The North’s Economy

Chapter 13, Lesson 1

Technology and Industry►In 1800 most Americans worked on

farms. Anything that could not be manufactured

from home, were made one by one, by blacksmiths, shoemakers and tailors.

►By the early 1800s, power-driven machinery began to appear completing tasks once done by hand. Industrialization began to change the way

Americans worked, traveled, and communicated.

Industrialization► The North’s industrialization occurred in three

phases: Phase 1: Manufacturers made products by dividing the task

involved amongst workers.► Example: One person spun thread all day while the other

person weaved. Phase 2: Factories are built to bring specialized workers

together.► Allowed for products to be made more quickly.

Phase 3: Factory workers used machinery to perform some of their work.

► Many new machines ran water or were steam powered. Power driven looms to over the task of weaving. The workers new job became to maintain the machine,

which produced more clothes in less time.

► Mass production of cotton in New England began in the early 1800s.

Industrialization► Elias Howe (1846) – Inventor of the sewing

machine. Clothing could be produced on a larger scale from fabrics

made by machines.

► Other types of industries also developed and by 1860, the Northeast’s factories produced at least two-thirds of the countries manufactured goods.

Improved Transportation► Improvements in transportation also helped many

of America’s new industries. Between 1800 and 1850, construction crews built

thousands of miles of canals and roads.►Canals opened up many new shipping routes by connecting

lakes and rivers.

► The growth of railroads in the 1840s and 1850s also helped speed the flow of goods.

► Robert Fulton (Inventor; 1807) – demonstrated a reliable steamboat. Steamboats carried goods and passengers more cheaply

and faster along inland waterways than could flatboats or sail-powered vessels.

Improved Transportation► Canals were deepened and widened in the 1840s to

accommodate steamboats. By 1860 about 3,000 steamboats traveled along major

rivers and canals of the country as well as the Great Lakes.► Aided in the growth of cities like Cincinnati, Buffalo, and

Chicago.

► Sailing ships improved in the 1840s. Clipper Ships – Sleek hulls and tall sails.

►Considered the pride of the open seas.► Sail 300 miles per day (as fast as some of the steam ships of

the time.)►Name cam from its ability to “clip” time from long journeys► The voyage from Great Britain on other ships of the time did

so in about 21 to 28 days, but the clipper made the trip in half the time.

A clipper ship,The Flying Cloud

Sailed from New York to California in less than 90 days.

Locomotives► Railroad use began with short stretches of track

connecting mines with nearby rivers. Early trains were pulled by horse rather than by

locomotives.

► The first steam-powered passenger locomotive, the Rocket, began operating in Britain in 1829.

► Peter Cooper (1830) – Built the first American steam locomotive. Known as Tom Thumb, it did not start off well, losing to a

horse-draw train in Baltimore when its engine failed. Engineers improved on the engine, and within 1o years

steam locomotives were pulling trains in the United States.

A Railway Network► In 1840, the U.S. had almost 3,000 miles of railroad

track. Just twenty years later, it had almost 31,000 miles (mostly

in the North and Midwest.) One linked New York City and Buffalo, another connected

Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and another linked Baltimore with Wheeling, Virginia (now West Virginia).

► Railway builders connected these eastern lines to lines being built further west in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. By 1860, a network of railroad track united the Midwest

and the East.

Moving Goods and People► Just like canals, railways affected trade in the

nation’s interior. These changes came about with the opening of the Eerie

Canal in 1825 and the first railroads in the 1830s.► Before this, agricultural goods were shipped down the

Mississippi to New Orleans where it was shipped to other countries or the East coast.

► The development of the east-west canal and the rail network allowed grain, livestock, and dairy products to move directly to the Midwest to the East. Now that goods traveled faster and more cheaply, they

could be sold in the East at lower prices.

► It also helped with the settlement and industrialization of the Midwest. Fast and affordable, train travel allowed people into Ohio,

Indiana, and Illinois and as population grew so did new towns and industries.

Faster Communication► Growth of industry and the new pace of travel

created a need for faster methods of communication. The telegraph – device that used electrical signals to

transmit messages.

► Samuel Morse (Inventor; May 24, 1844) – Had been seeking support for a system of telegraph lines. Morse demonstrated that he could transmit messages

instantly along wires. He sent the message “What has God Wrought?” to

Baltimore in Washington D.C. Soon he was receiving messages right back. His message was being transmitted in Morse Code (a

series of dots and dashes representing letters of the alphabet.)► Skilled Morse code operators could quickly tap out messages

in the dot-and-dash alphabet.

Faster Communication► Americans adopted the system eagerly.

A British visitor was amazed at the speed which Americans created telegraph companies and erected telegraph lines, writing that Americans were driven to “annihilate distance” in their vast country.

► By 1852 the U.S. was operating about 23,000 miles of telegraph lines.

Agriculture► Railroads granted farmers new access to different

markets to sell their products. Advances in technology also allowed farmers to greatly

increase the size of the harvest they produced.

► In the early 1800s, few farmers had ventured into the treeless Great Plains west of Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota.

► Areas of mixed forest and prairie west of Ohio and Kentucky seemed too difficult for farming.

► Settlers worried that their wooden plows could not break the prairie’s matted sod and that the soil was not fertile.

Revolution in Agriculture► Three Revolutionary inventions of the 1830s

changed farming methods and encouraged settlers to cultivate larger areas of the West. John Deere (1837) – Invented the Steel-Tipped Plow.

► Deere’s plow easily cut through the hard packed sod of the prairies.

Mechanical Reaper – sped up the harvesting of wheat. Thresher – quickly separated grain from stalk.

McCormick’s Reaper► Cyrus McCormick – designed and constructed the

mechanical reaper and made a fortune. He became interested in making machines to ease the

burden of farming. Before his invention farmers had harvested grain with

handheld sickles for hundreds and his machine could harvest much faster than traditional sickles.► Since it could be harvested so quickly, it made farming wheat

much more profitable.

His invention solidified growing wheat in the Midwestern prairies as the main economic activity.

► New machines and railroads helped farmers plant more cash crops. More farmers planted wheat and shipped it east

through barges on canals or by railroad.

McCormick’s Reaper► In the Northeast and Middle Atlantic began growing

fruit and vegetables that grew well in Eastern soil.► The Northeast would eventually shy-away from

farming, and begin focusing on industry. It was much more difficult to farm in the Northeast and

industry was flourishing in the area.

► The number of people working in factories began to rise and so did problems related to factory labor.