SECTION

1 The Industrial
Revolution in
What You Will Learn… America
Main Ideas
1. The invention of new
machines in Great Britain If YOU were there...
led to the beginning of the
Industrial Revolution.
2. The development of new
machines and processes
brought the Industrial Revolu-
tion to the United States.
3. Despite a slow start in manu-
facturing, the United States
made rapid improvements
during the War of 1812.
Would you still be able to earn the same amount
of money for your family? Why?
The Big Idea
The Industrial Revolution trans-
formed the way goods were
produced in the United States. In the early 1700s making goods
depended on the hard work of humans and animals. It had been that
way for hundreds of years. Then new technology brought a change
Key Terms and People
Industrial Revolution, p. 385
so radical that it is called a revolution. It began in Great Britain and
textiles, p. 385 soon spread to the United States.
Richard Arkwright, p. 385
Samuel Slater, p. 386
technology, p. 387
Eli Whitney, p. 387 At the beginning of the 1700s, the majority of people in Europe
interchangeable parts, p. 387
and the United States were farmers. They made most of what they
mass production, p. 387
needed by hand. For example, female family members usually made
clothing. First, they used a spinning wheel to spin raw materials,
such as cotton or wool, into thread. Then they used a hand loom to
weave the thread into cloth.
Use the graphic organizer online Some families produced extra cloth to sell to merchants, who sold
to list the key contributors to the it for a profit. In towns, a few skilled workers made goods by hand in
Industrial Revolution and their
inventions. their own shops. These workers included blacksmiths, carpenters, and
shoemakers. Their ways of life had stayed the same for generations.

By the mid-1700s, however, changes in Great Britain led to a

greater demand for manufactured goods. As agriculture and roads

384 CHAPTER 12
Textile Mill and Water Frame 5
5
CONNECT TO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
A water frame adapts the power of
flowing water into energy that moves
wheels and gears through a system 4
of belts. These wheels and gears then
move parts of machines such as looms
and spinning wheels.
4
3
2
1
3

ANIMATED
HISTORY
An American
1 Textile MIll

ANALYSIS
SKILL ANALYZING VISUALS
What provided the power for the machines in the mill?

improved, cities and populations grew. Over- In 1769 Englishman

seas trade also expanded. Traditional manu- invented a large spinning machine called a
facturing methods did not produce enough water frame. The water frame could produce
goods to meet everyone’s needs. dozens of cotton threads at the same time. It
People began creating ways to use lowered the cost of cotton cloth and increased A CADEMIC
machines to make things more efficient. the speed of textile production. V OCABULARY
efficient
These developments led to the The water frame used flowing water as its
productive and
, a period of rapid growth in using source of power. Merchants began to build not wasteful
machines for manufacturing and production large textile mills, or factories, near rivers and
that began in the mid-1700s. streams. The mills were filled with spinning
machines. Merchants began hiring people to
work in the mills.
The first important breakthrough of the Additional improvements also speeded
Industrial Revolution took place in how up the spinning process. Britain soon had
, or cloth items, were made. Before the the world’s most productive textile manufac-
Industrial Revolution, spinning thread took turing industry.
much more time than making cloth. Several
workers were needed to spin enough thread READING CHECK Drawing Conclusions How
to supply a single weaver. did machines speed up textile manufacturing?

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 first mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The
production of cotton thread by American
New machines encouraged the rise of new
machines had begun. Slater ran the mill and
processes in business and manufacturing.
the machinery. He was confident that his
As the machines used to make products
new machines would work well.
became more efficient, the processes involved
changed dramatically. “
The new textile machines allowed Great ”
Britain to produce cloth more quickly and The Ingenious Yankees
inexpensively than other countries could.
To protect British industry, the British Parlia- Slater’s machines worked, and the
ment had made it illegal for skilled mechan- Pawtucket mill became a success. Slater’s wife
ics or machine plans to leave the country. also invented a new cotton thread for sewing.
Disguised as a farmer, , a In 1798 Slater formed his own company to
skilled British mechanic, immigrated to the build a mill. By the time he died in 1835, he
United States after carefully memorizing the owned all or part of 13 textile mills.
designs of textile mill machines. Soon after Other Americans began building textile
arriving, he sent a letter to Moses Brown, mills. Most were located in the Northeast.
who owned a textile business in New In New England in particular, merchants
England. Slater claimed he could improve had the money to invest in new mills. More
the way textiles were manufactured in the importantly, this region had many rivers
United States. and streams that provided a reliable supply
Brown had one of his workers test of power. Fewer mills were built in the
Slater’s knowledge of machinery. Slater South, partly because investors in the South
passed. Brown’s son, Smith Brown, and concentrated on expanding agriculture.
son-in-law, William Almy, formed a partner- There, agriculture was seen as an easier way
ship with Slater. In 1793 they opened their to make money.

Elements of Mass Production

CONNECT TO ECONOMICS
Mass-production techniques allow manu-
facturers to efficiently create more goods
for the marketplace. Mass production
requires the use of interchangeable parts,
machine tools, and the division of labor.
Why are interchangeable parts important?

Interchangeable Parts Machine Tools

386 CHAPTER 12
 Whitney also came up with the idea
Despite these great changes, most manu- of using — parts of
facturing was still done by hand. In the late a machine that are identical. Using inter-
1790s the U.S. government worried about a changeable parts made machines easier to
possible war with France, so it wanted more assemble and broken parts easier to replace.
muskets for the army. Skilled workers made Whitney promised to build 10,000 muskets
the parts for each weapon by hand. No two in two years. The federal government gave
parts were exactly alike, and carefully fitting him money to build his factory, and in 1801
all the pieces together took much time and Whitney was called to Washington, D.C., to
skill. give a demonstration.
As a result, American gun makers could Whitney stood before President John
not produce the muskets quickly enough to Adams and his secretary of war. He had an
satisfy the government’s demand. Factories assortment of parts for 10 guns. He then ran-
needed better , the tools used to domly chose parts and quickly assembled
produce items or to do work. them into muskets. To the audience’s amaze-
In 1798 inventor tried to ment, he repeated the process several times.
address some of these problems. Whitney
gave officials a proposal for mass-producing
Whitney had proven that American
guns for the U.S. government using water-
inventors could improve upon the new
powered machinery. Whitney explained
British technology. Machines that produced
the benefits of his ideas.
matching parts soon became standard in
industry. Interchangeable parts sped up
“ , the efficient production
of large numbers of identical goods.
” READING CHECK Summarizing How did Eli
Technology in America
Whitney influence American manufacturing?

Division of Labor Mass-Produced Goods

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LINKING TO TODAY

Modern
Manufacturing

ANALYSIS
SKILL ANALYZING INFORMATION
How do interchangeable parts help the modern
assembly line work?

the United States. As a result, fewer people

were able to own farms. British factory work-
Despite the hard work of people such as Sam-
ers generally were willing to work for lower
uel Slater and Eli Whitney, manufacturing in
wages than factory workers in the United
the United States grew slowly. In 1810 Secre-
States were.
tary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin suggested
Because British manufacturers had plenty
some reasons why there were so few factories
of factory workers with technical skills, they
in the United States.
could produce large amounts of goods less
“ expensively than most American businesses
could. As a result, they could charge lower
prices for the goods. Lower British prices
made it difficult for many American manu-
” facturers to compete with British companies.
Who Built America?
This situation in turn discouraged American
investors from spending the money needed
Gallatin and others believed that few to build new factories and machinery. As a
people would choose to work in a factory if result, only a few industries had found a place
they could own their own farm instead. In in the American economy. These included
Great Britain, on the other hand, land was cotton goods, flour milling, weapons, and
more scarce and more expensive than in iron production.

388 CHAPTER 12
 These circumstances began to change “
around the time of the War of 1812. Since the
1790s, wars between European powers had
interfered with U.S. trade. American custom- ”
The Writings of Thomas
ers were no longer able to get all the manu- Jefferson
factured goods they were used to buying from
In February 1815, New Yorkers celebrated
British and European manufacturers. Then,
the end of the War of 1812 and the return of
during the War of 1812, British ships block-
free trade. The streets were decorated and filled
aded eastern seaports, preventing foreign
with merchants whose ships were loaded with
ships from delivering goods. Americans began
goods. “With Peace and Commerce, America
to buy the items they needed from American
Prospers,” declared one display. Eager busi-
manufacturers instead of from foreign sup-
nesspeople prepared to lead the United States
pliers. As profits for American factories grew,
into a period of industrial growth. They urged
manufacturers began to spend more money
northern politicians to pass higher tariffs on
expanding their factories. State banks and pri-
foreign goods to protect American companies.
vate investors began to lend money to manu-
facturers for their businesses. READING CHECK Analyzing How did the War
At the same time, many Americans began of 1812 aid the growth of American manufacturing?
to realize that the United States had been
relying too heavily on foreign goods. If the American
dependence on
United States could not meet its own needs, The Industrial some foreign
it might be weak and open to attack. Former Revolution started with the textile industry goods, such as
president Thomas Jefferson, who had once in England but soon spread to the United oil, is still being
debated today.
opposed manufacturing, changed his mind. States. In the next section you will learn
He, too, realized that the United States was about how the spread of factories changed
too dependent on imports. the working lives of many Americans.

Section 1 Assessment ONLINE QUIZ

Reviewing Ideas, Terms, and People Critical Thinking

1. a. Identify What was the first industry to begin to 4. Drawing Conclusions Review your notes on
use machines to manufacture goods? key inventions and improvements during the
b. Predict In what ways might life for workers Industrial Revolution. Then copy the chart below
change as a result of the Industrial Revolution? and use it to show how each contribution affected
2. a. Recall In what part of the United States were manufacturing.
most mills located? Why?
Invention/improvement Effect on Manufacturing
b. Draw Conclusions How did the ideas of
Samuel Slater and Eli Whitney affect manufactur-
ing in the United States?
c. Evaluate Whose contributions do you think
were more important—Slater’s textile machines or
Whitney’s interchangeable parts? Why?
3. a. Identify What event encouraged the growth of FOCUS ON WRITING
American manufacturing? Why?
5. Noting Inventions In your notebook, create a
b. Contrast Why was manufacturing in Great Brit-
three-column chart. In the first column, list any
ain in the early years more successful than that in
inventions mentioned in this section. In the second
the United States?
column, identify the inventor. In the third column,
describe the invention and its benefits.

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