Station I The Sewing Machine

Transcription

1 Station I The Sewing Machine Inventor Elias Howe patented his plans for the first practical sewing machine in 1846, and successfully sued Isaac Singer for the rights in In 1846 Elias Howe patented the first practical sewing machine. It attracted little attention, and he moved to England to perfect it for use with leather and similar materials. When he returned the next year, he found that I. M. Singer was making and selling his sewing machine. Howe finally established his patent rights in 1854, and his invention revolutionized the garment industry. The impact of the sewing machine on America is huge. Specifically the sewing machine greatly impacted the textile industry and women. Because women were the ones working in the textile mills they were the ones to use the machine, however some believed that this would infringe on their craft as skilled seamstresses. Others thought this to be a wonder and felt it freed them to pursue other things rather than sit home and sew clothes. In some way the women working with the machines gained a new skill, and were seen as important for the industry. The sewing machine allowed clothing to become a mass-produced item which increased the social acceptance of the sewing machine. Besides the commercial sewing machine, the household machine became very popular when it became electric. If you had electric in your home you could have a sewing machine and it was even easier and faster than the hand powered models. The sewing machine also helped other industries grow, for example the need for large quantities of thread for factory machines. Others benefited from sewing machines such as metal companies for needles and parts, varied machinists to repair the machines when needed, shipping companies got a lot more business because more products were being made. Advertising became an important part of the sales of the machine. Singer advertised at fairs, stores and even the circus to attract women to his machine. Advertisements for the sewing machine popped up everywhere, from new papers, flyers, and pamphlets.

2 Station II The Telephone "The Telephone," is the story of an invention that forever changed the way the world interacts. Alexander Graham Bell reluctantly presented his new device at America's Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. He didn't believe the world would be interested in his invention until he witnessed the startled and astonished reactions of the Exposition scientists and judges, one of whom declared Bell's invention the most amazing thing he had seen in America. Within a year of the centennial exhibition, Bell had installed 230 phones and had established the Bell Telephone Company. Four years after its creation, there were 60,000 phones; by the turn of the century there were two million. Despite its novelty and its rudimentary audio quality, the telephone took a quick and fierce hold on American society, and soon became a necessity. The first telephone operators were boys, who soon earned a reputation for being rude and abusive to each other as well as to the customers. The young women who replaced them did not swear and were said to be faster, and by 1910, New York Telephone had 6,000 women working on its switchboards. While the telephone joined teaching in finally bringing significant numbers of women into the workplace, there were rigid codes of dress and conduct the women had to follow. "You could only use certain phrases -- 'Number please' and 'Thank you,'" recalls a former operator, 98-year-old Marie McGrath. "The customer could say anything they wanted to you, and you would say, 'Thank you.'" By 1915, the wiring of America was complete. In an undertaking as monumental as the construction of the trans-american railroad, AT&T strung 14,000 miles of copper wire across the country. Thirty-nine years after the first demonstration of telephone, the 68-year-old Bell was summoned by AT&T to New York to recreate his first call -- this time calling his friend and partner Thomas Watson in San Francisco.

3 Station III The Airplane Born four years apart, brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright grew up in a small town in Ohio. They shared an intellectual curiosity and an aptitude for science, at a time when the possibility of human flight was beginning to look like a reality. Together, the Wright brothers developed the first successful airplane in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina and together they became national heroes. Considered the fathers of modern aviation, they developed innovative technology and inspired imaginations around the world. Invented in 1903, it is hard to imagine what life would be like without the airplane. Not only did it form as a catalyst for science to advance in the aerospace field, but the airplane also made the world a bit smaller, as we as the human race inched closer to a globalized community. The first powered aircraft, as we are all taught in middle school, was the brainchild of the Wright brothers in What is interesting is how fast science progressed beyond that. By 1914, just 11 years later, airplanes became militarized. 5 years after that, planes had begin to cross the Atlantic Ocean and commercial flights between Canada and the US operated frequently. It is amazing to see how just one invention changed the world in such a major way. Thanks in part to the airplane, it is possible for someone in America to order something made in China and receive it within 24 hours. Items can be shipped around the world for little cost in a blink of the eye. Airplanes have reduced the distance between cities, Europe and America used to be days away, now it is possible to travel to Paris for the weekend. Most of us have probably flown somewhere, and I know that all of us have been affected directly by the airplane. Have you ever ordered something? Chances are the parts were flown or shipped in to the factory that assembled them, and the product was then flown to you. Need something delivered fast? Next day air.

4 Station IV The Typewriter Originally intended as a machine for the blind, the typewriter eventually became something more to American society. Printing had been around since the invention of the printing press around 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg. Christopher Latham Sholes created a writing machine in 1867 that is considered the ancestor to all standard typewriters thereafter. He presented it to E. Remington & Sons with Densmore and they began manufacturing as it was an idea that would revolutionize business according to Benedict Remington. The first commercial typewriter was manufactured in 1873; the Remington No. 1 was very archaic. It only typed in capital letters and the user could not see the line they were typing. The typewriter indeed revolutionized business. It allowed for its expansion and sped up life, as most American technologies have seemed to do. More companies were taking the risk of manufacturing the machine and competition was rising. The typewriter allowed for more efficiency in shorthand, and eventually became a symbol of the American woman worker, as secretaries all over the country began using them. Clerical work defined women workers, and the typewriter became the main tool, or machine, that those women used in their production.

5 Station V The Light Bulb More than 150 years ago, inventors began working on a bright idea that would have a dramatic impact on how we use energy in our homes and offices. This invention changed the way we design buildings, increased the length of the average workday and jumpstarted new businesses. It also led to new energy breakthroughs -- from power plants and electric transmission lines to home appliances and electric motors. Can you imagine what life was like before you could simply flip a switch and turn on a light? How would not having electric light affect the way you live your life? In the 1870s, many inventors were working on creating lighting devices, but until Thomas Edison became involved, what existed was electric arc lighting. This kind of lighting system was one in which lights were connected in a series circuit, so if one failed, the whole circuit failed. Edison boasted that he would create a safe, reliable, and inexpensive electric light that would replace gaslight. On December 31, 1879, after years of work and thousands of experiments, Edison gave the first public demonstration of the incandescent light bulb at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. An incandescent light has a thread-like object, or filament, that gives off light when heated to incandescence (hot enough to emit light) by an electric current. Edison was able to spend so much time on this invention because, thanks to his reputation as a successful inventor, he had the support of some leading financiers of the day. J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts established the Edison Light Company and advanced Edison $30,000 for research and development.

6 Station VI The Elevator The most visible impacts of Elisha Otis s invention occur everyday when a person stops onto and off of an elevator. An even more subtle impact is the skyline of New York City or any other major metropolis in the world. The company that Elisha Graves Otis created is still in operation, but under a different name. There is no doubt that the concept of constructing buildings well beyond their means was only perpetuated by the technological developments of steal. Electricity allowed the buildings to be lit safely and to eventually be heated and cooled, but what was the elevator s role. The elevator allowed the skyscraper to reach new heights. Had the elevator not been utilized, the buildings would only be built as tall as a person can feasibly climb up stairs. At first, the poorest of people lives on the highest of floors due to this discomfort. Later on, the elevator allows the rich and wealthy to elevate them above the muck and dust of the streets below and to visually grasp the landscape that they control. The skyscraper arguably grew with the advancement and procurement of the passenger elevator. In 1889, the Eiffel Tower in France was completed and heralded as the tallest man-made structure in the world. The Eiffel Tower also sported an Otis Elevator to carry passengers to its viewing areas. This structure would not have been accessible has it not been for the elevator. In 1890 right after the invention of the Otis Electric Elevator, the largest building in the world, the World Building, reached 309 feet. By 1930, the Empire State Building s Otis Elevator allowed the structure to reach over 1,200 feet. Prior to this and the invention of the elevator, structures were limited to six stories; the buildings and their owner s greed could exceed this mark after the invention and perfection of the elevator.