could burn the grass away, but they could not break up the soil. John Deere, a young blacksmith from Ver mont, began to experiment with a new metal called steel, which was stronger than iron. At one point, Deere could not even afford to buy the steel he needed for his experiments. He had to use old, discarded saw blades instead. But Deere displayed the hard work typical of the Puritan work ethic in New England, and his persistence paid off. In the 1830s, John Deere patented the steel plow, a tool which kept its cutting edge as it plowed into the prairie sod. Midwestern farmers benefited from Deere’s design of the plow that allowed the thick soil to roll away and turn up a deep furrow for plant- ing. Today, many farm tools and machines bear Deere’s name. Anew way to harvest. The prairies of the Midwest produced an abundance of crops, but farmers needed a more efficient way to harvest their grain. As a young boy, Cyrus McCormick had helped his father work on a machine that would reap grain. Their hard work was rewarded in 1831, when the twenty-two-year-old Cyrus developed a reaping machine that made it easier to cut grain. By 1847, he had begun producing the machine in Chicago. Within two years, McCormick was a millionaire, yet he continued ‘McCormick’ reaping machine 152 Ch. 10 Innovations and Inventions Farmers wth plow in the 1800s to develop new machines to increase farm output. Cyrus McCormick, believing in being a wise steward of money, gave millions of dollars to promote the gospel ministry of Dwight L. Moody in Chicago. Improvements of the Age The factory. Because New England's cold climate and rocky soil better suited that region to factories, inventors soon found ways to de- velop the region's abundant water power. In the early 1800s, Francis Cabot Lowell improved the power loom for the rapid weaving of cotton cloth and harnessed the water power of nearby rivers to run his factories. Many people were willing to work in the factories, but some con- tinued to work on the farm when they were needed, especially during the harvest. Patents. Our found- ing fathers provided a system of rewarding an individual for his inge- nuity through patents, or legal rights to inventions. Thus, many people in the United States worked hard on new inventions, knowing that they would profit from the free enterprise system. In 1846, Elias Howe in- vented a much-improved sewing machine that could be applied to both cloth and leather goods.While itis true that early factories required hard work and long hours, they supplied much-needed and profitable work for many in the north- east. The new factories also provided a higher standard of living for many Americans. At his factories in Waltham (ater known as Lowell), Massachusetts, Francis Cabot Lowell established what is called the Lowell system of manufacture. A descendant of the original Puritan settlers of New England, Lowell carried on the Puritan tradition of godly behavior at work and in the home. Through his concern for the spiritual and physical health of his employ- ees, Lowell brought the effi- ciency and virtue of the Protestant work ethic to the factory system. Lowell's employees were provided with clean housing, healthful food, schooling, and wholesome recreation. No one was allowed to drink alcoholic bever- ages, and workers had to attend church. Francis Lowell gave a rare opportunity to ‘young women by providing them with work for generous wages and with schooling. The work was hard but not dangerous. After working an average of five years in the mills, most of the women left to marry and start families. At the factory, sisters and cousins often worked and lived together, for Lowell wanted to keep family ties strong. Some of the women who worked in the mills wrote and published a monthly magazine, the Lowell Offering. It included passages of Scripture which encouraged good behavior. One of the workers who con- tributed to the Lowell Offering, Lucy Larcom, became a rather well-known poet. She wrote that she worked hard in the factory in order to advance herself. “Many Lowell girls continued their education and became primary and grammar school teachers. Some as- sumed positions in the com- munity while others returned to their homes.”' Some of the women built fine homes with their earnings. Those who held more temporary em- ployment lived in modest but clean boarding houses. The famous English novelist Charles Dickens cast a critical eye on factory life in general, but when he visited the Lowell mills he wrote, “They [the workers] were all well dressed. . ‘They were healthy in appearance, many of them remarkably so, and had the manners and deportment of young women. . .. The rooms in which they worked, were as well ordered as. themselves.”* Francis Lowell believed that Christian prin- ciples could be applied to the modern age of industrialism, bringing benefits to the employer and his employees. After 1854, Elias Howe was drawing over $4,000 a week in royalties from his invention (nearly $100,000 today). Isaac Merrit Singer made fur- ther improvements on the sewing machine, and Singer became a household name to millions. Mining and steel. Many men worked in steel and coal operations. Although the early machines and equipment were not as safe as those used today, new inventions were making factories and mines safer. The most important invention for the safety of coal miners was the miner's safety lamp, invented in 1815 by the English chemist and Christian Sir Humphry Davy. Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio became manufacturing centers for the steel needed to 10.2 Advances in Industry 153build rails, engines, bridges, and other struc- tures. Because the steam engine made it pos- sible to power machines by means other than water power, the use of coal increased greatly. The coal and iron fields of Pennsylvania were especially valuable. More Immigrants Come to America The growth of factories created a market for new workers, and people came from all over Europe to find work in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and the Midwest. By 1860, 1'f million Irish, 1 million Germans, and many other Europeans had come to America. Many Irish came to escape the disastrous potato fam- ine of the 1840s. A blight on the potato crop, the mainstay of the Irish diet, caused wide- spread starvation. The United States welcomed the refugees, and they soon became the back- bone of the railroad industry. Irishmen carried and laid most of the steel rails that linked the Northeast and the Midwest. Many Germans came to escape the political and social revo- lutions in Germany, where the writings of Karl Marx, the father of Communism, brought suffering and violence. SECTION 10.2 REVIEW 1, What was so hard about farming the Mid- west before the steel plow? Who invented the steel plow? 2. Who invented the reaping machine? What did he do with a big portion of his earn- ings? 3. What was the purpose of patents? 4. What were living conditions like for a worker in the Lowell system? 5. What was the most important invention for the safety of coal miners? Who invented it? When? 6. Name three states that became manufac- turing centers for steel. 7. What brought many Irish and Germans to America by the 1860s? Identify: Francis Cabot Lowell, power loom, Elias Howe, Isaac Merrit Singer 154 Ch.10 Innovations and Inventions Results of Ingenuity Better Communications Better transportation, especially trains, increased the efficiency and reliability of the postal service, leading to an increase in personal and business mail. Magazine and newspaper readership also soared. But the new technology of electricity—the ability to send electrical impulses by wire—resulted in the most exciting developments in communication. Morse and the telegraph. In 1837, Samuel EB. Morse invented his first telegraph, a device which could conduct electrical current over wires in a series of coded messages. Morse continued to improve his invention and finally approached Senator H. L. Ellsworth, the Com- missioner of Patents. Ellsworth agreed to ask Congress for a government grant to help Morse construct the first telegraph line between Wash- ington, D.C,, and Baltimore. Finally, in 1843, Congress signed a bill allowing Morse to build his telegraph line. “What hath God wrought!” On May 24, 1844, Samuel Morse was ready to transmit the first telegraph message—the forerunner of all future telecommunications from the telephone ‘Samuel Morse with his telegraphto wireless internet. When he asked Sena- tor Ellsworth’s daughter what that first mes- sage should be, she replied: “What hath God wrought!” (Num. 23:23). Morse later wrote to his brother that this was the exact expression of his own feeling: It is His work, and He alone could have carried me thus far through all my trials and enabled me to triumph over obstacles, physi- cal and moral, which opposed me.* ‘Thus, Samuel F. B. Morse gave the credit to God for his invention of the telegraph. With his code of dots and dashes, later known as the Morse code, accurate messages could now be quickly transmitted over long distances for the first time in history. By 1860, fifty thousand miles of telegraph wire had been stretched east of the Rockies. The Pony Express. The telegraph business expanded so rapidly that it soon put its chief competitor in the West out of business. The paper in San Francisco ran an advertisement in March 1860 that read: “WANTED—young, skinny, wiry fellows, not cover 18. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred.”* Pony Express Pursued by Indians by H. W: Hansen Shortly before telegraph lines were strung, between the Atlantic and the Pacific, the Pony Express was the fastest mail service available. A young rider mounted a horse in St. Joseph, Missouri, slinging a mail bag over his saddle. After 10 miles he came to a relay station, where he mounted a fresh horse. After eight such transfers, the tired rider transferred the mail- bag to a new man, who continued with a fresh. horse. Moving at break-neck speed over plains, mountains, and rivers, the Pony Express could reach San Francisco in ten days if not waylaid by Indians or bandits. This mail service, considered incredibly fast for a horse and rider, lasted from April 1860 to October 1861, when the telegraph linked the East and the West. The Pony Express is yet another example of the ingenuity and dedication of individuals living under a free enterprise system. The transatlantic cable. If messages could be sent by wire between cities, men began to wonder if a cable might be laid in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean to connect North America with the British Isles. In the 1850s, Matthew Maury [mér'é: 1806-1873], a United States naval officer and oceanographer, used his study of ocean winds and currents to find the best place to lay the cable and decided on a path between Newfoundland and Ireland. Known as the pioneer of naval oceanography, Maury is often called the “Path- finder of the Seas.” His belief in the truth of the Scriptures motivated him to search for and find the “paths of the seas” referred to in Psalm In 1858, two American ships laid the first transatlantic cable under the cold Atlantic. Casting off from Newfoundland and Ireland, they carried the gigan- tic coils of insulated copper wire to a halfway point, where they spliced the wire together and let the great cable settle to the ocean floor. On August 17, 1858, the first message was sent to England: “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, and 10.3 Results of Ingenuity 155good-will to men.”> Many people considered the cable the greatest technological feat of the century. The man behind this bold venture, Cyrus Field (1819-1892), staked his reputation and fortune on the plan. Field was an entrepre- neur, a person who risks personal loss to develop and market new products or ideas. America’s economic system of free enterprise has always encouraged entrepreneurs like Cyrus Field. ‘When the people of New York City heard that messages could be sent almost instantly to London, they celebrated with thunderous cannon salutes to Cyrus Field. President James Buchanan and Queen Victoria of England ex- changed good will messages over the wire. In the midst of joyous celebration throughout the United States and Great Britain, word came that the cable had snapped in the depths of the sea. Cyrus Field determined to lay a successful cable. In 1866, after much personal and financial hard- ship, Field finally succeeded in making a cable that could withstand the strain of ocean depths. Advances in Medical Science Pioneers in surgery. Americans also showed interest in the field of medicine. As early as 1809, Ephraim McDowell, a Kentucky physician, had successfully removed a 22'/2 pound tumor from a patient. In Charleston, South Carolina, James Marion Simms performed internal surgery that had never before been attempted and taught his techniques to physicians in the United States and Europe. But surgery could not develop further without the use of an agent to deaden the pain of an operation. In May 1842, Crawford Long of Georgia used ether to induce a “deep sleep” so that his patient would not feel the knife. How- ever, Dr. Long did not publish the results of his work until 1849. In the meantime, William Mor- ton demonstrated the use of ether at Massachu- setts General Hospital in Boston. Thus, Morton was credited with introducing this effective pain killer for surgery. In 1844, an American dentist, Horace Wells, used nitrous oxide to ease the pain of dental work. The noted poet and physi- cian Oliver Wendell Holmes coined the medical term anesthesia to describe the absence of pain. The Blackwell sisters. Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman physician in the United 156 Ch.10 Innovations and Inventions States in 1849. Her sister also became a medi- cal doctor, and in 1857 the two women became partners in a New York City practice, where they opened a clinic for poor women and children. Practical Benefits to Families America's cities grew rapidly during the first half of the 19th century. Sometimes conditions were crowded and unsanitary in these urban areas, but new technology was improving life for everyone as homes became safer, healthier, and more comfortable. Better hygiene. Before the 1840s and 1850s, diseases were transmitted throughout cities by contaminated well water. Then new methods of making concrete and iron bridges provided aqueducts to bring fresh drinking water to America's cities. Also, the introduction of cast iron pipes made plumbing more practical and economical. Thus city dwellers could now drink fresh, clean water, and even bathe in their own homes. The death rate from infectious diseases dropped dramatically with the introduction of clean running water. New sources of light and heat, Technology brought better, more efficient ways of heating homes with steam and hot water. In the cities, lighting also improved with lamps fueled by gas, extracted from coal and transported through pipes. By 1830, gas street lights made Broadway Street scene in mid-1800s showing gas lightsStreet in New York City a safer place to walk at night. In the 1850s, the mellow flicker and glow of gas-flame jets began to illuminate many homes. In 1854, a lighting oil called kerosene was introduced for use in lamps. Kerosene be- came cheap and abundant with the discovery of oil fields in western Pennsylvania in 1859. All the comforts of home. As machines produced more and more goods, many com- modities became more affordable. Cooking, previously done over an open fireplace, could now be done on cast iron stoves. Iceboxes kept food fresh with blocks of ice delivered to homes. Clothing became cheaper and more colorful with newly developed dyes. China, tablecloths, flatware, furniture, wallpaper, carpets, and other items were all made more affordable by the abundance of the new technology. Finally, evenings at home became more enjoyable with Akitchen with a cast iron stove the addition of books and newspapers printed by new, high-speed printing presses. Applied science. New inventions and ad- vanced studies changed more than the economic life of our country; they made life better for all Americans. Above all, Americans pioneered the field of applied science or technology, the practical use of scientific knowledge. The rapid advance of technology during the first half of the 19th century benefited every family in the United States, New inventions and machines improved transportation and communication and trans- formed farms and factories. Entrepreneurs and inventors developed bold ideas to improve the lives of all, and our Constitution rewarded their hard work and enterprise. God blessed America with technology and the ability to apply it to everyday life. SECTION 10.3 REVIEW 1, What decreased the cost of mail and in- creased the amount of mail being sent? 2. Who invented the telegraph? What were the first words sent over the telegraph wire? When? 3. What kind of rider was needed for the Pony Express? Why didn't the Pony Express last long? 4. Why is Matthew Maury called the “Path- finder of the Seas"? 5. What is an entrepreneur? How was Cyrus Field an entrepreneur? 6. Name two early pioneers of surgery. 7. Name the first woman physician in the United States. Where did she open a clinic for poor women and children? 8. What new methods made fresh water availa- ble? 9. Before electricity was readily produced, how did cities light their dark streets? 10. What is applied science? Identify: transatlantic cable, Horace Wells, anesthesia 10.3 Results of Ingenuity 157