In 1793, Eli Whitney’s cotton gin removed seeds from cotton fibers. Because of the cotton gin, Southerners increased highly profitable cotton production, depended heavily on slavery, and joined an expanding clothing market with New England and Britain. Eli Whitney demonstrated interchangeable musket parts to Congress in 1801. Nearly identical musket parts could easily be produced and replaced. During the Civil War, soldiers could simply and inexpensively repair damaged Springfield rifles. Engineer John Loudon MacAdam invented the macadam process in 1823. By covering compacted native soil in a road crust, roads were simply and effectively protected. The first national highway, the Cumberland Road, was surfaced with the macadam process, therefore …show more content…
Stephenson, the horse car was introduced to the US in 1832. An early form of streetcar, the horse car was drawn by horses on iron tracks laid throughout cities. New Yorkers used the horse car for safe, flexible, and inexpensive transport throughout the city. As iron tracks were laid on roads to ease journeys, urban geography transformed. Samuel F.B. Morse patented the telegraph in 1837 and developed Morse code with Alfred Vail. Pulses of electricity in a dot-and-dash code quickly transmitted messages through wires over long distances. Americans would later use Morse code in aviation and radio communications. In 1842, Joseph Dart and Robert Dunbar invented the grain elevator—a tower containing a bucket elevator that scoops up grain from a lower level and deposits it in a silo. Grain elevators made a tremendous contribution to the US economy by enabling farmers to store grains until the grains were ready to be quickly transported to the market via railroad. Elias Howe patented the sewing machine in 1846. The machine sewed lockstitch more neatly and strongly than any seamstress could in the same time limit. In New England, the sewing machine spurred clothing industrialization and opened jobs to women and immigrants in sweatshops. The sewing machine made sewing faster, less labor intensive, less expensive, and better