Wyatt L.T. III The Industrial Revolution
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In one respect, the nation’s continued reliance on bringing new
land under cultivation fostered the growth of inventions to make the
harvesting of crops faster and more efficient. In fact the amount of land
under cultivation doubled from 1850 to 1900 and increased three
times by 1910. The farm population also increased by 50%, but its per-
centage of the overall labor force actually declined because of the
growth of industry. In 1800 most farm work was done by hand,
whereas by 1900 farm operations had become mechanized and power
tools were the norm. Over the course of the 1830s and 1840s a series
of devices appeared to make farm work more efficient and productive.
The most significant invention was Cyrus H. McCormick’s improved
horse-drawn reaper in 1854. McCormick’s reaper featured revolving
blades that efficiently sliced the wheat and increased the harvesting
capability from two acres a day to two acres an hour. As a further indi-
cation of the productivity increase, particularly after the application of
steam and then diesel power to farm equipment, in 1800 it took
approximately fifty-six man hours per acre to raise wheat, of which
forty man hours were devoted to harvesting. By 1900 that total had
been dramatically reduced to fifteen and nine man hours, respectively.
Indeed, in 1800 the productivity of one farm could support just over
four families. In 1900 the same farm could feed seven families.
Several other technical developments in the 19th century contrib-
uted to the acceleration of the United States to it eventual leadership in
the industrial world after 1900. The appearance of the bicycle in 1878,
for example, revolutionized transportation for individuals and families
living in the crowded cities. By 1900 American factories produced one
million bicycles a year. Two breakthroughs in communication technol-
ogy, however, made a dramatic impact and deserve emphasis. The first
was the perfection of the telegraph system by Samuel Finley Breese
Morse (see Biographies) in 1844. Within his lifetime, telegraphic com-
munication not only linked all of the nation’s states but also wedded
Europe and America by transatlantic cable. The second was the inven-
tion of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell. Building on the work
of other pioneer scientists in electricity and magnetic fields, Bell envi-
sioned the transmission of speech electronically. In March 1876 he
patented the first telephone in which sound wave vibration could be
transformed into a fluctuating electric current and carried across wires
and reconverted into identical sound waves at the other end of the cir-
cuit. The telephone’s commercial and personal value became readily
apparent. In 1883 there were 100,000 telephone subscribers, almost all
in urban areas. In New York City there was one telephone for every
500 persons, as compared to one per 1,000 in Paris, one per 3,000 in
London and Berlin, and one per 4,000 in St. Petersburg. By 1917 the
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The Industrial Revolution in America
Unites States had twelve million telephones in operation.
43
In 1879
New Haven, Connecticut published the first commercial phone book
listing 50 names and no numbers since all calls were operator assisted
until a later date.
44
These two inventions—telegraph and telephone—
revolutionized communications and sped up the sharing of important
knowledge and influenced developments in Europe that resulted in the
invention of the wireless radio in 1901. Another major technical
advance was the incandescent light bulb developed by Thomas Alva
Edison. Of humble origins, Edison was an inquisitive youth and estab-
lished his first laboratory at the age of 12. In 1868 he became a tele-
graph operator for Western Union. By 1874 he had devised the
quadruplex telegraph capable of sending two messages simultaneously
in two directions. He established laboratories first in New York City
and then his famous facility at Menlo Park, New Jersey. In the course
of his life Edison obtained 1093 patents, including ones that resulted
in the improved clarity and volume of the Bell telephone (1877), Wall
Street stock ticker (1869), phonograph (1870), motion pictures
(1888), and the device that won him international acclaim, the incan-
descent light bulb (1879). This latter invention resulted in the eventual
creation of the General Electric Company in 1892 and the establish-
ment of commercial electric lighting systems in the United States and
abroad. By the late 19th century the force of electricity had found a va-
riety of purposes. Industries supplied electricity and illuminated their
formerly dimly lit assembly lines and powered motors and engines in
the factories. The first electric trolley appeared in 1895, replacing the
former horse-drawn trolleys, and within several years 10,000 miles of
track were in place. Electric lighting appeared in homes as well as on
city streets. By the early 20th century, electricity prepared the way for
its eventual use as a power source for household appliances such as
irons, washing machines, refrigerators, and vacuum cleaners, a devel-
opment that eventually freed up more women to enter the U.S. work-
force once again.
45
One other technical innovation also contributed to the United
States emergence as the industrial leader in the world by the early 20th
century. Frank and Charles Duryea developed the gas powered engine
in 1893, which resulted in the production of the earliest automobile.
This development had grown from the discovery of petroleum and
experiments with its potential earlier in the century. Interestingly, one
of the first assessments was that fluid petroleum would have no func-
tional purpose ‘‘except as a lotion for bruises and rheumatic afflic-
tions.’’
46
Although it was acknowledged that petroleum could produce
substantial light, its pungent odor was considered too offensive. In
1896 the Duryea brothers made and sold thirteen cars. In the same
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THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
year a mechanic in his early thirties named Henry Ford created his first
automobile, which resulted in the sale of more than 10,000 Model Ts
in 1909. Two decades later he had established the largest industry in
the nation with nearly 2,500 plants. These factories had an assembly
line operation that married the product and process to mass produce
cheap automobiles for consumption by a large segment of the Ameri-
can population. In 1929 more than 20 million automobiles traveled
U.S. roadways, one for every five Americans, and nearly 17% of all U.S.
patents had some connection to the automobile industry.
Urban Growth
During the first six decades of the 19th century, America experi-
enced dramatic urban growth. In 1800 the United States had no cities
with a population more than 70,000, and by 1860 there were two with
half a million residents and fourteen with 100,000 in population. Dur-
ing George Washington’s presidency, 95% of Americans lived in rural
areas; in Abraham Lincoln’s presidency this figure had declined to
80%. Following the Civil War the trend to urbanization accelerated. In
1865 no city in America had a population of 1 million persons,
whereas by the late 1920s five cities had reached that population. This
demographic shift moved the nation to the city. Agricultural labor
made up half the workforce in 1865 but only one quarter in the 1920s.
U.S. population growth advanced at a rate that far surpassed that of
the world at large. From 1850 to 1920 world population increased at
55%, whereas the U.S. population grew from 23 million to 106 million,
an increase of 461%. The trend to heavy mechanization on the farm
had sliced cultivation time in half and displaced agrarian workers to
seek employment in the industrialized cities. This development along
with the large number of immigrants (see Document 17) entering the
cities provided a wide variety of opportunities in an ever-expanding
industrial base. In 1820, 350,000 Americans worked in manufacturing
enterprises or handcraft trades. That number rose to 2 million in 1860.
The total labor force increased nearly six times from 1.9 million to 11
million in these six decades. By the early 20th century approximately
300 American cities contained three-fourths of the U.S. population,
and these cities were host to more than 80% of the nation’s manufac-
turing enterprises.
The industrial city was the urban model from 1870 to 1920. The
total worth of the nation’s capital—buildings, factories, roads, machines,
and livestock—is not entirely known, but its growth had been dramatic
since the late 18th century and gained much momentum after the Civil
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The Industrial Revolution in America
War. One example is the phenomenal construction that occurred in
New York City. From 1868 to 1882, the city recorded the construction
of nearly 30,000 new buildings with a total cost of $424 million. New
York City illustrates the challenging living conditions that existed for
the vast majority of the masses in industrial cities. The negative side of
industrialization—garbage, grime, soot, overcrowded living conditions,
low pay, slums, crime (see Document 18), and health concerns—
appeared in American cities just as it had in Great Britain. The number
of tenement houses in New York City attests to this new situation. In
1872, New York City had nearly 15,000 tenement houses with 500,000
residents (see Document 20); in 1890 the number was 37,000 with 1.25
million residents, and in 1900 42,700 tenement houses with 1.5 million
inhabitants. The steady growth and the compact nature of the city is fur-
ther illustrated by the block density, or number of persons living in one
block, of New York City over time: 158 in 1820, 272 in 1850, and 5,000
to 6,000 in 1894. This crowding led to other problems not uncommon
to urban areas: smoggy skies from the perpetual belching of coal pro-
duced smoke from the factories, a terrible din from the myriad of
uncontrolled noises, piles of waste in the streets, congested thorough-
fares, polluted rivers and waterways, and constant health concerns. Life
expectancy was slow to improve under these conditions. In 1790 the life
expectancy was 36 years of age and had crept only to 40 by the Civil
War. In addition, the number of families needing assistance taxed the
ability of churches and charities. It is estimated that in the years 1885 to
1890 some 136,000 families scattered throughout New York City in
some 31,000 tenements required assistance. During these years, one in
ten persons dying in New York was buried in Potter’s Field.
47
Even by
1900 only 50% of children born in the United States could expect to
reach 50 years of age, although life expectancy surged to an average of
60 years by 1929.
Another blight that appeared was the number of abandoned and
orphaned children. It is estimated that 100,000 children eked out a liv-
ing in the streets of New York City by 1850. The number only grew
over the next several decades as more immigrants poured into Amer-
ica. A unique effort to help this dispossessed group appeared under the
auspices of Charles Loring Brace, a minister who became the pioneer
in the idea of foster care. In conjunction with the Sisters of Charity,
Brace sponsored Orphan Trains to transport some of these children
west to place them in families seeking additional children. Few fami-
lies actually adopted these children, but the ‘‘foster care’’ provided gave
them hope and opportunity. The success of the project is found in the
fact that less than 1% returned to New York, and the trains ran until
1930. Public services in urban areas in the form of fire, police,
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THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
sanitation, etc. rarely existed in 1860, but following the Civil War the
momentum for change was unstoppable.
48
Conclusion
In many respects, the American experience in entering the
industrial era reflected that of Great Britain. The long colonial link-
age and the eventual warming of the relationship b etween the two
countries in the 19th century led to the United States being the heir
to British industrial developments. Yet, the Uni ted States a lso had d is-
tinctive trends that did not mirror those of Great Britain. Whereas
Britain’s agricultural production sh rank during the industrial revolu-
tion and the nation had to import foodstuffs to support its manufac-
turing labor force, the United States saw the continued expansion of
agriculture a s t he nation spread westward. This agricultural growth
provided essential sustenance for the industrial workforce that
expanded rapidly through the shift of population from farm to city
and the arrival of millions of immigrants. Thus, the number and size
of the nation’s cities increased and changed the complexion of the
United States from rural to urban. In addition, America’s agricultural
productivity ensured that the nation possessed sufficient exports to
exchange for capital to support industrial expansion. Sustained agri-
cultural development also stimulated the invention of more efficient
and cost-effective farm equipment and meant that agricultural indus-
tries and the manufacturing sector existed side by side and mutually
supported each other. The rapid expansion of U.S. industry after the
Civil War resulted in the development of innovative business organi-
zations with structures that became increasingly complex as the num-
ber and size of firms grew. For example, in 1870 the normal iron and
steel firm had fewer than 100 employees. By 1900 that number had
increased four-fold, a trend that found its mirror image in most other
industrial enterprises. During the 19th century, the U.S. infrastruc-
ture in the form of roads and railroads expanded rapidly, a develop-
ment that facilitated the mobility of the populace and the rapid
transportation of goods and services and tied the nation together.
New inventions and techniques emerged that changed the nature of
workplace and the home. The United States experienced a prosperity
that previous generations could not have envisioned. Indeed, the dra-
matic economic transformation of the late 19th century moved Henry
Adams, the famous American historian and novelist, to lament that a
boy born on the eve of the Civil War would have a life that more
resembled the time of Christ than that of the U.S. in 1900. In 1908,
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The Industrial Revolution in America
just on the other side of that new century that Henry Adams had used
as a benchmark, the United States had become a nation of modern
industrial marvels. The year opened with the first electric ball ringing
in the New Year in New York; Wilbur Wright made a manned flight of
more than two hours, and the U.S. Navy sailed the Great White Fleet
(sixteen battleships weighing 250 million tons and costing $100 mil-
lion) on a 43,000 mile journey around the world. Mirroring the
words of Queen Victoria more than a half century earlier, Thomas
Edison perhaps said it best: ‘‘Anything, everything is possible.’’
49
Notes
1. R. L. Heilbronner & A. Singer, The Economic Transformation of
America (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977), 9–13.
2. B. Hindle & S. Lubar, Engines of Change: The American Industrial
Revolution 1790–1860 (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press,
1986), 60–64.
3. Stalcup, The Industrial Revolution,45–48.
4. R. Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York: Penguin Books,
2004), 32, 294–295, 371–372.
5. Stalcup, The Industrial Revolution, 52.
6. Chernow, Alexander Hamilton, 372–373.
7. D. C. North, The Economic Growth of the United States 1790–1860
(New York: W.W. Norton Co. Inc., 1966), 17, 23.
8. Heilbronner, Economic Transformation of America, 34, 49.
9. Stalcup, The Industrial Revolution,59–60; Heilbronner, Economic
Transformation of America, 25.
10. Hindle and Lubar, Engines of Change, 112–114.
11. http://ww.swetland.net/cumberland.htm
12. Heilbronner, Economic Transformation of America,30–31.
13. http://www.canals.org/erie.htm
14. Stalcup, The Industrial Revolution,89–94; http:www.RobertFulton.
org/htm
15. Scientific American, Vol. 14, No. 9 (June 15, 1859), 149.
16. Heilbronner, The Economic Transformation of America,34–35.
17. Scientific American, Vol. 6, No. 33 (May 3, 1851), 257.
18. Scientific American, Vol. 10, No. 12 (December 2, 1854), 89.
19. Scientific American, Vol. 10, No. 36 (May 16, 1857), 299.
20. http://www.memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html
21. Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 13, No. 4 (April 1881), 87; Manu-
facturer and Builder, Vol. 21, No. 1 (January 1889), 1–2; Manufacturer and
Builder, Vol. 25, No. 2 (February 1893), 32.
22. Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 13, No. 7 (July 1881), 166.
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THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
23. http://www.nrhs.com/archives/trainwreck.htm
24. S. E. Ambrose, Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the
Transcontinental Railroad, 1863–1869 (New York: Simon and Schuster,
2000), 17–19.
25. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/tcrr; Ambrose, Nothing Like It in
the World, 369–370.
26. Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 68, No. 408 (May 1884),
863.
27. Scientific American, Vol. 4, No. 11 (December 2, 1848), 81.
28. C. Nardinelli, Child Labor in the Industrial Revolution (Bloo-
mington: Indiana University Press, 1990), 129.
29. Scientific American, Vol. 2, No. 13 (December 19, 1846), 97.
30. Scientific American, Vol. 2, No. 3 (October 10, 1846), 17.
31. Scientific American, Vol. 2, No. 14 (December 26, 1846), 405.
32. North, The Economic Growth of the United States , 24.
33. Heilbronner, Economic Transformation of America, 40; http://www.
nps.gov/archive/lowe
34. Heilbronner, Economic Transformation of America, 67, 72, 90–91.
35. Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 9, No. 2 (February 1877), 46.
36. Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 12, No. 18 (December 1886), 267.
37. http://www.chicagohistory.org/hadc/chronology/html
38. Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 24, No. 6 (June 1892), 133.
39. Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 12, No. 8 (December 1876), 268;
Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 8, No. 10 (October 1876), 220.
40. Hindle & Lubar, Engines of Change,77–79, 90–92.
41. Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 21, No. 5 (May 1889), 48.
42. Heilbronner, Economic Transformation of America, 34.
43. Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 15, No. 2 (February 1883), 27.
44. Smithsonian, Vol. 36, No. 11 (February 2008), 22.
45. http://www.nps.gov.edis
46. As quoted in Smithsonian, Vol. 36, No. 2 (May 2007), 10.
47. Manufacturer and Builder, Vol. 15, No. 1 (January 1883), 16;
Heilbronner, Economic Transformation of America, 196.
48. Florida Today, January 20, 2008.
49. As quoted in Smithsonian, Vol. 36, No. 10 (January 2008), 42.
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CHAPTER 6
THE INDUSTRIAL
REVOLUTION ON THE
CONTINENT IN THE LATE
19TH CENTURY
The rapid economic growth that Great Britain had achieved by the
early 19th century far surpassed that of its continental neighbors. By
mid-century Great Britain was the world’s industrial giant and pro-
duced two thirds of the world’s coal, one half of the world’s iron and
cotton textiles, and possessed a per capita income larger than countries
on the continent. Britain’s dominance of the global marketplace was
unquestioned, and no nation could compete with its economic
strength. Although some industrial developments had begun in Europe
by the turn of the 19th century, in comparison to the British model,
these activities were tepid at best. In 1851, as illustrated by the remark-
able displays at the Crystal Palace Exhibition, Great Britain had
achieved an advantage in almost every category of industrial achieve-
ment. Indeed, German representatives who saw the modern industrial
wonders at the Crystal Palace Exhibition made a gloomy assessment
that Great Britain would never lose its supremacy.
1
At that moment,
the European nations held no illusion about challenging the British
position in the near term. In reality, however, the situation had begun
to change slowly in the years following the Napoleonic Wars, and in-
dustrialization gained additional momentum on the continent after
1850 as three centers—Belgium, France, and some German states—
began to narrow the industrial gap.
Prior to the early 19th century a number of historical, political,
geographical, economic, and social factors impeded potential indus-
trial developments on the continent. The nations of Europe had a
history of frequent warfare in the 17th and 18th centuries, and those
conflicts did not run their course until the conclusion of the Seven
Years War in 1763. Within one generation following that war, the
French Revolution erupted in 1789 ushering in a long period of politi-
cal and social disturbances that affected all the major nations of west-
ern and central Europe until 1848. Furthermore, in the midst of this
era Napoleon’s armies marched back and forth across Europe for nearly
two decades disrupting opportunities for sustained economic and
industrial development. Because many of the nations on the continent
were larger than Great Britain in size and population, it was not easy to
knit together their various regions. In addition, transportation costs
remained high as it was difficult to move goods over long distances ei-
ther by land or water networks. The vast majority of roads were poorly
maintained and at times rivers became too shallow as a result of sea-
sonal dryness, limiting the flow of traffic to link distant markets. In
addition, few ports existed to join effectively the interior of these areas
to the rest of the state. Further exacerbating this problem was the nag-
ging retention of ancient high customs duties, tolls, and excise taxes
that forced agents shipping goods to avoid these fees whenever possi-
ble. Also, local guild restrictions that had all but disappeared in Great
Britain remained in effect in many places on the continent, and the
strict rules and dictates of these old organizations long standing tradi-
tions impeded ingenuity and innovation.
Before 1789 most European states had not made any significant
advances in agricultural practices that would increase food production
while at the same time reducing agrarian labor requirements. Peasants
who did work in the early mills or factories usually toiled in these
enterprises only part of the year and returned to the farms during
planting and harvest. This reluctance to break with old ways stifled the
early development of a pool of full-time factory workers. The continent
also had problems with the production of native supplies. Many
resources needed for expansion such as wool for textile production or
iron ore had to be imported from abroad. It was not until the discovery
of rich coal deposits on the continent that western European nations
changed from using their abundant timber for fuel. Even at that point,
coal deposits were not located near ports or key population centers,
and the high cost of its transportation to manufacturing centers added
a burden to emerging industrial efforts. Thus, it would take the coming
of the railroad in the mid-19th century before coal and other resources
could be moved over long distances efficiently and cost-effectively for
industrial purposes.
Other restrictions also hampered economic development. The
patchwork political boundaries of the 300 German and numerous
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THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION