Synergy Between Agriculture Samuel Slater: Father Of The Factory System

UNITING THE NATION: ECONOMIC GROWTH
Tremendous growth took place in America during the time frame of 1790 and 1860. This growing nation’s population boomed during these years with immigrants looking for new opportunities. With the melding of people also came many values, principles, beliefs, religion, work experience and work ethics, creating opportunity aimed at new ideas on how to make life just a bit easier. Common themes came to light as the population growth rapidly increased: how to get communications across the vast amount land; the need for transportation of individuals and goods across the vast land and finding better faster ways to produce the basic needs for these individuals.
New Inventions create Synergy between Agriculture

and Manufacturing
The America’s became a transformed land beginning with a few key economic inventions that helped shape how the people of America lived, worked, communicated and traveled. The birth of the American Industrial Revolution was filled with inventions that helped all the aspects of life.
Eli Whitney
Eli Whitney was a great inventor of the time that had many patents to his name. He is most known for a machine that picked cotton at 50 times the speed of picking it by hand. The Cotton Gin, invented in 1793, made cotton a highly profitable commodity that changed America and World. This invention not only changed how cotton was processed, but also created a demand for more land, created an export for the US and helped stimulate the US based textile mills. Eli Whitney went on the patent machines that made tools, muskets and parts to refurbish the muskets used by the US Army.
Samuel Slater
Samuel Slater, known as the “Father of the Factory System” built the first efficient cotton spinning machine in America.

He brought the Industrial Revolution to the United States from Great Britain. It was illegal to export textile technology such as parts, designs, or sketches; he memorized the construction plans for the Arkwright factory. He came to America telling no one of his plans to build his own factory. He told the port authorities he was a farm laborer. Slater along with a few partners built a large mill powered by their personal built dam in 1801, being the first mill to use the system design that he stole from Richard Arkwright. He went on to invent the spinning machine that spun fibers into strong threads of any desired thickness. Over his life he owned 13 spinning mills. (Price,

n.d,)
Other Inventors
The US patent office was becoming a busy place. With over 4000 patents processed annually, many other inventors become household names in the US and abroad. By sheer volume of output, these inventors were elevated above others: Remington rifles, Singer sewing machines, Good Year Tires, John Deere implements and Yale locks.
Then Came New Ways to Communicate
Pony Express
If you wished to communicate or stay in touch with family you relied on written correspondence. With the establishment of the Pony Express in 1860, mail, or post as it was known, was carried across the country in a speedy fashion. Horseback riders would carry the post between stations spaced about 10 miles apart and could make a 2,000 mile trip in 10 days. It was a reliable way to send correspondence, although, as inventions progressed, there was a need for faster and faster communication.
Telegraph and Telephone
Samuel F. B. Morse, strung a wire between Washington and Baltimore and clicked out the historic message; “What hath God Wrought?” and the invention of instant communication became known. Americans were introduced to two new methods of "instant" communication starting in 1844, first the telegraph and then the telephone led to vast networks of cables and wires across the land, the skies, and even under the ocean. These inventions changed how people communicated with others, not just across town, or across the country but also around the world. In the early stages many considered the telephone unrealistic and abnormal, although the telephone quickly became a way of life. Replacing afternoon social calls, hand written notes, business communication and telegrams. The innovation of the telephone created a way for people to engage in real time conversations without being in the same room. It revolutionized the way that people communicated. (Krasner, B. D., 2012)
The Impact of Transportation Improvements
Turnpikes
Industrialization came to the United States between 1790 and 1820, in the form of rapid construction of turnpikes, canals, and railroads by state governments and private entrepreneurs. The first turnpike, Lancaster Turnpike, was built in 1790 in Pennsylvania. This was the first hard surfaced highway and ranged 62 miles over the Allegheny Mountains connecting Philadelphia to Lancaster, PA. This highway showed to be quite profitable, as tolls were charged to cross. This quickly led to over 2,400 miles of roadways connecting most major cities. One the largest projects was the Cumberland Road in 1806 that connect Maryland to Illinois, close to 600 miles were completed and became a vital highway to expanding immigration to the west. With the making of better roadways and routes the cost of freight went down, allowing more goods to be moved.
Canals
Long-distance travel overland was slow and expensive.

While working to find ways to carry people, crops, and goods from the Midwest; a new water based transportation system was developed. Nothing of this size, complexity and cost had taken place before in the US. With approval from the New York legislature in 1817, the Erie Canal was built. The 364-mile waterway from Lake Erie to the Hudson River would become the longest artificial waterway in the US during this time. When the first option opened in 1819, it was 75 miles long and it immediately generated enough revenue to repay its cost. The Erie Canal brought prosperity to the farmers of central and western New York by carrying wheat, flour and meat to eastern cities and from there to foreign markets. It also increased production and processing in the mills. “The Erie Canal also prompted a national canal boom, and by 1848, the completion of the Michigan and Illinois Canal, completed an inland all-water route from New York City to New Orleans.” (Meyer, 2008).
Railroads
Railroads brought the most significant contribution to transportation when it came to distances traveled. Railroads were fast, reliable, and less expensive to build. Railroads systems were able to travel no matter the weather conditions or terrain, and quickly gaining popularity with approximately 30,000 miles of track laid by 1860. Railroads were only opposed by those whose business they impeded: canal backers, turnpike investors and a few horse and

hay selling farmers. Even with opposition the miles of track continued to be built and connected more and more cities.
Conclusion
Industrialization came to the United States between 1790 and 1820, this revolutionized the way the American worked, lived, traveled and communicated. Tremendous growth took place in America during this time frame. The process of immigrants working together, to better their lives, created a tremendous amount of noteworthy improvements for all American’s. When given a problem to solve, these people came together to not only solve the current problem but to also forward think about the future. Without the inventions and forward thinking of people like Eli Whitney, Samuel Slater, Isaac Singer and Samuel Morse progress would not have been possible. These individuals came to America to make better lives for themselves, but along the way, made life much easier for all Americans.