The industrial revolution (understanding world history (reference point))

con-At the time, steam engines had been in use for several years, but they were generally employed for industrial purposes—mostly for pumping water out of mines.. Powered by wood or coal

Other titles in the series include:

The Industrial Revolution

®

Bruno Leone Series Consultant Hal Marcovitz

Understanding

World History

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Marcovitz, Hal.

The industrial revolution / by Hal Marcovitz.

pages cm (Understanding world history series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Foreword 6 Important Events of the Industrial Revolution 8 Introduction 10

Th e Defi ning Characteristics of the Industrial

Important People of the Industrial Revolution 85

Index 91

Contents

When the Puritans fi rst emigrated from England to America in

1630, they believed that their journey was blessed by a enant between themselves and God By the terms of that covenant they agreed to establish a community in the New World dedicated to what they believed was the true Christian faith God, in turn, would reward their fi delity by making certain that they and their descendants would always experience his protection and enjoy material prosperity More- over, the Lord guaranteed that their land would be seen as a shining beacon—or in their words, a “city upon a hill,”—which the rest of the world would view with admiration and respect By embracing this no- tion that God could and would shower his favor and special blessings upon them, the Puritans were adopting the providential philosophy of history—meaning that history is the unfolding of a plan established or guided by a higher intelligence.

cov-Th e concept of intercession by a divine power is only one of many explanations of the driving forces of world history Historians and phi- losophers alike have subscribed to numerous other ideas For example, the ancient Greeks and Romans argued that history is cyclical Nations and civilizations, according to these ancients of the Western world, rise and fall in unpredictable cycles; the only certainty is that these cycles will per- sist throughout an endless future Th e German historian Oswald Spengler (1880–1936) echoed the ancients to some degree in his controversial study

Th e Decline of the West Spengler asserted that all civilizations inevitably

pass through stages comparable to the life span of a person: childhood, youth, adulthood, old age, and, eventually, death As the title of his work implies, Western civilization is currently entering its fi nal stage

Joining those who see purpose and direction in history are thinkers who completely reject the idea of meaning or certainty Rather, they reason that since there are far too many random and unseen factors

at work on the earth, historians would be unwise to endorse cal predictability of any type Warfare (both nuclear and convention- al), plagues, earthquakes, tsunamis, meteor showers, and other cata- strophic world-changing events have loomed large throughout history and prehistory In his essay “A Free Man’s Worship,” philosopher and

histori-Foreword

mathematician Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) supported this ment, which many refer to as the nihilist or chaos theory of history According to Russell, history follows no preordained path Rather, the earth itself and all life on earth resulted from, as Russell describes it, an

argu-“accidental collocation of atoms.” Based on this premise, he cally concluded that all human achievement will eventually be “buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins.”

pessimisti-Whether history does or does not have an underlying purpose, ans, journalists, and countless others have nonetheless left behind a record

histori-of human activity tracing back nearly 6,000 years From the dawn histori-of the great ancient Near Eastern civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt to the modern economic and military behemoths China and the United States, humanity’s deeds and misdeeds have been and continue to be monitored and recorded Th e distinguished British scholar Arnold Toynbee (1889–

1975), in his widely acclaimed twelve-volume work entitled A Study of

His-tory, studied twenty-one diff erent civilizations that have passed through

history’s pages He noted with certainty that others would follow

In the fi nal analysis, the academic and journalistic worlds mostly regard history as a record and explanation of past events From a more practical perspective, history represents a sequence of building blocks—cultural, tech- nological, military, and political—ready to be utilized and enhanced or ma- ligned and perverted by the present What that means is that all societies— whether advanced civilizations or preliterate tribal cultures—leave a legacy for succeeding generations to either embrace or disregard

Recognizing the richness and fullness of history, the ReferencePoint Press Understanding World History series fosters an evaluation and in- terpretation of history and its infl uence on later generations Each vol- ume in the series approaches its subject chronologically and topically, with specifi c focus on nations, periods, or pivotal events Primary and secondary source quotations are included, along with complete source notes and suggestions for further research

Moreover, the series refl ects the truism that the key to ing the present frequently lies in the past With that in mind, each series title concludes with a legacy chapter that highlights the bonds between past and present and, more important, demonstrates that world history

understand-is a continuum of peoples and ideas, sometimes hidden but there theless, waiting to be discovered by those who choose to look.

none-Important Events in

the Industrial Revolution

1455

German goldsmith Johannes

Gutenberg prints the fi rst book

using a press that employs

moveable type Th e fi rst book

printed

on the Gutenberg press is the Bible.

1712

A steam engine developed

by Th omas Savery, Th omas Newcomen, and John Calley goes into operation;

the huge machine is used solely to extract water from mines.

1300s

Beginning of the Renaissance in Europe,

the era in which art, literature, and the

sciences are rediscovered after the medieval

period Renaissance thinking would provide

a foundation for the Industrial Revolution.

1600s

Beginning of the Age of

Enlightment, in which philosophers

urge scientists, engineers, artists,

and others to use their talents for

the betterment of humankind.

1793

Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin, making cotton into a valuable crop in the South but also ensuring that

On December 24 Richard Trevithick

makes improvements to Watt’s

steam engine, bolts his version to

an iron carriage, and makes the fi rst

trip in a motorized vehicle.

1808

Th e Clermont makes its

fi rst voyage with passengers

on the Hudson River,

launching the era of

steam-powered nautical travel.

1835

Samuel Morse applies electricity to magnets, enabling him to send impulses over an electrical wire Th e discovery leads

to telegraphy and the use

of Morse code to provide instant communication over long distances.

1862

On March 9 the Monitor and

Merrimack clash at the Battle of Hampton Roads, launching the era of ironclad shipbuilding.

1879

Using a glass bulb containing a sewing thread

coated with carbon to act

as a fi lament,

Th omas Edison illuminates the fi rst incandescent bulb Th e bulb remains lit for thirteen hours.

1876

On March 10 Alexander Graham Bell improves

on telegraphy

by inventing the telephone—a device that transmits and receives voiced communications over electrical wires.

1903

On December 17 Orville Wright makes the fi rst

fl ight in an aircraft propelled by an engine Th e maiden

fl ight of the Wright

Flyer lasts twelve seconds and covers

120 feet (36.6 m).

1913

Henry Ford adopts the principles of mass production to the car industry at Ford Motor Company, making the Model T the fi rst consumer product built on an assembly line.

1914

World War I erupts; the combatants use the latest technology of the Industrial Revolution—airplanes, submarines, battleships, chemical weapons, and motorized tanks—to wage the four-year confl ict.

1859

Edwin Drake drills the fi rst commercially successful oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania Th e well produces ten gallons a day.

In 1808 William Perry, a twenty-year-old student from Cincinnati,

Ohio, was making his way to Massachusetts to enroll in Harvard University Arriving in Albany, New York, Perry discovered he had just missed the launch of a sailing ship heading south on the Hudson River and that the next ship was not scheduled to depart for several days Perry believed he had no choice but to take a room at a local inn and wait for the ship’s departure.

Th e next morning, while eating breakfast at the inn, Perry learned some startling news: Th at morning, a boat powered by a steam engine

would be departing Albany Th e boat, named the Clermont, would not

be going all the way to Boston, but Perry learned the Clermont would

be making several stops on the Hudson River, and the young man cluded that he could continue his journey overland, embarking from one of many port cities.

con-At the time, steam engines had been in use for several years, but they were generally employed for industrial purposes—mostly for pumping water out of mines Powered by wood or coal fi res, steam engines used the pressure of compressed steam from boiling water to drive pistons

In the early 1800s the engines were typically outfi tted with a series of

wheels, cranks, and arms to power the rudimentary machines of the day Steam engines could, however, be unreliable and often dangerous Many of the early steam engines were built with metals too fragile to contain the pressure, resulting in explosions.

Despite the dangers and unreliability of steam power, Perry was anxious to continue his journey He quickly packed his luggage and

hurried down to the wharf—only to see the Clermont already under

way Still determined to get on board, Perry shouted toward the vessel

and was delighted when a rowboat was dispatched from the Clermont

to return to the dock and retrieve him Arriving on board, Perry found

a boat of some 130 feet (39.6 m) in length A smokestack rose high above the deck to vent the smoke from the fi re Alongside, two huge paddlewheels powered by the steam engine provided propulsion About

fi fty passengers were on board as well as a busy crew tending to the

Clermont’s massive steam boiler He also saw the ship’s designer and

builder, Robert Fulton, overseeing the complicated business of ing the vessel, busily shouting orders and directing the activities of the crew members “He was of medium height, slimly built, and so much absorbed in looking after the craft that he had no time or inclination

operat-to talk with any one,” Perry recalls “I once saw him leaning in an sorbed manner over a chair He had a shoe on one foot, and only a stocking on the other.” 1

ab-Dawn of the Industrial Revolution

Perry had, in fact, boarded the Clermont as the vessel made its fi rst

voy-age with passengers Although the ship had been tested on the river a year before, and entrepreneurs in Great Britain had also been tinkering

with steam-powered boats, the voyage of the Clermont in 1808 would

help launch the era of modern nautical travel No longer would sailors and their passengers, as well as farmers and manufacturers anxious to ship their goods, be forced to rely on favorable winds before nauti- cal journeys could begin Steamboats could sail even in conditions of

no breeze at all Moreover, the development of the steamboat occurred just fi ve years after the American government obtained the Louisiana

Purchase from France Th anks mostly to the steamboat, the Mississippi River emerged as a major thoroughfare of commerce in the country Says historian Gavin Weightman, “Th e Mississippi could now function

as a sort of grand artery running through the very center of the nent, and the Mississippi paddle-steamer became the great symbol of American industrial progress and wealth.” 2

conti-Th e Clermont embarked on its maiden voyage at the dawn of

what is known as the Industrial Revolution—the period from the late- eighteenth century to the early years of the twentieth century when the cultures of America, Europe, and Japan transformed from rural and largely agrarian societies into industrialized nations Factories designed

to manufacture all manner of commercial and consumer products were established, and around these factories cities grew as workers fl ocked from the farms and small towns to fi nd employment and opportunity

in these new enterprises.

At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, the steam-powered Clermont (pictured) helped launch the era of modern nautical travel Th e

Clermont’s fi rst voyage with passengers took place in 1808 on the

Hudson River

During the era of the Industrial Revolution, not only was facturing modernized but transportation took great steps forward as well Because of steamboats and the later ocean-going steamships, as well as railroads, automobiles, and airplanes—all developed during the Industrial Revolution—travel that often took weeks or months

manu-by sailing ships, canal boats, or horse-drawn Conestoga wagons could now be accomplished in a matter of days Communications were also revolutionized: Th e development of the telegraph, telephone, and ra- dio meant communications that needed to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles could be made almost instantly rather than in the weeks or months it would take for ships or horse-drawn wagons to carry the mail.

Blown Boilers and Other Setbacks

Fulton was, in many ways, a typical example of a pioneer of the trial Revolution Born on a Pennsylvania farm in 1765, he displayed talent as an artist and eventually found work in Philadelphia as a crafts- man in a jewelry shop His talent in art sparked an interest in mechani- cal design; in 1787 Fulton moved to Great Britain where he soon fash- ioned a design for a machine that cut marble By 1806, after designing numerous other devices, he returned to America to concentrate his tal- ents on modernizing nautical travel.

Th e development of the steamboat and other marvels of the trial Revolution did not occur without setbacks In fact, the maiden

Indus-voyage of the Clermont was not without its perilous moments Perry

was on board when the ship ran aground soon after the departure from Albany and had to be towed back into navigable waters Perry left the

Clermont when it docked in the town of Esopus, New York, and

contin-ued his trip to Massachusetts by other means, so he was not on board

when the Clermont’s boiler blew up a short time later near West Point,

New York “Being of sheet iron no damage was done besides stopping the works and frightening the passengers,” 3 Perry reported.

Steam-powered nautical travel was not Fulton’s only tion to the Industrial Revolution Th ree years before the launch of the

contribu-Clermont, Fulton introduced another device he designed He unveiled

this device on an October morning on a beach along the southern coast

of England before a crowd composed mostly of representatives of the British navy Anchored a short distance off the beach was a 200-ton Dutch sailing ship (181 metric tons) captured during warfare Th e ship was empty.

An object resembling a canoe was towed into the water No one sat atop or rowed the object Rather, a lone sailor waded into the water and guided the object on his own, awkwardly paddling with one hand while shoving the object forward Eventually, he made it to the old Dutch hulk where the sailor gave the object a fi nal shove then hurriedly scrambled back to shore A few moments later, the object exploded, creating a huge hole in the side of the old ship, causing it to sink Stand- ing on shore, the British offi cers had witnessed the fi rst demonstration

of a torpedo Reported the Times, the London newspaper: “Th e

clock-work of the machinery having performed its operation, a small cloud

of smoke was seen to arise from the vessel, which in a moment after was blown to atoms, without any noise, or appearance of fi re In about twenty-seven or twenty-eight seconds not a vestige of the brig was to be seen, as the fragments were then level with the water’s edge.” 4

Nevertheless, the British elected not to invest in Fulton’s torpedo

Th ey believed that it was an unfair way to carry out an attack, fi ing the notion of sneaking up on an enemy unseemly (And, as events played out, the British did not need the torpedo, anyway A week later

nd-the British fl eet under Admiral Horatio Nelson defeated nd-the French

fl eet at the historic Battle of Trafalgar.)

Still, the development of the torpedo illustrates another important element of the Industrial Revolution Decades later, submarines would

be developed and armed with torpedoes equipped with electric motors, enabling them to be fi red at enemy ships from hundreds of yards away (By the twentieth century, military leaders had fewer qualms about sneaking up on their enemies.) Indeed, from the late 1700s through World War I some of the greatest industrial achievements were often propelled by warfare National governments anxious to defeat their en- emies were willing to commission industrialists to develop new tech- nologies that, when the fi ghting was over, could be adapted to peace- ful uses In many cases, innovations that led to new developments in steamships, airplanes, radios, and similar wonders of the Industrial Revolution were made during times of war.

Today, newspapers, magazines, books, and other printed

materi-als are typically published on huge motorized presses housed in buildings that often span entire city blocks Th ese presses can run off hundreds of thousands of pages of printed materials a day; moreover,

in these same facilities they are folded, bound, and packaged for ery Th e moment of invention that led to today’s modern publishing industry occurred more than fi ve hundred years ago in the tiny shop of Johannes Gutenberg, a German goldsmith.

deliv-It was Gutenberg who fi rst constructed a machine that could print pages using moveable type Gutenberg fashioned the letters of the Ger- man alphabet out of metal and wood Positioning them on a bed, he applied ink to the letters then placed a blank sheet of paper atop the bed Using a screw press, Gutenberg applied pressure to the sheet, transferring the ink from the letters to the paper It was all done by hand and took long hours to print just a handful of pages Neverthe- less, the development of moveable type meant that after Gutenberg

fi nished printing one page, he could change the confi guration of the letters and print a diff erent page Moreover, he could print many copies

of each page Th e fi rst book printed with moveable type was the Bible,

What Conditions

Led to the Industrial Revolution?

Chapter 1

which Gutenberg produced in 1455 Soon, Gutenberg and other ers moved on to producing many diff erent types of books.

print-Before the development of moveable type, few books were available

in Europe or elsewhere in the civilized world Languages, alphabets, and reading skills had been in use since ancient times, but before the arrival

of moveable type, books and other reading materials were painstakingly reproduced by hand, one at a time, which meant they were not widely available By Gutenberg’s day, this job was largely performed by monks who belonged to religious orders dedicated to recopying books Th ere- fore, with so few books available, by the 1400s few people possessed the ability to read “Th e development of free discussion in Europe during this age of fermentation was enormously stimulated by the appearance

of printed books,” says early twentieth-century historian and novelist H.G Wells “Th e knowledge of reading spread swiftly Th ere was not only a great increase in books in the world but the books were made plainer to read and easier to understand.” 5

Th e wider availability of books—and, therefore, the dissemination

of information—helped usher in the era of European history known

as the Renaissance and, eventually, the Industrial Revolution Says John W Klooster, an author, historian, and former patent law attorney,

“Gutenberg stimulated the prompt and enormous usage of printing at the beginning of the Renaissance and provided a major enabling part of the foundation for modern civilization.” 6

Foundations for Innovation

Th e French term Renaissance stems from the Italian phrase la Rinascita,

or “Rebirth.” Spanning from the 1300s to the 1600s, it was a time when the people of Europe emerged from the medieval era, awakening to new developments in art, architecture, mathematics, and the sciences One

of the leading fi gures of the Renaissance was the fi fteenth-century

Ital-ian artist Leonardo da Vinci, who painted such masterpieces as Mona

Lisa and Th e Last Supper But Da Vinci was also a visionary, rendering

a design for a fl ying machine some four hundred years before the fi rst aircraft was successfully launched He called it the “ornithopter.” (Da

Vinci’s sketches for the machine have been unearthed, and some rians believe he may even have tried to build the contraption, although

histo-a modern histo-assessment of the plhisto-ans determined it could never fl y—the design relied on the pilot fl apping the wings.)

During the Renaissance dozens of other individuals stepped ward to expand civilization’s understanding of the physical sciences and the natural world, among them Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, and Isaac Newton Th ese thinkers are known mostly for their contributions to physics and astronomy, enlarging human- kind’s understanding of the solar system and universe as well as the forces that propel nature on Earth Nevertheless, their theories were based largely on mathematical principles And because of their work, mathematics would be recognized as a vital foundation for innovation Later, the engineers of the Industrial Revolution would invariably fi nd

for-Johannes Gutenberg and his assistants proofread their work Th anks to Gutenberg’s printing press, books—and information—became much more widely available, and this, in turn, helped lay the groundwork for the Industrial Revolution.

themselves relying on mathematics to help them solve perplexing lems in design.

prob-For example, in 1687 Isaac Newton, a British mathematician,

pub-lished the Principia, explaining in mathematical terms the laws that

gov-ern the forces of nature—including the laws of motion Newton’s fi rst law

of motion states that an object will remain in motion unless an external force is applied to halt its motion In practical terms this meant that fu- ture designers of automobiles and locomotives would need to fi nd ways

to not only get their machines rolling but to slow them down and stop them as well because, under the laws of physics explained by Newton, those vehicles would have no way of starting or stopping on their own.

Says Newton biographer Michael White, “Th e Principia laid the

cornerstone for the understanding of dynamics and mechanics which would, within a space of a century, generate a real and lasting change

to human civilization Without being understood, the forces of ture cannot be harnessed; but this, in essence, is what the Industrial Revolution achieved—it dragged humanity from the darkness, from the whim of Nature, to the beginnings of technology and the yoking

Na-of universal forces.” 7

The Importance of Education

Th e discoveries achieved during the Renaissance would lead to the next important period of human development, the era during the seven- teenth and eighteenth centuries of Western civilization that historians call the Age of Enlightenment During the Enlightenment writers and philosophers challenged society to use the discoveries of Newton and the Renaissance thinkers to improve the condition of all humankind Such philosophers as René Descartes, Th omas Hobbes, and John Locke suggested humans possess enormous skills for reasoning and they should use these skills to improve the human condition, particularly in the expansion of education and technology.

In his 1693 treatise Some Th oughts Concerning Education, Locke,

an English philosopher, called for his country to improve its schools to encourage learning among students At the time, English schoolmasters

were likely to strike their students with rods if the young people showed poor performance, a practice Locke found hardly conducive to enhanc- ing a student’s willingness to learn “Learning was imposed arbitrarily, and therefore tended to be irksome,” says John William Adamson, who produced an edited version of Locke’s treatise for contemporary read- ers “Locke realized that no really eff ective learning could take place till the pupil’s will had become evoked, and he knew that no motive could give greater stimulus than the desire to learn.” 8

Th e establishment of education as an institution of civilized life provided another important foundation of the Industrial Revolution Educated people could read and understand mathematics, and many realized their education did not end with graduation from school— that seeking knowledge is a lifelong endeavor Another leading writer

of the Enlightenment was German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who

summed up the philosophy of the era with these two words: “Sapere

aude”—or, in English, “Dare to know.”9

The Enlightenment Arrives in America

Many European explorers had been carrying out the spirit of the lightenment by seeking out new lands and civilizations, including those

En-in the West Christopher Columbus had arrived En-in the New World En-in

1492 By the early 1600s the fi rst permanent colony in America had been established in Jamestown, Virginia.

By the 1700s the Enlightenment had reached the American nies, and there was perhaps no greater proponent of the Enlightenment philosophy than Benjamin Franklin A printer, writer, newspaper pub- lisher, and statesman, Franklin was also fascinated with natural sciences and engineering Th e story of how he determined the conductivity of electricity by using a kite and a key in a lightning storm is well known

colo-He also developed the Franklin stove, an insert for a fi replace that was able to circulate more heat into a room than the fi re can do on its own

Th e Franklin stove provided a tremendous improvement in the quality

of life on cold winter evenings in colonial America.

Among his other inventions were bifocal eyeglasses and the lightning

rod—both important advancements that are still in use today Says ographer Gordon S Wood, “Almost single-handedly he made life nota- bly more comfortable for his fellow citizens Individually, these were small matters, perhaps, but they were all designed to add to the sum

bi-of human happiness—which after all was what the eighteenth-century Enlightenment was all about.” 10

Th e Franklin stove may have been a tremendous advancement, but

James Watt, Denis Papin, and the inventors of the

Newco-men engine are regarded as the fi rst true innovators of the steam engine, but evidence suggests the notion of using steam as

a source of power originated with the ancient Greek cian Heron (who is also known as Hero) Heron is believed to have lived around 150 BC.

mathemati-Heron had an iron cauldron fashioned with two pipes that extended vertically from the lid Between the pipes a hollow iron globe was positioned so that it could spin freely on an axis When the water in the cauldron was heated, steam rose through the pipes and channeled into the globe, causing the globe to spin Heron called the device the “aelopile.”

Heron treated the device as no more than a novelty, but the same concept would be employed some two thousand years later when the early inventors of the steam engine developed their de- vices Th e use of a combustible substance (wood or coal) produces heat, which is transferred to water, creating steam that is forced into a chamber under pressure Th e pressure in the chamber pro- duces energy, which is transferred to a device Heron used that energy to make a globe spin Watt and the others used the energy for purposes that would have much more practical applications.

Heron and the First

Steam Engine

each stove had to be forged and assembled by hand in a blacksmith’s shop To assemble the iron stove, the smithy would have to build a wood

fi re to heat the metal into a pliable condition, then, using hand tools and his own physical strength, strike and bend the parts into position It was hot, laborious, and dirty work, and it all had to be done by hand.

The Power of Human Muscle

Th e typical blacksmith of the era was, however, no diff erent from any other craftsman or farmer—production of food and consumer goods was all done by hand “Th e power of the Old World was human power,” says Wells “Everything depended ultimately upon the driving power of human muscle A little animal muscle, supplied by draft oxen, horse traction, and the like, contributed Where a weight had to be lifted, men lifted it; where a rock had to be quarried, men chipped it out; where a fi eld had to be ploughed, men and oxen ploughed it.” 11

By the 1700s innovators were fi nding new and better ways of ducing goods, but they were all handicapped by the inability to produce them fast enough to meet customer demand for their goods In 1765, for example, James Hargreaves of Lancashire, England, found that he could make cotton thread much faster by changing the confi guration of the spinning wheel—turning it on its side, then stacking eight wheels

pro-on a commpro-on axis pro-on top of pro-one another Using a pulley and belt, greaves’s apparatus, which he called the spinning jenny, produced eight times the amount of thread as an ordinary spinning wheel in the same amount of time By 1788, it is believed, some twenty thousand of Har- greaves’s spinning jennies were in operation in England.

Har-Hargreaves’s spinning jennies were operated by human power In

1774 inventor Richard Arkwright partnered with clockmaker John Kay

to design and build a spinning jenny powered by a waterwheel Kay and Arkwright erected a mill next to a stream in Cromford, England, using the running waters of the stream to power what they called the

“water frame.” Because the waters of the stream could provide siderable power to the mill—at least during periods when the current was swift—Arkwright and Kay were able to erect a jenny capable of

con-spinning hundreds of wheels at a time And in 1785 another inventor, Edmund Cartright, constructed a spinning jenny that was turned not

by human power or waterwheel but by an ox led in circles by a handler.

Th e spinning jenny and water frame helped revolutionize the tile industry Until the innovations of Hargreaves, Arkwright, Kay, and Cartright provided degrees of mechanization to the industry, cotton was spun into thread by hand Before these innovations, making thread was a slow and laborious process performed by mothers and daughters sitting for hours behind their household spinning wheels What was needed for the textile industry as well as the other burgeoning indus- tries of the day was a method of powering the machines in a reliable way that did not depend on human strength, animal strength, or the unreliable currents of running waters.

tex-Among Benjamin Franklin’s many accomplishments is the discovery of how electricity is conducted, an event that is depicted in this nineteenth- century Currier & Ives illustration Franklin is one of the best-known thinkers of the period known as the Enlightenment.

The Potential of Coal

As the endeavors of the early textile pioneers illustrate, the spirit of the Enlightenment had captured the imaginations of individuals who be- lieved machines could be developed to replace the toil of humans and animals Th ese individuals soon realized, however, that their fi rst steps would be in fi nding sources of power for these machines.

In America, the Hopi Indians had been using coal as far back as the 1300s to burn in their cooking fi res In Great Britain in the 1600s, the English found that coal burned hotter than wood or charcoal (wood in which all moisture has been removed before burning) and was much more eff ective for heating forges Moreover, several English entrepre- neurs perfected ways to refi ne coal into a more purifi ed form, known as coke, that burned even hotter.

In 1754 the Englishman Abraham Darby perfected a blast furnace, fueled with coke, to heat iron so that it could be more pliable and there- fore easier to shape in its heated form To make the coke as hot as pos- sible, Darby fueled the fi re with air supplied by a bellows powered by a waterwheel Iron made in Darby’s furnace was used in the construction

of the fi rst all-iron bridge, which spanned the Severn River near shire, England, in 1779.

Shrop-If the heat from coal could be used to bend iron, it could also be used for other purposes—such as boiling water to create steam As the pioneers of the Industrial Revolution searched for a method to power the new machines of their era, they focused their attention on the po- tential of compressed steam as a method for providing power.

The First Steam Engines

Th e notion of a steam engine was fi rst envisioned in the 1600s as some inventors found rudimentary ways to capture the power of compressed steam In the 1670s the French inventor Denis Papin devised one of the

fi rst steam engines, which would resemble the more eff ective engines created a century later: It used the pressure of steam to drive a piston But Papin’s engine and the concoctions of other inventors of the era proved minimally eff ective Th ese early entrepreneurs had not yet found

ways to make their engines completely airtight, which meant steam escaped and therefore robbed the engine of its power Also, the metal- lurgy of the era—the science of metals—was not yet advanced enough

to ensure that even if the engine was airtight, the metal compartment containing the steam was strong enough to maintain the pressure As

a result, many of these early steam engines exploded as the pressure of the steam overwhelmed the brittle metals used to fashion the engines Still, by the dawn of the 1700s advancements were made both in design and metallurgy, and in the early years of the century the fi rst steam engines were employed for limited uses—mine owners found them eff ective for pumping water out of their mines One of the most successful of the early machines was developed by Th omas Savery, an English inventor and scientist; Th omas Newcomen, who ran an iron- works; and John Calley, an engineer Th e machine did have its draw- backs, however; it was not very powerful and could only draw water from shallow depths.

In 1712 Savery, Newcomen, and Calley made some ments—essentially, they built a larger engine It was, in fact, a huge machine—the boiler as well as the piston that operated the pumps were mammoth Th e machine needed to be housed in a three-story-high stone building erected next to the mine “For their time [the engines] were revolutionary, off ering a source of tireless and reliable power that neither water nor wind, nor any beast of burden had been able to pro- vide,” 12 says historian Gavin Weightman Indeed, the engines—famil- iarly known as the Newcomen engines—were soon erected at mines throughout Europe, and in 1753 one of the huge Newcomen engines was shipped across the Atlantic Ocean and installed at a copper mine in New Arlington, New Jersey It took fi ve years to ship all the parts across the ocean and erect the engine at the New Jersey mine Nevertheless, steam power had now arrived in America.

improve-The Innovations of James Watt

A major problem with running the engine in America, though, was that its huge boiler consumed tremendous quantities of coal, and at the time,

few coal mines were in operation in the colonies Most of the coal used

in the colonies was imported from England, making the operation of the New Arlington engine very expensive Clearly, a more effi cient boiler

Although James Hargreaves helped revolutionize the textile

industry in the late 1700s by inventing the spinning jenny, his innovation did not make him a wealthy man Shortly after he developed the spinning jenny, his neighbors found out about the device and drove him out of his hometown of Lancashire, Eng- land At the time, spinning wheels could be found by hearths in virtually every home in England Th e women and girls who lived

in those homes earned wages from local textile makers by ning cotton into thread When Hargreaves’s neighbors found out his machine could do the work of eight spinning wheels, they reacted bitterly and burned down his barn, which is where he stored his jennies.

spin-Hargreaves settled in Nottingham, England, but news of his innovation spread quickly Richard Arkwright and John Kay, who invented the water frame—a jenny powered by the run- ning waters of a stream—are believed to have based their design

on Hargreaves’s jenny, essentially pirating his design for their use Hargreaves received a patent for his design, but at the time the patent laws of England were weak, and the courts provided him with little remedy against the industrial pirates Arkwright,

on the other hand, became very wealthy, although he eventually had a falling-out with Kay Arkwright’s former partner sued him, claiming he had been cheated out of the profi ts he deserved Kay won the case, but by that time Arkwright had been knighted by the king for his contributions to British industry.

The Sad Story of the

Spinning Jenny

was needed, as well as an overall reduction in size of the whole apparatus.

Th e idea of refi ning the steam engine and making it more effi cient and available for other uses besides mining intrigued James Watt, a young Scottish toolmaker Watt saw the immediate problem with the Newcomen engine: Th e pressure of the heated steam drove the piston, but to draw the piston down, the steam had to be vented out of the piston chamber, which enabled the air inside the chamber to be cooled Savery, Newcomen, and Calley solved this problem by fl ooding the pis- ton chamber with cold water Th eir system cooled the piston chamber, but it also made the machine highly ineffi cient Th e constant fl ooding and draining of the chamber with water took considerable time, mean- ing the engine worked very slowly.

Watt solved the problem by designing a separate chamber for the steam known as a condenser With the hot air transferred to the con- denser, the piston was able to operate independently with no inter- ruption Moreover, because the engine was far more effi cient than the Newcomen design, it could be made smaller and run with less coal

In 1769 Watt partnered with Matthew Boulton, the head of a don ironworks, to produce a new steam engine Soon the smaller Watt engine found uses outside the mining industry By adding arms and cranks, Watt was able to fashion an engine that could turn wheels, fi nd- ing uses in grain mills where the grinding of wheat and other grains had always been done by hand or waterwheel through the use of heavy millstones In 1785 Cartright installed a steam engine onto his version

Lon-of the spinning jenny.

Of Practical Use

Watt did not invent the steam engine, but the innovations he brought

to the device meant the engine could now be used for all manner of tasks—not just pumping water out of coal mines “Perhaps no human being has aff ected more profoundly the welfare of the world,” Prince- ton University historian Th omas Jeff erson Wertenbaker declared in

1936, on the bicentennial of Watt’s birth “His genius has doubled eral times over the economic output of the nations and has raised

sev-the standard of living in many countries to a level undreamed of before his time; his mighty engine has made it easy for one region to share its productions with other regions and in turn to have a share in theirs; it has, in part at least, released mankind from the killing toil which he endured for untold centuries.” 13

Indeed, the Watt engine helped spark the Industrial Revolution that by the dawn of the nineteenth century was in its infancy However, other visionaries saw much greater uses for steam power Th ey would transform the steam engine into an even smaller device, fi nding ways to provide energy for many innovations to come.

For centuries, people toiled on farms or in the trades, using the strength of their own backs or the power provided by animals Th e peo- ple of the pre–Industrial Revolution world were largely unable to read and were otherwise uneducated Gutenberg’s press provided them with books, which led to more people learning to read At the same time scientists such as Newton and philosophers such as Locke and Kant opened their minds to their potential to change the world in which they lived Now, engineers and inventors like Watt and Hargreaves were taking their new-found knowledge and thirst for innovation and put- ting it to practical use.

Those who knew Richard Trevithick regarded him as something of

an eccentric fi gure Born in 1771 in the English city of Cornwall,

in his later years Trevithick would head a futile attempt to dig a tunnel under the Th ames River in London Trevithick also traveled to Central America and South America where he was convinced he could make

a fortune mining for gold In fact, his journey proved disastrous—his party lost its way in the jungles of Colombia and several members lost their lives Trevithick nearly met his end when an alligator attacked him He was rescued by a British army offi cer who shot the critter after hearing Trevithick’s cries for help.

Th ose misadventures were still in Trevithick’s future, though, when

on Christmas eve in 1801 he made history by driving what onlookers had derisively taken to calling the “puffi ng devil” or “Captain Dick’s puff er.” Trevithick grew up in the mining industry; his father headed mining crews and taught his son the business But Trevithick had other interests Th rough the mining industry he was well acquainted with the operations of steam engines and, as he studied Watt’s design, believed

he could make improvements Indeed, he was convinced he could make the engine smaller and even more powerful.

Trevithick had a specifi c goal in mind for his version of the steam gine—one that probably sounded eccentric to people in the early years

en-of the nineteenth century Trevithick aimed to make the horse obsolete.

To make the engine stronger, the pressure provided by the steam had to be increased—and the way to increase the steam was to feed

The Revolution

in Locomotion

Chapter 2

more coal to the engine Watt considered the use of what was known

as “high-pressure steam” and dismissed it as folly, believing it too gerous Most of Watt’s engines ran on steam that produced 5 pounds (2.3 kg) per square inch, or psi, of pressure on their pistons Trevithick designed and built a steam engine that supplied 145 psi (66 kg).

dan-To handle the higher pressure, Trevithick used wrought iron rather than pig iron or cast iron to build the engine Both forms of iron con- tain impurities, making them relatively weak, but pig iron is the weaker

of the two materials Wrought iron is a purer form of iron During the 1780s iron manufacturers perfected processes to eliminate the impuri- ties in the metal, giving it greater strength Trevithick also fashioned the boiler in the shape of a tube, forcing the steam skyward as it was

Years after building his puff er, Richard Trevithick made

ex-cursions to Central America and South America in search of gold He never found gold but did have many misadventures In Central America Trevithick was accompanied by Scotsman James Gerard, as well as six local men and two young brothers they hired

to carry their provisions and equipment Trevithick and Gerard attempted to cross the country without a map Th ey soon found themselves lost in the thick Costa Rican jungle One of the local men they hired lost his life when he drowned in a river.

Th e party eventually emerged from the jungle, and ick and Gerard returned to Great Britain Both boys survived the journey as well Th eir names were José María and Mariano Mon- telegre Fernández Later, the brothers studied in Great Britain Mariano became an engineer while José María became a surgeon after studying at the Royal College of Medicine in Edinburgh, Scotland In 1860 José María was elected president of Costa Rica.

Trevith-The Misadventures of

Richard Trevithick

vented from atop a chimneylike contraption Th is is why people called

it the puff er—as the steam escaped, it made a puffi ng sound.

Trevithick mounted his compact steam engine onto a four-wheel iron carriage he had constructed at a blacksmith’s shop in the English town of Redruth Trevithick’s plan was to power the carriage using the steam engine For the inaugural run Trevithick had the contraption rolled outside Redruth to the base of a hill A small crowd followed Trevithick and gathered around on that chilly December night as he had the boiler stoked with hot coals Trevithick invited the onlookers

to hop aboard, and six brave souls accepted the invitation One was a local barrel maker, Stephen Williams Later, Williams described what happened next:

Twas a stiffi sh hill going from the Weith up to Camborne con but she went off like a little bird When she had gone about

Bea-a quBea-arter of Bea-a mile, there wBea-as Bea-a roughish piece of roBea-ad covered with loose stones; she didn’t go quite so fast, and as it was fl ood

of rain and we were very squeezed together, I jumped off She was going faster than I could walk, and went on up the hill about a quarter or half a mile farther, when they turned her and came back again to the shop 14

Th ree days later Trevithick’s steam carriage suff ered a somewhat less successful journey After driving the vehicle a short distance, Trevithick and his passenger, his cousin Andrew Vivian, suff ered a minor mishap when they rolled over a gully in the road, damaging the steering Th e damage was fi xable, but Trevithick and Vivian decided fi rst to enjoy dinner at a local inn, leaving the steam carriage parked nearby How- ever, they forgot to extinguish the fi re in the engine, which continued

to heat the water, causing an explosion and fi re Th e confl agration stroyed the vehicle Nevertheless, Trevithick’s steam carriage launched the era of horseless transportation—and following his brief trip on that Christmas Eve in 1801 other inventors and industrialists would rec- ognize the value of his accomplishment Today, as railroad trains and

de-automobiles travel across virtually every country on the planet, their owners have Captain Dick’s puff er to thank for the innovation that led

to motorized travel.

Era of Modern Railroading

As with most innovations of the era, it was not individual owners who took most interest in Trevithick’s invention but commercial parties, and once again mine owners expressed the most desire to adapt the new technology to their uses Getting coal and other ores out of mines and

to nearby cities could be slow and costly One way to ship coal was by canal barge, but it was expensive to dig canals along with building locks and aqueducts Moreover, the barges had to be towed by teams of mules

or oxen that traipsed slowly on dirt towpaths alongside the canals.

Locomotion (on display in a museum in England) pulled the world’s

fi rst steam train along a railway route in 1825 George Stephenson’s locomotive was impractical, but it led to further advances in train technology.

Th e puff er intrigued English mine owner John Blenkinsop, who examined Trevithick’s high-pressure engine design and made improve- ments, making it larger and heavier Blenkinsop had two engines built onto carriages that rode on wooden rails, and in 1812 his contraptions started hauling coal from a mine near Yorkshire.

Wooden rails proved fragile—the heavy cars containing the coal ten snapped the rails It was an English coalfi eld veteran named George Stephenson who concluded that iron rails would be better able to sup- port the weight of the heavy cars Stephenson was not a mine owner He was the son of a steam engine fi reman and spent his early adult years working in mines, so he knew steam engines, and he knew mining In

of-1813 Stephenson, with the backing of three wealthy mine owners, signed his own steam engine specifi cally to run on iron rails.

de-Th e Stephenson engine was still not practical, though, because the cast-iron rails were too brittle to support the weight of an engine and many cars laden with coal It would take until 1825 before iron makers were able to produce wrought iron rails for use in England’s new railways On September 27, 1825, the era of modern railroading was fi nally launched when a steam engine, which Stephenson named

the Locomotion, traveled about 13 miles (21 km) between the English towns of Stockton and Darlington Th e Locomotion hauled thirty-eight

railway cars carrying more than four hundred passengers About forty thousand people lined the route, cheering as the tiny train chugged by

at a speed of about 6 miles per hour (10 kph) By now, the prospect of using railways to haul not only coal and other goods but passengers had clearly found appeal among the era’s industrialists.

Failures in France

Th e Stockton & Darlington Railway, as it became known, would

hard-ly run fl awlesshard-ly Service between the two cities was sporadic; on some days the train operated while on other days it did not Sometimes the

Locomotion would break down, and horses had to be brought in to haul

the cars And the company was far more interested in hauling coal than

in selling fares to passengers In the fi rst year of the railway’s operation,

passenger fares accounted for just 3 percent of the company’s profi ts Speeds and distances would improve as other entrepreneurs opened railways in England and, soon, in other countries as well At fi rst the French were wary of railways, believing them expensive to build, un- reliable, and dangerous In 1833 the French government dispatched

a diplomat, Adolphe Th iers, to England to inspect the country’s ways “As to railways, I do not think them suited to France,” 15 Th iers concluded after returning to France Four years later a group of French entrepreneurs raised the money to establish a railway between Paris and Saint-Germain-en-Laye, a community on the outskirts of the city, about 12 miles (19 km) from the center of the French capital.

rail-French entrepreneurs made plans to build additional railways, and soon two were in operation between Paris and the city of Versailles, just some 5 miles (8 km) to the west of the French capital However, neither line generated a profi t Evidently, not enough people were interested in

a slow, noisy, and ponderous journey between two relatively close cities

to support one railway, let alone two Not until the late 1840s would the French resume construction of railways.

Germany, on the other hand, embraced railways, opening a fi rst line in 1835 between the cities of Nuremberg and Fürth, a distance

of about 2 miles (3 km) Th e fi rst German railway was supplied with

two locomotives, the Adler and Eagle, designed and built by George

Stephenson’s son Robert Th e Germans moved swiftly to expand their railways, and by 1850 German railway companies were operating on some 3,600 miles (5794 km) of track across the country.

Railroading Arrives in America

Railways were introduced in America as well (In America they were known as railroads.) An early pioneer of American railroading was John Stevens, a wealthy New Jersey man who had been intrigued with the idea of steam-powered transportation as early as 1804 Later, he

built his own steamboat shortly after Robert Fulton launched the

Cler-mont By 1811 his interest had been drawn to land-based steam

trans-portation Th at same year he published a pamphlet arguing for the

construction of railroads to transport coal and other goods, insisting they were cheaper to build and maintain than canals Many skeptics remained, though, and Stevens found it impossible to raise the capital

Peter Cooper built the Tom Th umb, the fi rst locomotive to

haul passenger cars on an American railroad—the more & Ohio Th e machine hardly resembled the huge loco- motives that would dominate railroading in years to come It measured just 13 feet (4 m) in length In an early test of the lo-

Balti-comotive, the Tom Th umb raced against a horse-drawn carriage

Th e Tom Th umb held the lead until a belt snapped off the engine.

Cooper’s contributions to the Industrial Revolution did not

end after he built the Tom Th umb In 1845 he patented a gelatin

food product that later became known as Jell-O His Trenton Iron Company produced beams used in the construction of the US Capitol in Washington, DC And in 1858, as a director of the At- lantic Telegraph Company, he was instrumental in the project to lay the fi rst telegraph lines across the fl oor of the Atlantic Ocean His proudest achievement, though, was establishing the New York–based Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art—a college he hoped would help train the scientists and engi- neers who would bring new ideas to the Industrial Revolution In

1882, at the age of ninety-one, Cooper wrote, “In reviewing the whole course of my life, the money I expended in building the institute I look back upon as one of the best treasures that I have been able to lay up for old age, and which I hope to refl ect

on with pleasure when I pass into a brighter and better world.”

Quoted in James Williford, “Peter Cooper’s Big Ideas,” Humanities, September/October 2009,

p 35.

Peter Cooper, Inventor and

College Founder

he needed to build America’s fi rst commercial railroad Still, Stevens aimed to prove railroading could be a valuable form of transportation, and in 1826 Stevens built his own railroad on the grounds of his estate

in Hoboken, New Jersey “Rail Roads have nowhere yet been made

on this side of the Atlantic,” Stevens declared “Let the experiment be fairly tried.” 16

Stevens’s railroad featured a circular 630-foot track (192 m) on which a 2.5-ton locomotive (0.9 metric tons), which he called a “steam waggon,” was placed Th e path of the track took the train close to the neighboring Hoboken Hotel When the railroad was completed Ste- vens invited everyone in town to come out and see the train in action and even off ered free rides, but just a half dozen residents were able

to summon the courage to climb aboard On May 12, 1826, the New

York Evening Post reported, “Mr Stevens has at length put his steam

carriage in motion It traveled around the circle at the Hoboken Hotel yesterday, at the rate of about six miles per hour.” 17

Stevens had hoped for a speed of 20 miles per hour (32 kph) and was disappointed with the train’s performance, but others were inspired

Th e same year that Stevens inaugurated his private railroad, neurs laid 3 miles (5 km) of wooden tracks near Quincy, Massachusetts, using horses to haul cars fi lled with granite from a quarry to barges docked at the Neponset River In 1830 a similar endeavor was under- taken in Baltimore, Maryland, where tracks had been laid from the city

entrepre-to the nearby Carrollentrepre-ton Viaduct, which was under construction Th e viaduct was planned to span Gwynns Falls, a Maryland stream.

Th e backers of the venture, a group of Baltimore businessmen, lieved that railroading was the future and rushed to complete the tracks before a nearby canal could be dug to the viaduct Th ey broke ground for the new railroad on July 4, 1828 Ninety-year-old Charles Carroll, the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, attended the groundbreaking event On the same day that ground was broken for the new railroad, a ceremony was held across town to begin con- struction of the competing canal, to be named the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal Backers of the canal could count on some infl uential people showing up for their ceremony as well One of the guests who attended

be-the groundbreaking for be-the Chesapeake & Ohio was President John Quincy Adams, who believed American commerce would in the future rely largely on the development of a network of canals—and not on railroads.

Two years after the groundbreaking, the fi rst cars on the new road were hauled by horses Still, this relatively modest enterprise would grow into the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which by the twen- tieth century emerged as one of America’s major railroads Th e fi rst steam-powered locomotive to operate on the Baltimore & Ohio tracks

rail-was the Tom Th umb, designed and built by New Yorker Peter Cooper

In August 1830 thirty-six passengers took the fi rst ride on a train pulled

by the Tom Th umb, traveling some 18 mph (29 kph).

Peter Cooper’s Tom Th umb, a steam-powered locomotive, races a drawn carriage—and loses when a belt breaks Th e Tom Th umb was the fi rst locomotive to haul passenger cars on an American railroad.

horse-Dickens Takes a Ride on an American

Railroad

By the time the Tom Th umb carried its fi rst passengers, steam- powered

locomotion had already made its debut on American soil On gust 8, 1829, a train operated on tracks laid from the mouth of a coal mine in Honesdale, Pennsylvania, to a canal where barges waited to ship the coal to New York City and Philadelphia Th e locomotive, the

Au-Stourbridge Lion, was built in England and shipped across the Atlantic

Ocean Th e maiden voyage of the Stourbridge Lion on American soil

traveled a round-trip distance of 6 miles (10 km) Although onlookers feared the wooden rails would snap under the weight of the heavy loco- motive, that did not happen.

As in Europe, railroading in America improved as companies placed wooden rails with iron rails and used larger and more powerful locomotives capable of faster speeds Th e new railroads off ered faster travel than stagecoaches, but they had their drawbacks—riding through the rough terrain of the American wilderness could be unpleasant Th e British novelist Charles Dickens, visiting America in 1852, describes a harrowing ride on an American railroad:

re-Th ere is a great deal of jolting, a great deal of noise, a great deal of wall, not much window, a locomotive engine, a shriek,

a bell .

Th e train calls at stations in the woods, where the wild sibility of anybody having the smallest reason to get out, is only to be equaled by the apparently desperate hopelessness of there being anybody to get in It rushes across turnpike road, where there is no gate, no policeman, no signal; nothing but a rough wooden arch, on which is painted “WHEN THE BELL RINGS, LOOK OUT FOR THE LOCOMOTIVE.” On it whirls headlong, dives through the woods again, emerges in the light, clatters over frail arches, rumbles upon the heavy ground, shoots beneath a wooden bridge which intercepts the

impos-light for a second like a wink, suddenly awakens all the bering echoes in the main street of a large town, and dashes haphazard, pell-mell, neck-or-nothing, down the middle of the road 18

slum-Vital to American Commerce

Th e American railroads in the fi rst half of the nineteenth century may have off ered unpleasant experiences for passengers, but they soon be- came vital to American commerce—particularly to the cotton farmers of the South Near the end of the previous century cotton had grown into

an important product in the South, thanks to the invention of the ton gin—a machine that could easily separate the seeds from the cotton

cot-fi bers Prior to the invention of the cotton gin, cotton was regarded as a minor product because the seeds had to be separated by hand, a labori- ous process that made it diffi cult for southern farmers to realize a profi t Instead, most southern farmers grew tobacco and food crops.

Th at changed after a Massachusetts man and Yale University ate, Eli Whitney, arrived in the South in 1793 to work as a tutor on a South Carolina plantation Upon arriving, he quickly learned of the diffi culty of ginning cotton and aimed to fashion a machine that would make cotton a much more viable crop After obtaining the backing of

gradu-a locgradu-al entrepreneur, Phinegradu-as Miller, Whitney returned to the North and a machine shop in New Haven, Connecticut, where he fashioned the cotton gin Using wire hooks that pulled the cotton fi bers through screens, Whitney’s contraption was able to eff ectively de-seed the cot- ton—an innovation that transformed the American cotton industry Said Whitney, “Th is Ginn, if turned with horses or by water, two per- sons will clean as much cotton in one Day as a Hundred persons could cleane in the same time.” 19

Whitney’s gin was soon embraced by cotton planters across the South In 1795 the American cotton crop totaled 8 million pounds (3.6 million kg); by 1800 the crop totaled 35 million pounds (16 mil- lion kg), and in 1807 southern farmers grew some 80 million pounds (36 million kg) of cotton.

The World’s Longest Railroad

Th e cotton had to be transported to the textile mills in the northern cities or to the southern port cities where it was exported to Europe In England coal mine operators promoted the construction of railways;

in America the primary driving force behind the expansion of roads were southern plantation owners In 1833 the fi rst long-distance

rail-British North America (Canada)

0 0

400 mi

400 km 200 200

Railroads in the United States, 1850 and 1860