Peoples of the world have been constantly fabricating and improving the tools they use for everyday existence. Those our forefathers used to harvest their crops, build their homes and protect themselves are much different from those we use today.
All of our daily lives are influenced by machinery: When I wake up in the morning I have a shower (steam engine), next I get dressed (cotton gin) and I walk downstairs to the kitchen to eat my breakfast. A kitchen involves an oven, stove, microwave, toaster and refrigerator (all electricity), after breakfast my mother drives me to school (automobile). At school there are computers, pianos, overhead projectors and plows for maintaining the playing field. After my mother drives me home from school I sit on the couch and watch television, and while I"m doing my homework I listen to music. These are just some of the many simple uses of machinery in an ordinary persons life.
Webster's defines a machine as: apparatus usually powered by electricity, designed to perform a particular task; vehicle, such as an automobile or aircraft; controlling system an organization.
The Industrial Revolution began the expansion of Western Europe and worldwide development. Since the Industrial Revolution people have been focusing on making inventions and simplifying life for themselves and others. Manufacture began in 1698 when Thomas Savery invented the very first crude steam engine. Steam engines powered all early locomotives, steamboats and factories, and therefore acted as the foundation of the Industrial Revolution. Following his invention came great social change as one machine could supply entire cities with river water in the most convenient ways.
Eli Whitney created a machine in 1793, which changed life in America for the better. He constructed a machine called the cotton gin; it quickly and easily separated cottonseed from cotton fiber. Whitney's cotton gin was capable of maintaining an output of 23 kg of cleaned cotton per day.
