Transcript New Technologies and Transportation

New Technologies and
Transportation
Chapter 12, Section 2
The Transportation
Revolution
During the early 1800’s the United States
experienced a Transportation Revolution:
A period of rapid improvement in the speed, ease
and cost of transportation.
Transportation Revolution
The first form of transportation affected was
water travel
Robert Fulton successfully sent his
steamboat The Clermont up the Hudson
River on August 9, 1807
The Transportation Revolution
• News of the trip created an immediate
demand for a steamboat ferry service.
Transportation Revolution
• Steamboats soon became a common sight
on the Mississippi River
• The steamboat could move quickly against
the current and did not rely on wind power.
Transportation Revolution
• What the steamboat
did for water travel,
the train did for land
travel.
• Although steampowered locomotives
had appeared in
Great Britain in the
early 1800’s, they did
not become popular
in the US until the
1830’s.
The Transportation Revolution
“Railroad fever” soon spread across the
country.
By 1840, the US railroad companies had laid
about 2,800 miles of track, 1,000 more
miles than existed in all of Europe.
Railroad companies became some of the
most powerful businesses in the nation
The Transportation Revolution
The railroad boom created engineering
challenges. Trains had to run up and down
steep mountains, around tight curves, and
over dangerous rivers.
Transportation Revolution
“Whizzing and rattling and panting, with its
fiery furnace gleaming in front, its chimney
vomiting fiery smoke above and its long
train of cars rushing along behind like the
body of a gigantic dragon-all darting
forward at the rate of 20 miles an hour!”
George Templeton
Gibbons v. Ogden
The growth of the railroad industry led to the
first Supreme Court ruling on commerce
between states.
Thomas Gibbons held a federal license to
operate a steamboat. He wanted to run his
steamboat between New Jersey and New
York.
Gibbons v. Ogden
Gibbons did not have a license to travel in
New York waters.
New York had already given Aaron Ogden
the monopoly on the steamboat business
there
Ogden sued Gibbons and won, Gibbons
appealed the case to the Supreme Court
Gibbons v. Ogden
The Supreme Court ruled that Gibbons had
the right to operate in New York because
his business crossed state lines.
Chief Justice John Marshall explained that
federal law overruled state law because
the Constitution gave only Congress the
power to regulate interstate commerce.
Gibbons v. Ogden
This case reinforced the federal
government’s authority over the states.
It expanded the legal definition of commerce
to include navigation and communication
that make trade possible.
Communication by Wire
In 1832 Samuel Morse invented the
telegraph-a devise that sends and
receives pulses of electrical current
through a wire.
Communication by Wire
Telegraph operators communicated with
Morse’s invention by tapping a key to
complete an electric circuit and send a
signal to a distant receiver.
Morse Code was the system of using
different combinations of short and long
pulses to represent letter and numbers.
Communication by Wire
Dots represent a short burst
Dashes represent a long burst
Communication by Wire
In May of 1944, Morse sent a message from the
Capitol Building in Washington, DC to Baltimore
Maryland-about 40 miles away.
An exchange that would have taken hours by train
had taken only a minute by telegraph.
Communication by Wire
Telegraph operators were soon sending and
receiving information for the government,
newspapers, businesses, and private
citizens.
Telegraph companies strung lines on poles
along railroads
Agricultural Improvements
Improved transportation helped many more
Americans move west to find land.
At first, farmers who moved to the Midwest
had difficulty plowing through the rich,
thick soil.
Agricultural Improvements
Blacksmith, John Deere designed a steel
plow in 1837. The plow’s steel blades
could slice through the earth without
getting stuck.
His business continued to prosper as more
farmers moved west.
Agricultural Improvements
Agricultural Improvements
Cyrus McCormick developed a mechanical reaper
that cut wheat more quickly
“A cross between a flying machine, a wheelbarrow,
and a circus wagon.”
The London Times
It made harvesting faster and easier.
Agricultural Improvements
Together, Deere’s plow and
McCormick’s reaper
made it possible for
Midwestern farmers to
plant and harvest huge
fields of wheat.
The process was fast and
cheap.
Home Technology
• Isaac Singer- perfected and marketed the
first sewing machines.
• Sewing machines became a symbol of
wealth.
• Many women bought sewing machines to
try to earn a living sewing clothes at home.
Home Technology
In the 1830’s, the icebox was developed that
used large blocks of ice to cool foods.
“I’ve got this icebox where my heart
used to be…”
Families could store food for longer periods
of time.