The Industrial Revolution transformed the United States economy in the early 19th century through advances in technology, new factory systems of production, and infrastructure projects like canals and railroads. Key inventions like the cotton gin, steam engine, and telegraph drove industrialization by increasing productivity and enabling long-distance communication. This period saw the rise of textile and other manufacturing centers in the North and the growth of cities, while agriculture remained the dominant economic activity in the South.

1. The INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
in AMERICA

2. 1. Capital – money for investments
2. Factory system – a system that brings manufacturing steps together in one
place
3. Free enterprise – the freedom of private business to compete for profits, with
little government regulation
4. Technology – the use of scientific discoveries for practical uses; tools used for
production
5. Patent – a document that gives an inventor legal rights to his or her invention
6. Interchangeable parts – pieces that can be made in large quantities to replace
identical pieces

3. 7. Commerce - the activity of buying and selling, especially on a large scale
8. Textiles – items made of cloth
9. Mass production – the making of large numbers of identical goods
10. Trade union – an organization of workers with the same skills
11. Strike – the refusal of workers to do their job until employers meet their
demands
12. Entrepreneur - a person who takes a financial risk to organize and operate a
business

4. 13. Canal – an artificial waterway
14. Steam engine - an engine that uses the condensation of steam to
generate power
15. Telegraph - a device for transmitting messages from a distance
along a wire

6. • During the War of 1812, European goods became scarce
• Americans began to buy from American manufacturers; they realized
they had relied too heavily on foreign goods
• By the end of the war American businesses were ready to lead the U. S.
into a period of industrial and economic growth

7. • The Industrial Revolution was a period of rapid growth in the use of
machines in manufacturing. It began in Europe in the mid-1700s and spread
to the U.S. by 1800.

8. IMPORTANT ADVANCES
• 1781 – Scottish inventor
James Watt improved on
the steam engine
• 1769 – British entrepreneur
Richard Arkwright invented
a spinning machine called a
water frame, which could
produce dozens of cotton
threads at the same time.
This lowered the cost of
cotton cloth and increased
textile production

9. • 1787 – Philadelphia clockmaker John Fitch built a steamboat called
Perseverance, which he demonstrated for delegates of the Constitutional
Convention as it navigated the Delaware River

10. • To keep their technology secret, Britain had passed laws to keep their
machinery and their mechanics from leaving the country.
• In 1789, British mechanic Samuel Slater left Britain after memorizing Richard
Arkwright’s design for textile mill machines.
- With Moses Brown and others, Slater opened a mill in Rhode
Island in 1793, and another in 1798

11. • 1790 – the U.S. government
passed the Patent Act of 1790,
the first patent law in the country,
to protect the rights of those who
developed “useful and important
inventions”

13. • 1793 – Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, a machine that removed seeds
from cotton fiber. This machine allowed one worker to clean cotton as fast as
50 working by hand.
- In 1798, the U.S. government was worried about war. Whitney
proposed a plan for mass production of guns
- He also came up with the idea for interchangeable parts, making
machines easier to assemble, and broken parts easier to replace

15. • 1803 – Robert Fulton tested
the first full-sized commercial
steamboat, the Clermont, in the
U.S.
- Having more power than Fitch’s
Perseverance, The Clermont
traveled against the current of
the Hudson River with ease
- Demand for steamboat
service rose

16. • 1814 – New England entrepreneur Francis Cabot Lowell opened his first textile
mill in Massachusetts
- He developed the Lowell System, a production method that included a loom
that could spin thread and weave cloth at the same time
- The machines were operated by young girls who had left family farms to work
in the factory
- These “Mill Girls” lived in boardinghouses near the mill, and worked up to 14
hours a day.
- In 1822, Lowell opened a larger mill in a town that would later be named
Lowell, Massachusetts

19. • 1817 – New York Governor DeWitt Clinton
ensured construction of the Erie Canal, linking
New York with the Great Lakes
- Clinton had surveyed
the route and got
financial and political
support for the project
- The Erie Canal was
completed in 1825

21. • 1832 – Samuel Morse invented
the telegraph, which
revolutionized long-distance
communication
- Around 1837, Morse and
his partner Alfred Vail developed
Morse Code, a method of
transmitting information using
signals of light or sound

22. EFFECTS OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN THE U.S.
The presence of factories expanded, leading to the growth of towns and cities
In heavily populated cities, with no sewers to carry factory and animal waste
away, disease spread quickly. In 1793, a yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia
killed thousands of people
City life grew to include libraries, museums, and shops not found in rural
communities
Canals united the Eastern and Midwestern parts of the U.S.
Communicating long distances quickly became possible
The expansion of industrialization in the North and concentration on
agriculture in the South caused the two regions to develop significant economic
and cultural differences