Technological Effects: Scientific innovations:

SteamboatInvented by Robert Fulton, improved transportation (could move both downstream and upstream on a river)

Steam poweredWaterwheel-allows to travel against current

Steam engine

Invented by Eli Whitney to clean and process cotton bolls faster.Met a need but had unintended negative consequences

Cotton Gin

Interchangeable parts and mass productionEli Whitney standardized parts, making them interchangeable from one item to another. This made manufacturing easier and less costly=CHEAPER products for consumers

Erie Canal (1832) and the start of Canal systems

A 50 ft. wide path cut through forests, hills, and swamps. Then a ditch 40 ft wide and 4 ft deep had to be dug.Thousands of workers were needed for this project. 25% of these workers were Irish.This modification of the environment allowed the Great Lakes to be connected to the Hudson riverThis connection made it cheaper and easier to get Midwestern farm products out to the ocean for trade and vice versa!

How to move all of these new products?...infrastructure!

RailroadsIn England and America inventors applied the steam engine technology to build the railroad locomotive

Communication Innovations

TelegraphThe spread of Rail roads was accompanied by the invention of the telegraph by Samuel F.B. Morse.Provides instant communication across the nation a reality.

IR effects the American Economy and Society

America was largely rural in the 1830’s. The rise of industry changes this. 1820-350.000 factory workers….by 1860 there are 2 MILLION factory workers!

People develop new work habits (time clocks, schedules)Women and children enter the workforce along with immigrantsNeeded more educated leaders and managersRapid industrialization brings increase in