New Technologies Change America

Focus for Today:Mid-1800s Improvements in

• Transportation

• Communication

• Agriculture

• Home Technology

Transportation Revolution

•Steamboats - Robert Fulton creates the Clermont, a steam boat,

and runs it on the Hudson River in 1807 Faster than sailboats and doesn’t need wind

•Trains - Peter Cooper creates the Tom Thumb in 1830 US has 2800 miles of track in 1840 30,000 miles of track by 1860 - mostly in the North

(outbreak of Civil War)

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A Bit of Local History:

Jamestown, NY and the Train

Jamestown’s First Train Station was at the base of Cherry Street from 1865 to 1897.

Our second train depot was located west of the original near Main Street.It served the city from 1897 to 1926

Jamestown’s fourth station still stands at the base of Layfayette (across the street from the JSB Ice Arena)

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Telegraph

•Samuel Morse figures out how to send electrical pulse over wires

•Morse Code - system of sounds where each group of sounds is a letter (short sounds are called dots, long are dashes)

•Allows people to instantly communicate over great distances

•1861 - First transcontinental line completed

Agricultural Improvements

•Steel Plow - John Deere creates a plow that will not bend easily in the hard, midwestern soil

•Reaper - Cyrus McCormick becomes fantastically wealthy with this machine that cuts wheat behind a horse

•Cotton Gin - Eli Whitney’s invention makes cotton production profitable, increasing the demand for slaves

Home Technology

•Sewing Machine - allows for people at home to make clothing much quicker and easier

• Isaac Singer - improves the machine by making it pedal driven

• Icebox - allows people to keep cooled food longer

• Indoor Plumbing - wealthy people can put pumps inside of homes (first floor only)

•Matches created

•Safety pins invented

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