scientific developments/inventions

Scientific Developments/Inventions

By: Maddie Frith,

Luis Tejada, Jade Tinney, Emily VonGreitchen,

Anthony Yamashiro

Essential Question

To what extent have scientific discoveries, in America, impacted society?

Executive Summary

The advancement in technology made farmer’s lives easier, even if they did have negative consequences. The first reaping machine could harvest more grain than five men. The cotton gin, invented by Eli Whitney, made cotton five times easier to harvest. This caused high-demand for cotton. The US moved into the modern era with the new ways of transportation, such as the steamboat. Canals gave steamboats more efficient paths to their destinations. Communication advances revolutionized the way information was spread, making it significantly faster especially from great distances. For example, the telegraph let people instantly communicate.

Samuel Slater

Known as “Father of the Factory System” in America. He fled to America from England, starting the establishment of textile mills he saw in Britain. In 1791, he put the 1st efficient American machinery for spinning thread into operation. IB he pioneered the industrial era in America.

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Eli Whitney

In 1793, he invented the cotton gin. This invention raised insatiable demand for cotton (mostly in New England).IB in 1798, he mass-produced musket for US Army, established a basis for mass-production, and assembly lines .

IB Perhaps made the Civil war inevitable.IB Flourished in the North, contributed to the Union’s victory.



Elias Howe

1846, inventor of sewing machine, (later perfected by Isaac Singer).IB Sewing machine= foundation of the ready-made clothing industryAssembly-line method in factories, instead of working from the privacy of their own home.

Each momentous invention seemed to inspire more useful inventions.





Samuel F. B. Morse

Inventor of the telegraph.

Tightened the sinews (solid resilient strength) of an increasing complex business world.

Convinced Congress to fund his “talking wire” experiment($30,000).

IB Developed a way to instantly communicate with one another from great distances.



John Deere

1837, produced a steel plow that broke virgin soil in the West.Lighter than the wooden plows, able to be pulled by horses instead of oxen.IB Solved farmers’ problems with the thickly matted soil of the West.



Cyrus McCormick

Inventor of mechanical mower-reaper.No other US invention cut so wide a swath (a long, wide strip of land).Commerce moved north and south on the river systems. IB West became more agriculturally dominant than the South





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