Industrial Revolution
Textile
The industrial revolution began in Great Britain’s textile industry. There, for centuries, cloth had been made in workers’ homes, using simple, human-powered machines. Plant fibers were spun into thread on spinning wheels. The thread was woven into cloth on looms. Then in the late 1700s, a series of inventions radically transformed the industry. These inventions mechanized both spinning and weaving. British inventors created machines that used power from running water and steam engines to weave cloth. These powered spinning and weaving machines revolutionized the British textile industry. By 800 textile companies had built hundreds of mills to house the new, large machines and produced volumes of cloth that could only have been dreamed of a few decades earlier. What was once a human-powered industry was no a machine-powered industry based in huge mills. The industrial revolution had begun. A key development of the industrial revolution was the replacement of human power with machine power. At the beginning of the industrial revolution, water power was far more important than steam power. But the steam engine became more and more important during the 1800s. The steam engine was invented in 1698. But it didn’t come into its own until the late 1700s. That’s when Scottish inventor James Watt radically improved the existing engine, making it much more efficient and reliable. It was Watt’s steam-engine design that powered the industrial revolution in Britain, and, not long after, in the United States.
transportation
In 1811 construction began on National Road. When the road was completed in 1841, it stretched 800 miles west from Cumberland, Maryland, to Vandalia, Illinois. Most roads were not so ambitious. They were much shorter and crudely made. Still, by 1840 a network of roads connected most of the cities and towns throughout the United States, promoting travel and trade. In 1825 the 363-mile-long Erie Canal opened, connecting the Great Lakes with the Hudson River-and with the Atlantic Ocean. The canal provided a quick and economical way to ship the success of the Erie Canal set off a canal craze in the United States. Within 15 years, more than 3,000 miles of canals formed a dense network in the northeast. The first successful steamboat service was run by Robert Fulton. In 1807 Fulton began operating a regular passenger service on the Hudson River with his boat, The North River Steamboat of Clermont, usually called the Clermont. The success of the Clermont inspired others to build and operate steamboats. Within a decade, dozens of steamboats were puffing up and down the Ohio, the Mississippi, and other rivers. The first steam-powered train in the US made its first trip in 1830. It was not a long trip, since there were only 23 miles of track in the entire country at the time. In 1831 the first scheduled passenger train service began in Charleston, South Carolina. By 1835 states had issued more than 200 contracts to build railroad lines. By 1840 there were about 3,000 miles of track in the country. The speed, power, reliability, and carrying capacity of the railroad quickly made it a preferred means of travel and transport. The Iron Horse soon became the most important component of the American transportation network. Its success led to a general decline in roads and brought about the end of the canal craze.
This is a picture of the Erie Canal. This 363-mile-long canal opened in 1825. The success of the Erie Canal set off a "canal craze."
This is a picture of a train. In 1830 there were only 23 total miles of railroad tracks, but in 1840 there were about 3,000
communication
Advances in communication rivaled advances in transportation during the early 1800s. In 1811 a German printer used steam to power a printing press. Steam-powered presses were soon built in the US, enabling publishers to print material much faster and in much greater volumes than ever before. Another important advance in communications involved the postal service. With the growing use of steamboats and the railroad, mail delivery was faster and more widely available. In 1800 there were fewer and more widely available. In 1800 there were fewer than 1,000 post offices. By 1840 there were more than 12,000. The greatest advancement in communication was the brainchild of Samuel F. B. Morse. In 1840 he patented the first practical telegraph. A telegraph is a device that sends messages using electricity through wires. Communication by telegraph was instantaneous, and newspapers, railroads, and other businesses were quick to grasp its advantages. Telegraph wires would soon crisscross the nation, adding a network of rapid communication on top of an already advanced network of transportation. Thus, the Industrial Revolution was accompanied by a transportation revolution and a communications revolution.
This is the telegraph. It was patented in 1840 by Samuel Morse.
