-
Jethro Tull
Jethro Tull was one of the first scientific farmers. He realized that the usual way of sowing seeds by scattering them on the ground was wasteful. Many seeds did not take root. The seed drill allowed the farmers to sow seeds in well-spaced rows at specific depths. When his invention was used, a larger share of the seed germinated. As a result, crop yields increased even more. -
Abraham Darby
Abraham Darby invented coke smelting and advanced the mass production of brass and iron goods. Coke smelting replaced charcoal with coal in metal foundries during the process of refining metals; and this was important to Britain's future since charcoal at that time was becoming scarce and was more expensive. -
James Hargreaves
The spinners could not keep up with the weavers. A reward was offered to the person who could produce a better spinning machine. In 1764 James Hargeaves invented a new spinning wheel. He called it the Spinning "Jenny" in honor of his wife. This simple machine allowed a worker to spin 6 or 8 threads at a time. Later models could spin as many as 80 threads. -
Richard Arkwright
In 1769 Richard Arkwright invented the Water Frame. The water frame used water from a near-by stream to operate the spinning wheels. Some of the results of this was the spinning could be done by a machine instead of a person, so owners could spin more cotton. -
Samuel Cromptom
In 1779, Samuel Crompton combined features of the spinning jenny and the water-frame to produce the Spinning Mule. It was so named because, just as a mule is the offspring of a horse and a donkey, this machine was the offspring of two inventions. The mule made thread stronger and finer than earlier machines. -
Edward Cartwright
In 1785, Edward Cartwright, invented the Power Loom which boosted weaving. In 1833, over 100,000 machines were in use. This meant that people were not working at home. Instead they worked in factories -
Eli Whitney
In 1793, educator Eli Whitney made a machine to remove the seeds from the cotton. This allowed the workers to pick and clean ten times as much cotton as they had before. The increased productivity from the cotton gin fueled further advances in automating the production of cotton and other cloths. -
Robert Fulton
In 1807, Robert Fulton, added a steam engine to the ship "Clermont." The steam engine powered a paddle wheel. The ship made i's first test run on the Hudson River. -
George Stephenson
In 1829, George Stephenson, a mining engineer, developed a locomotive called the "Rocket." It ran on iron rails at an amazing 36 miles per hour -
Gottlieb Daimler
On March 8, 1886, Daimler took a stagecoach (made by Wilhelm Wimpff & Sohn) and adapted it to hold his engine, thereby designing the world's first four-wheeled automobile. -
The Wright Brothers
In 1904, Wilbur and Orville Wright successfully flew their Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Another new era had begun. -
Henry Ford
In 1913, Henry Ford, introduced the assembly line to speed up production. The assembly line broke each job down to small tasks. It was efficient and produced more goods at a cheaper price.
