Invention of The Reaper Cyrus McCormick invented the reaper in 1834. The reaper allowed farmers to harvest crops mechanically. For hundreds of years, farmers and field workers had to harvest crops by hand using a sickle or other methods, which was a taxing task. The McCormick mechanical reaper replaced the manual cutting of the crop with scythes and sickles. This new invention allowed wheat to be harvested quicker and with less labor force.
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Front page of The Abilene Reflector, Kansas, May 29, 1884, McCormick Harvester Company - Public Domain.
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Middlebury John Deere Monument, Vermont, July 12, 2008, PenelopeIsMe - Public Domain.
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Invention of The Steel PlowJohn Deere invented the steel plow in 1837 when the Middle-West was being settled. Wood plows couldn't plow the rich soil there so they kept breaking. He saw an old sawmill blade and had an idea. He knew well the back-breaking difficulty of farmers while plowing because the soil would get stuck to their wooden plows. Therefore, Deere created a plow that would break up the tough soil without soil getting stuck to it. The plow made it possible for Americans to plant enough crops to provide for a growing nation. It was the first step to making farm equipment that we know today and his business has been growing and booming ever since.
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Thomas A. Edison was the main inventor among the long list of talented men in the 1800s. In his lifetime, he had more than 1,300 patents; more than double the number of his closest competitor. Some of these were the electric voting machine (1869), the phonograph (1878), the incandescent lamp (1879), movie film and motion picture camera (1889 and 1891), and the radio (1891). He constructed the world’s first central electrical power plant in New York and the world’s first industrial research laboratory in New Jersey. He changed how people lived and affected their freedoms along the way through their access to newer technologies. He created more opportunities for communication and jobs for people with his multitude of inventions.
Communication Changes Two key inventors in the development of communication are Samuel Morse and Alexander Graham Bell. Samuel Morse and his telegraph revolutionized long distance communication. The telegraph transmitted electric signals over a wire from station to station. He also developed the Morse Code which connected the American alphabet with dots and dashes to transmit complex messages. Morse's inventions laid the groundwork for the communications revolution that led to later innovations like the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone which changed communication forever. In 1876, he did so by transmitting sounds using a method that involved a needle vibrating in water, which caused the electrical current to change. He demonstrated his first telephone call with two telegraph offices that were 5 miles apart.
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Thomas Edison - Mini Biography - 2:39 secs
Portrait of Alexander Graham Bell, Library and Archives Canada, 1919, Moffatt Studio - public domain
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