Advances in Transportation and Communication

Transportation

Because of the need for raw matirials, there was also a need for better transportation that could haul more and move faster than horses. There was also a need for transportation in the sense of transporting people around in the growing nation of America and the entirerty of Europe.

There were many waterways in Europe and America and until the starting of 1800 these waterways were the only means of hauling coal, iron, and other things cheaply. But many of these streams and rivers needed to be widened and deepened to be used. In the case of no existing river in an area or to link one river to another, link cities together, or to get to the coal fields, canals were built.

Canals were first traveled upon by a ferry or barge pulled along by a team of horses on the bank. But after the steam boat was invented, they were all changed over to steam power.

Robert Fulton, an American inventor, in 1807 built the first commercially successful steamboat. In a few years, these steam boats were used widely across Europe and America to haul raw materials and people. There were even a few that traversed the Atlantic Ocean reguarly.

Roads at this time were very poor and filled with pot holes and all kinds of obstructions. This all began to change, however, in the early 1800's when the governments recognized the need for good roads. "Most useable roads extended only a short distance beyond a town"(puhsd).  Because of this, horse drawn wagons had difficulty traveling and so the stage coach was not very commonly used. Most people walked or rode horseback if they needed to go anywhere.

Turnpikes were begining to be built in the middle part of the 1700's, "which made travel by horse-drawn wagons and stagecoaches easier"(puhsd). But they were poorly kept up and by the late 1700's they were in horrible condition.

John Loudon McAdam and Thomas Telford made important advances in road construction during the early 1800's. McAdam created a road surface  which consists of crushed rock packed into thin layers. Telford came up with the idea of using large flat stones for road foundations. Because of these new road types travel was a lot smoother and faster and allowed buisneses to sell to an expanded group of people.

Railroads first were used in Great Britain and carried coal out of mines. These railroads were powered by horses which pulled carts on a pair of iron rails.  A Cornish engineer, Richard Trevithick, in 1804 built the first steam locomotive. After this there were many steam locomotives produced that were used to haul raw matirials from the mines to the factories. Although there were moving engines, the industy preferred the stationary engines that pulled the carts along with a long cable. Steam locomotives did not begin to come into general use for passenger and freight transportation until the late 1830's.

Automobiles were made instead of using the horse. The first gasoline car that was introduced in America was in 1893 built by Charles and Frank Duryea. The first run on public roads was made on September 21, 1893 in Springfield, MA. They had purchased a used horse drawn buggy for $70 and installed a 4 HP, single cylinder gasoline engine. The car (buggy) had a friction transmission, spray carburetor and low tension ignition. After this first car, there were many advancements in the design and it was made more durable and reliable. The man who made the car a sensation was Henery Ford when he produced his Modle T on an assembly line. This was important because this made the car a lot cheaper and people who would have originally not been able to afford one now bought one. This is probably one of the most important inventions of that time.

Changes in Comunication

Samuel Morse's invention of the telegraph was the most important invention in the way of communication. This is because with his invention messages were able to be sent hundreds of miles in a couple of seconds. It is also important because it lead to the invention of the telephone which most people could not live without today.

Cyrus Field was the man responsible for the laying of the telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean which now enabled fast comunication from continent to continent.

The next important invention to change communication forever was the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell. This improved communication even more by being able to hear the person's voice.

These advancements in communication and transportation were very important to the expanding nation. Most things that were done could not have been done without these inventions.

Sources

Images

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/historyofus/web04/images/img_intro.jpg

http://www.perestorations.com

http://www.kinrara-bedandbreakfast.co.uk/whaleybridge.htm

Text

http://www.fresno.k12.ca.us/divdept/sscience/history/industrial_revolution.htm

http://www.ecology.com/archived-links/industrial-revolution/index.html

http://www.puhsd.k12.ca.us/chana/staffpages/eichman/Adult_School/us/fall/industrialization/1/industrial_revolution.htm

Karwatka, Dennis. Connecting Civilization- The Growth of Communication. Ann Arbor: Prakken Publications, Inc, 2003.