In the early 1800s America underwent a small industrial revolution that not only paved the way for our major industrial revolution of the 20th century, but for the revival of slavery and the civil war as well. Upon examination of the late 18th-19th centuries in America it becomes apparent that the invention of the cotton gin, the steamboat, and the canal were all major technological developments which affected American industry almost as much as the factory system and mass production.
Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1793 made the widespread cultivation of cotton possible, which transformed the South and fed the world's cotton factories for decades. The concept was fairly simple; the cotton, embedded with seeds, moved through interlocking combs, moving in opposite directions, thus separating the seeds from the (now useable) cotton. Before Whitney's invention this arduous process had to be done by hand. This "absurdly simple contrivance" almost instantly transformed agriculture. With a cotton gin a slave could clean 50 times as much cotton as by hand. Son even larger models were available. The machines were, in fact, so easy to construct that Whitney was never able to enforce his patent rights effectively. Rival manufacturers pirated their work and countless farmers built their own gins. The effectiveness of the gin speaks for itself; in 1790 about 3,000 bales were produced in the United States. In 1801 about 100,000 bales were produced. Cotton stimulated the economy of the entire nation and revolutionized southern agriculture.
Rafts and flatboats were adequate for downstream travel, but the only practical solution to upstream travel was the steamboat. In 1807, Robert Fulton constructed the North River Steam Boat, famous to history as the Clermont. The Clermont was 142 feet long, 18 feet wide, and drew 7 feet of water. It could push along at a stead 5 miles an hour. Nothing about it was radically new, but Fulton brought the essentials into proper balance and thereby produced an efficient vessel.
