2010
Marisa B.
Inventions for the Home
Toilet Paper
Toilet paper is something we don’t think very much about today that is very important. The rolled perforated toilet paper we use today was invented by the Scott brothers in 1867, but in the Victorian period of modesty it was not proper to talk or advertise the product and they did not put their name on it until much later. The Albany Wrapping company marketed and sold the first toilet paper rolls. Prior to the advent of toilet paper it was common to use leafs, grass, corncobs, and mussel shells, and of course the Sears and Roebuck catalogue—ouch! The first toilet paper was not without its problems; it was not until 1935 that the Northern Company invented toilet paper without splinters (toilet paper history).
http://nobodys-perfect.com/vtpm/ExhibitHall/Informational/tphistory.html
Reference: Retrieved September 12, 2010 from http://www.toiletpaperhistory.net/toilet-paper-history/history-of-toilet-paper/
The Dishwasher
The first useable dishwasher was invented by a woman, Josephine Cochran, in 1893.
Josephine Cochran, (http://www.alincolnlearning.us/dishwasher.html)
She was quoted as saying “If nobody else is going to invent a dishwashing machine, I’ll do it myself” (Bellis). Her machine was a hand operated mechanical machine. Operating instructions for later models said, “Put concentrated lye, with gold dust or sal soda, as needed in the water” (Symser). In 1893 she unveiled her invention at the World’s Fair, but only hotels and restaurants bought her machine. She founded a manufacturing company to make her machine which is called Kitchen Aid. Reference:
Mary Bless, Retrieved September 12, 2010 from: http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bldishwasher.htm
The Electric Iron
The electric iron was invented in 1881 by Edward Seely of New York. This was a great time and labor saver to women of the late 19th century when many women ironed for a living. The old irons required you be next to a hearth or hot iron stove; some used charcoal which had to be cleaned constantly to prevent clothes from being soiled. They old irons were unsafe and it was hard to regulate the temperature. The new iron was advertised as being “Better than 3 irons!” and claimed that you would have more time for your husband, because your laundry would be completed faster.
Reference: Retrieved September 12, 2010 from: http://www.oldandinteresting.com/vintage-electric-irons.aspx
Chitra
Inventions in Transportation: Steamboat
The industrial revolution began with the invention of the steam engine by James Watt in 1769. Shortly after wards inventors began to ponder about using steam power to propel boats. In 1787, John Fitch created the first successful steam boat that moved in the waters of the Delaware river. A similar design was also created by James Rumsey around the same time. Fitch made several different steamboats that demonstrated the feasibility of using a steam power for locomotion. However the cost of building and operating these boats was too high to allow it to become commercially useful or successful. It was not until much later in 1807 that Robert Fulton successfully launched a steamboat that made its maiden journey from New York to Albany, a distance of 150 Miles in 32 hours at an average speed of 5mph. There were several improvements made over the next few years and the steamboat came to be used commercially for transporting cargoes of sugar, cotton and passengers. Steamboats played an important role during the industrial era for the transportation of agricultural and industrial supplies.
Steamship at landing between 1852 and 1860
Bellis, M. The History of Steamboats.
Retrieved from: ” http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsteamship.htm#fulton”
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