Chapter 14- North and South

• How did new inventions change manufacturing and farming in the North?

Invention

Sewing machine

Inventor

Elias Howe,improved by Isaac Singer

Improvement

Clothing could be manufactured by machine much more rapidly than it could be made by hand.

Iron Plow

Steel Plow

Jethro Wood

John Deere

The older, heavy wood and iron plows had to be pulled by slow-moving oxen. A horse could pull a lighter-weight steel plow faster.

Mechanical Reaper Cyrus McCormick A horse-drawn reaper could mow wheat and other grains five times as fast as farmhands using hand tools.

Mechanical Drill, Threshing Machine, Horse-Drawn Hay Rake

all these improvements helped farmers raise more grain with fewer farmhands.

Telegraph Samuel F. B. Morse

The “talking wire,” or telegraph, was a device that sent electrical signals along a wire. For the first time, news

could travel long distances in a few minutes.

steam-powered locomotive engine

an English familyRailroad cars had been pulled by horses or mules. The steam-powered locomotive, or engine to pull railroad cars, could do 30 miles per hour.

• What difficulties did the first railroads face?Early problems

– Workers who moved freight on horse-drawn wagons feared

losing their jobs.

– Investors in canals worried that competition from the

railroads would cause them to lose their investments.

– Soft roadbeds and weak bridges often led to railroad

accidents.

– Locomotives often broke down.

– The smokestacks belched thick smoke and hot embers. The

embers sometimes burned clothing.

– Where there was only one track instead of one in each

direction, trains collided.

Gradually, many of these problems were solved and by the

1850s, railroads crisscrossed the nation.

• How did railroads and clipper ships help the northern economy?

Railroads increased commerce within the United States.

– New York, Chicago, and Cincinnati became major rail

centers.

– Railroads allowed factory owners to transport large

amounts cheaply and quickly

– Railroads linked towns with cities. The towns became

markets for goods made in the cities.

– Railroads brought cheap farm goods from the West to New

England. New England farmers could not compete and left

their farms for other jobs.

Clipper ShipsA new kind of ship, the clipper ship, increased

commerce between the United States and other

nations.

– Americans sold cotton, fur, wheat, lumber, and

tobacco overseas.

– John Griffiths launched a new, speedier ship—the

clipper ship. It was a sleek vessel with tall masts

and huge sails that caught every gust of wind.

Steam Power Also Helped the Northern Economy

• Steam power had advantages over water power.

• Factories that used steam power could be built anywhere. They didn’t have to be built along rivers.

• Steam-driven machines were powerful, as well as cheap to run.

• The new machines produced more goods at lower cost.