New Inventions

The Industrial Revolution changed America from an agricultural to an industrial nation.

After the Revolutionary War, British inventors developed a machine that could make cloth quickly and cheaply. The first of these machines came to America in 1789. A factory went up in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. After this many textile mills, which made cloth, were built in New England.

After the textile mills began to grow more cotton was needed to make the cloth. In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the cotton. This machine took the seeds out of cotton.

By 1840 more than one thousand textile mills were making cloth in New England. This changed the way people lived. New inventions had to be made to transport the cloth, so the steam engine was made. In August of 1807 John Fulton built a steamboat. In 1830 Peter Cooper put a steam engine into a train. Before this trains were pulled by horses.

In 1844 Samuel Morse invented the telegraph. The telegraph is a machine that could sent messages through wires over long distances. By 1860 the telegraph wire was stretch all the way from Washington, D. C. to San Francisco, California.

In 1846 Elias Howe invented the sewing machine. Many factories were built that made clothing.

In 1846 Kelly found a way to turn iron into steel. Steel was stronger and easier to work with than iron. Kelly's method helped the growing number of factories who needed iron in many of their machines. In 1853 Bessemer studied Kelly's idea. He changed it just a little so that steel could be made more cheaply and in large quantities.

Cyrus McCormick developed the reaper. This machine helped farmers to harvest larger amounts of grain. John Deere of Illinois invented a plow with a steel blade that could be used in the soil of the grassy plains of the Midwest.

The Civil War became a test for many of the new inventions. The armies need the railroads to move men and supplies. They used the telegraph to send orders. Even ironclad ships were used.

1800	Count Alessandro Volta invents the battery.
1810	German, Frederick Koenig invents an improved printing press.
1810	Peter Durand invents the tin can.
1814	George Stephenson designs the first steam locomotive.
1815	Humphrey Davy invents the miner's lamp.
1819	Samuel Fahnestock patents a "soda fountain".
1823	Mackintosh (raincoat) invented by Charles Mackintosh of Scotland.
1824	Professor Michael Faraday invents the first toy balloon
1827	John Walker invents the modern matches.
1827	Charles Wheatstone invents the microphone.
1829	American, W. A. Burt invents a typewriter.
1829	Frenchmen, Louis Braille invents Braille printing.
1830	T-rail
1834	electric motor
1832	Englishmen, Louis Braille invents the stereoscope.
1834	electric motor
1834	Jacob Perkins invents an early refrigerator (really an ether ice machine).
1835	Solymon Merrick patents the wrench.
1835	Englishmen, Francis Pettit Smith invents the propeller.
1835	Charles Babbage invents a mechanical calculator.
1836	Francis Pettit Smith and John Ericcson co-invent the propeller.
1836	Samuel Colt invented the first revolver.
1837	English schoolmaster, Rowland Hill invents the postage stamp.
1838	Samual Morse invents Morse Code.
1839	Kirkpatrick Macmillan invents a bicycle.
1840	Englishmen, John Herschel invents the blueprint.
1841	Samuel Slocum patents the stapler.
1842	Joseph Dart builds the first grain elevator.
1846	American, Elias Howe invents a sewing machine.
1846	rotary press (helped newspapers to print more papers in less time)
1846	Dr. William Morton, a Massachusetts dentist, is the first to use anesthesia for tooth extraction.
1847	Hungarian, Ignaz Semmelweis invents antiseptics.
1848	Waldo Hanchett patents the dental chair.
1849	Walter Hunt invents the safety pin.
1850	Joel Houghton invented the first dishwasher.
1852	elevator
1857	George Pullman invents the Pullman Sleeping Car for train travel.
1858	Hamilton Smith patents the rotary washing machine.
1860	petroleum refinery
1862	Dr. Richard Gatling patents the machine gun.
1866	Alfred Nobel invents dynamite.
1866	Englishmen Robert Whitehead invents a torpedo.
1868	J P Knight invents traffic lights.
1873	Joseph Glidden invents barbed wire.
1876	Alexander Graham Bell patents the telephone.
1877	Eadweard Muybridge invents the first moving pictures.
1879	Sir Joseph Wilson Swan was the first person to invent a practical and longer-lasting electric light bulb.
1879	automobile
1880	The British Perforated Paper Company invents a form of toilet paper.
1881	Alexander Graham Bell invents the first crude metal detector.
1884	Lewis Edson Waterman invents the first practical fountain pen.
1884	James Ritty invents the first working, mechanical cash register.
1884	Charles Parson patents the steam turbine.
1885	Harim Maxim invents the machine gun.
1885	Gottlieb Daimler invents the first gas-engine motorcycle.
1886	Josephine Cochrane invents the dishwasher.
1886	John Pemberton invents Coca Cola.
1887	German, Heinrich Hertz invents radar.
1887	F. E. Muller and Adolph Fick invent the first wearable contact lenses.
1888	Marvin Stone patents the spiral winding process to manufacture the first paper drinking straws.
1888	hand camera
1889	Joshua Pusey invents the matchbook.
1891	Jesse W. Reno invents the escalator.
1891	radio
1893	American, W. L. Judson invents the zipper.
1898	Edwin Prescott patents the roller coaster.
1899	J. S. Thurman patents the motor-driven vacuum cleaner.


Eli Whitney cotton gin	Peter Cooper steam engine	Samuel Morse telegraph	Alexander Graham Bell telephone