Chapter 9

Communication Revolution

The speed of communication accelerated in the 19th century Construction of turnpikes, canals, railroads, post offices, steamships and the telegraph generated a communications revolution. Mail began to deliver by express. Joseph Henry - his research in electromagnetism provided the basis of Samuel Morse's invention of the telegraph and for the invention of electric motors. Joseph Henry became the head of the Smithsonian Institution. Technological advances helped improved living conditions: houses could be larger, better heated and better lite. There was indoor plumbing, central heating, gas lights, bathtubs, and iceboxes, cooking stoves. The first sewer systems helped cities begin to rid their streets of human and animal waste. Underground water lines enabled firemen to use hydrants rather than water buckets. There were machine made clothes. There were lots of newspapers and magazines and they were affordable. There were also watches and clocks Some Inventors: 1. Charles Goodyear - patented a process to "vulcanize" rubber, making rubber stronger and more elastic 2. Elias Howe - designed the sewing machine 3. Isaac Singer - improved the sewing machine that Elias Howe invented (The sewing machine actually slowed the progress of factory because it was adapted to use in the home, and it enabled women to work form home. 4. Samuel Morse - telegraph. The first telegraph was transmitted from Baltimore to Washington, DC By the end of 1840 telegraph lines connected all major cities The communication and transportation improvements of the first half of the 19th century reshaped the contours economic, social and political life. Steamboats, canals, and railroads helped unite the western areas of the country with the East, boost trade, open up the West for settlement, and spark growth of cities such as Buffalo, Cleveland, and Chicago. Between 1800 and 1860 a nation of scattered farms and primitive roads was transformed into an engine of captitalist expansion and urban energy. The first national brands, first department stores and first advertising agencies.

Samuel F. Morse

1832 he invented the telegraph and revolutionized the speed of communications

Agriculture

Economic opportunities seemed abundant especially in South Carolina. The reason was COTTON. The profitable cash crop of the South which spread from South Carolina and Georgia to the fertile lands of Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas

Conestoga

Large horse-drawn wagons were used to carry people or heavy freight long distance, including from the East to the western frontier settlements

Erie Canal

Most important and profitable of the barge canals of the 1820's and 1830's; stretched from Buffalo to Albany, New York, connecting the Great Lakes to the East Coast and making New York City the nations largest port

Railroads

Railroads the more versatile form of transportation. The worlds first commercial steam railway began operation in England. Railroads grew nearly 10 fold covers 30,626 miles. Railroad gained supremacy over other forms of transportation because of its speed, carrying capacity, and reliability. Trains averaged 10 miles/hour more than twice the speed of stage coaches and four times the speed of boats. Railroad greatly reduced the coast of frieght and passenger transportation. Railroads were less expensive to build than canals and more reliable. Railroads also provided indirect benefits by encouraging new settlement and expansion of farms. The railroads demands for iron and equipment of various kinds created a market for industries. The ability for railroads to operated year round in most kinds of weather ave them the advantage in carrying finished goods. Negative effects of railroads: 1. It helped corrupt political life 2. bribed legislators 3. Accelerated the decline of the Native American Culture 4. Quickened the tempo and mobility of everyday life

Cotton

The Industrial Revolution and its spread of textile mills created a rapidly growing global market the COTTON the "fluffy fiber" At a plantation called MULBERRY GROVE at the home of Catharine Greene, talks of separating cotton seeds from the cotton fiber were being discussed. In 1792, ELI WHITNEY visited Mulberry Grove where he devised a mechanism for removing the seeds from the cotton. Whitney's cotton "gin" or cotton "engine" enable the operator to gin fifty times as much cotton as a worker could separate by hand. Whitney's invention launched a revolution. Cotton prices and production soared. Slave trade emerged from the South to the Southwest. The cotton culture became a way of life that tied the Old Southwest to the coastal Southeast Cotton became a major export commodity. It became a crucial element of the national economy and the driving force behind the expansion of SLAVERY.

Industrial Revolution

While the South and West developed the agricultural basis, the NORTH was initiating and industrial revolution. Technology altered the economic landscape by giving rise to the factory system.

Turnpike

a pole or pike at the tollgate which was turned to admit the traffic, A road that one must pay to use; the money is used to pay for the road.

Transportation and the National Economy

After the WAr of 1812, Americas were transforming their young nation. Local economy was being transformed into a national marketplace with improvements in communication and transportation The nation began to divide into 3 powerful regional blocs: North, South, and West Between 1815 and 1850 the US became a transcontinental power, expanding all the way to the Pacific coast. Any industrial revolution began to reshape the regions economy and propel an unrelenting process of urbanization. West - commercial agriculture began to emerge in which (corn, wheat, and cattle) were sold to distant markets South - "cotton" became king thus expanding slavery Innovations in transportation and communications: 1. Conestogas - larger horse draw wagons 2. canals 3. steamboats 4. railroads 5. telegraph system The 18th century was largely small scale farming was maturing into a capitalist marketplace

Eli Whitney

He invented the cotton gin which could separate cotton from its seeds. One machine operator could separate 50 times more cotton than a worker could by hand, which led to an increased in cotton production and prices. These increased gave planters a new profitable use for slavery and a lucrative slave trade emerged from the coastal South to the Southwest.

Cyrus McCormick

He invented the mechanical reaper to harvest wheat, which transformed the scale of agriculture. By hand a farmer could only harvest an acre a day, while the McCormick reaper allowed two people to harvest twelve acres of wheat a day

Early Textile Manufactures

The foundations of Britain's advantage were the invention of the steam engine in 1705 and its improvement by James Watt in 1765. Great Britain had become the central dynamo of an expanding world market for manufactured goods. Britain carefully guarded its secrets, forbidding the export of machines of publication of descriptions on them, even restricting the emigration of skilled mechanics. But the secrets could not be kept. Int 1789, SAMUEL SLATER arrived in American from England with detailed plan on water-powered spinning machine in his head. He built a mill in Pawtucket and 9 children turned out a satisfactory cotton yarn. Women could weave the yarn into cloth in their homes. The growth of American textile production was slow until Thomas Jefferson's embargo in 1807. Policies adopted during the War of 1812 further restricted imports and encouraged the merchant capitalists of New England to transfer their resources from shipping to manufacturing. By 1815, textile mills numberers in the hundreds. A flood of British textile imports after the War of 1812 dealt a temporary setback to the infant American industry. But the foundation of textile manufacture were laid, and they spurred the growth of garment trades and machine-tool industry that built and services the mills.

Transportation and the Market Revolution

1. New Roads - travel remained difficult. Stage coaches were crammed with many people. South Carolinians and Georgians pushed westward on whatever trails To the northwest a movement for graded and paved roads. Also the completion of the Philadelphia-Lancaster Turnpike in 1794. By 1821 some 4000 miles of turnpikes had been completed 2. Water Transportation - the turnpike boom gave way to development of water transportation: river steamboats, flat boats and canal barges carried people far more cheaply that did wagons. 1st commerical steamboat - Robert Fulton and Rober Livingston sent the CLERMONT up New Yorks Hudson river. Travel by flatboats took up to 6 weeks. Travel by steamboats was faster 25 days from New Orleans to Pittsburg However the durable flatboat still carried to market most of the wheat, corn, flour, bacon, ham, whiskey, soap and candles, lead from Missouri, copper from Michigan, timber from Rockies, ironwork from Pittsburg. Steamboat created a transcontinental market and agricultural empire that became the nations new "breadbasket". Villages at strategic trading points evolved into center of commerce and urban life. The port of New Orleans grew in 1830 and 1840 to lead all others in exports. The Erie Canal in New York was drawing eastward much of the midwestern trade. Erie Canal was the dream of Governor DeWitt Clinton of connecting the Hudson River with Lake Erie to the west across New York. The Erie Canal was 40 feet wide and four feet deep and 363 miles form Albany to Buffalo. Branches soon put most of the state within its reach. The Erie Canal brought a "river of gold" to New York City and caused small towns in New York to blossom into major commercial cities. The Erie Canal was the longest canal in the world. It revolutionized the American economic development. It reduced travel time from New York to Buffalor from 25 to 6 days. The cost of moving freight went form $100 to $5. Delaware and Hudson Canal linked New York to the coalfields in northeastern Pennsylvania. The speedy success of the New York system inspired a mania for canals in other states and spawned 3000 miles of waterways by 1837. No canal ever matched the success of the Erie which rendered the Great Lakes region an economic tributary to the port of New York City. Canals spanning Ohio and Indians from north to south, much of the upper Ohio Valley also came within the economic sphere of New York.

Farming the West

A new national law of 1820 reduced the price of federal land. A settler could get a farm for as little as $100, and over the years the proliferation of state banks made it possible to continue buying land on credit. Congress passed 2 bills related to land: 1. Preemption Act of 1830 - squatters could stake out claims ahead of the land surveys and later get 160 acres at the minimum price of $1.25 per acre. 2. Graduation Act of 1854 - prices of unsold lands were to be lowered in stages over thirty years The process of settling new lands meant clearing trees, taking out stumps and underbrush. The iron plows greatly eased this work. Plow inventors: 1. Jethro Wood - developed and improved iron plow. 2. John Deere - further made improvements to the plow with a "steel plow" 3. James Oliver - made improvements to the plow also making a "chilled iron and steel plow" New mechanical seeders replaced the process of sewing seed by hand. Cyrus McCormick - invented a mechanical reaper to harvest wheat. This was a development significant to the Midwest, Old Northwest and the Great Plains. The use of machines reduced the number of farm workers which helped send displaced rural laborers to work in textile mills, iron foundries and other new industries. By 1850, farming had become a major commercial activity. As the volume of agricultural products soared, prices dropped, income rose, and the standard of living improved for many farm families in the West.

Ocean Transportation

RAINBOW - was the first clipper ship The lure of Chinese tea, a drink coveted by America but in scarce supply, prompted the clipper boom. Asian tea leaves were a perishable commodity that had to reach the market quickly after harvest an the clipper ships made this possible. California gold lured thousands of prospectors and entrepreneurs from the Atlantic seaboard. Massive wave of minners generated demand for goods that the clipper met. FLYING CLOUD - took 89 days to travel form new York to San Francisco Clippers while fast lacked ample cargo space and after the Civil War the would give way to steamship.

Role of Government

Tranpsportation improvements in 19th century were financed by both state governments and private investors. The National government bought stock in turnpike and canal companies after the success of the Erie Canal, extended land grants to several western states for the support of canal projects. Congress provided for railroads surveys by government engineers and reduced the tariff duties on iron used in railroad construction. 1850, Senator Stephen Douglas of Illinois and others asked Congress to extend a major land grant to support a north-south rail line connecting Chicago and Mobile, Alabama. The 1850 precendent for other bounties that totaled about 20 million acres by 1860 - a small amount compared with land grants that Congress awarded transcontinental railroads during the 1860s