Integrated Middle School Curriculum

Partnership for Environmental Education and Rural Health (PEER; http://peer.tamu.edu)

Texas A&M University

Objectives

• Examine the impact and history of technological innovations.

• Compare and contrast the lifestyle of the American family prior to and following the Industrial Revolution.

• Write a timeline for the technological innovations covered in this lesson.

The Franklin StoveIn the 1740s, Benjamin Franklin invented the Franklin Stove.

Stoves provided heat, light, and cooked food, yet earlier stoves were not very effective at heating a room.

Franklin’s stove helped to keep the stove’s heat in the room, which he hoped would be a health benefit during cold New England winters.

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The Franklin Stove had one major flaw…

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Can you guess what it might be?

Franklin’s stove vented the smoke from the base which caused the fire to go out.

In the late 1780’s, David R. Rittenhouse improved upon the design by adding an L-shaped exhaust that vented the smoke up.

The Sewing Machine

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The first sewing machine was patented in 1846 by Elias Howe.

Isaac Singer developed a sewing machine soon after that.

The sewing machine was the foundation for the ready-made clothing industry

"Richmond & Backus Co. Sewing Room, Detroit, Michigan." Detroit Publishing Company between 1900 and 1910. Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880 - 1920, Library of Congress.

The Flour MillGrain was ground into flour by mills in a very complicated process that required a lot of hard work on the part of the miller.

In 1782, Oliver Evans created the “automatic” flour mill. His mill ran on water power from a nearby machine.

Every step of the process was automated , including elevators that moved the grain from machine to machine so that the miller only had to put the grain sacks in, and cover the barrels of finished flour.

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Iron-makingThe first ironworks in North America were built at Falling Creek, Virginia in 1619. By 1759, American iron was considered excellent for shipbuilding, a trade very important to the New England colonies.In England, iron was mined from tunnels underground, but in the colonies, it could be dug from open pits. Iron could also be scraped from the bottom of swamps. In this form, it was called “bog ore.”

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This spring contains iron-bearing ground water, providing the iron

for bog iron deposits.

Iron-makingOver the next forty years, huge improvements came to the iron industry.

Huge blast furnaces could create enough heat to melt the iron, which had not been possible before.

The advances made in England between 1750 and 1800 were not widely used in the American iron industry until the 1840s.

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RailroadsGeorge and Robert Stephenson were the father and son who ushered in the railway age.

On September 27, 1825, the first train line opened in England, using a steam locomotive, the Locomotion, which the Stephensons had invented.

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In 1830, the United States already had 23 miles of rails.

This number grew to 2,818 within ten years.

By 1861, there were 166,703 miles of railroad.

Source: The United States Library of Congress

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Railroads

In England, rail lines were built to be completely level, winding around hills instead of going up and down them. They worried that a train’s smooth wheels would not have traction on the smooth rails.

William Norris of Philadelphia disproved this, and his locomotives sold well because of their ability to climb hills.

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Railroads

An early innovation to the American train was the cow-catcher.

Railways were not fenced, so cows sometimes wandered onto the lines.

The cow-catcher scooped up the cow and threw it to one side, preventing a derailment.

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Railroads

The SteamboatAmerican inventor Robert Fulton was the first to successfully propel a boat with a steam engine.

An early steamboat was once described as “an engine on a raft.”

Years later, steamboats reached their well-known form with a large paddlewheel on the aft (back) of the boat.

Robert Fulton’s Clermont

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Effects of Improved Transportation on American Families

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BEFORE AFTER

Families:• lived in rural settings• raised their own food• made their own clothes• bartered locally for

products they needed

Families:• lived in urban settings• worked for wages in

mills• bought more of the

products they needed

Interchangeable PartsThe U.S. military wanted to be able to use weapons made of interchangeable parts, as these guns could be repaired on the battlefield more easily.

In 1811, John Hall installed machines he had made to create these weapons at the federal arsenal in Virginia. Source: Harper’s Ferry National Historic Park.

The federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia as it appeared in 1824.

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Interchangeable PartsEli Whitney! In 1801, he helped sell the concept of interchangeable gun parts, but was unable to produce the weapons.

The federal arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia as it appeared in 1824.

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In 1811, John Hall installed machines he had made to create these weapons at the federal arsenal in Virginia.

Source: Harper’s Ferry National Historic Park

Interchangeable PartsHall’s system was tested when ten of his muskets, made between 1844 and 1853 were taken apart and their parts were mixed together. Workers reassembled the guns at random, and every single one fit and fired perfectly.

These guns were very expensive, however, and were a luxury not all soldiers could afford.

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The Internal Combustion EngineThe first really successful internal combustion engine was built in 1860 by Etienne Lenoir.

The internal combustion engine was the beginning of the modern vehicle.

It replaced horse-powered carriages and the cumbersome steam engine.

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Source: http://www.lss.bolton.ac.uk

The Box TelephoneAlexander Graham Bell was experimenting with a telegraph machine when he discovered that voices could be transmitted over a wire.

In 1876 he was able to transmit sound from Cambridge to Salem Massachusetts. His invention sparked the beginning of the telephone era.

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Source: http://mcgee.berlinschools.org

Thinking About the Industrial Revolution

Look around your classroom:– How many things do you see that could have been

made before the Industrial Revolution?– How many things do you see that could have been

made during the Industrial Revolution?– Think about the things that were invented after the

Industrial Revolution. How do you think the Industrial Revolution affected the creators of these new products?

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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Partnership for Environmental Education and Rural Health

College of Education, Texas A&M University

Department of Agricultural Education, Texas A&M University

The Center for Environmental and Rural Health

College of Veterinary Medicine, Texas A&M University