The Industrial Revolution

Thomas Newcomen invents the steam engine. It is not very useful yet, but the idea of using steam to make machines go will be important to the Industrial Revolution.

The spinning jenny is invented byJames Hargreaves, a British carpenter and weaver. The machine spins more than one ball of yarn or thread at a time, making it easier and faster to make cloth.

James Watt from Scotland designs a more efficient steam engine. One of the most important inventions of the Industrial Revolution, steam engines power the first trains, steamboats, and factories.

Eli Whitney creates a machine that makes it much easier to separate cotton seeds from cotton fibre. It greatly reduces the time it takes to clean cotton and helps the southern states make more money from cotton crops.

Allows messages to be sent quickly over a wire. By 1860, telegraph wires stretch from the east coast of the United States west of the Mississippi River.

At a time when people had to make their own clothes at home or pay someone else to sew them by hand, Elias Howe invents the sewing machine. Now clothes can be made in large factories.

Elevators were already invented by 1853, but people worried about elevator cars falling. Elisha Otis invents a safety break to prevent them from falling if a cable breaks, making people feel more confident about using elevators in tall buildings.

Henry Bessemer invents a process for making steel out of iron. Having a way to make steel more quickly and more cheaply helps the production of building and leads to the growth of cities. Reduces cost of steel production by half.

Alfred Nobel invents dynamite, which is a safer way to blast holes in mountains or the ground than simply lighting black powder. Dynamite is important in clearing paths to build things such as roads and railroad tracks.

A chemist named Louis Pasteur believed that germs caused disease. Using this information, he created vaccines that helped prevent many common diseases, which helped people live longer.