-Summarize each of the inventions you studied this week and how they impacted history. Also, explain the most interesting thing you learned this week, and why.
Lesson 26: The Platform Scale.
Scales have been used since ancient times, but they became important to the economy in the Middle Ages. That is where Thaddeus Fairbanks comes in. He was born in 1796 in Massachusetts.His father owned a mill where he worked with his father and learned about machines. When Thaddeus Fairbanks was 29 he set up shop and became a wheelwright. He built and foundry in 1823 and invented a stove and cast iron plow. His brother Erastus came to work for him and they opened a company named the E&T Fairbanks company. He and his brother became interested in growing and processing hemp. Thaddeus invented scales to solve problem of to large counter weights and invented the Platform Scale in 1830. It measures large and heavy objects and uses levers. It was functional and accurate. Demand was strong for a scale that solved the problem of counter weights to weigh heavy things and it sold well and industrialization continued demand.Thaddeus soled them overseas and sales slowed in the Civil War but by the 1860s scales were installed almost everywhere. Today The Fairbanks company still sells scales to the railway and Platform Scales are important to the auto industries. They changed how scales where used and enhance production lines.
Lesson 27: The Railroad T-Rail.
Robert Stevens was born in New Jersey in 1787. His father was John Stevens and Robert went to kings collage but dropped out at age 17. He worked with his father to build steamships and improved them as well. In 1830 he became president of a railroad company And he invented the T-Rail in 1831. The T-Rail gets its name from the fact that it looks like an upside down T. The heaver the rail the heaver load it can carry. Railroad ties are spaced 18 inches apart and tie plates fasten rails to the ties. The Stevens rail became the American standard because it was sturdy and easy to install. Charles Vignoles introduced the T-rail to England and there it became known as the Vignoles Rail. Railroads also played a role in the Civil War. The South’s railroads were less developed the the North’s and Southern trains degraded quicker than expected. The T-Rail helped the North win the Civil War and it has helped change the world.
Lesson 28: Multi-Coil Magnets
William Sturgeon invented Electromagnets in 1824 but they were limited because the wire lacked insulation.That’s where this lesson starts with a man named Joseph Henry. He was born In 1797 in New York. His father died and he lived with his grandfather until he was 13 then he became an apprentice to a watch maker. He was interested in science at age 16 and he became a state engineer after collage. He became a teacher of math and science at age 29 in 1826. He invented the Multi-Coil Magnet in 1831. William Sturgeon coated the wire with varnish and had to loosely coil the wire around the conductor but Henry could wrap it tightly and closer together because insulated wire increases coil density. Joseph Henry became the first secretary at the Smithsonian institution. Later a young man came to him seeking advice about an invention he was building, that man’s name was Alexander Gram Bell and the invention was the telephone. This was the most interesting thing I learned this week because without Joseph Henry we might not have the telephone.
Lesson 29: The Mechanical Reaper.
Reaping is the first step to harvesting. It used to take 1 hour just to thresh. 1/4 of human labor was devoted just to threshing.In the 1600s reaping was done by hand or sickle,scythes were used later. It took all day or more just to reap, it was time for someone to fix this problem. Cyrus McCormik was born in Virginia in 1809. His father Robert McCormik was an inventor and farmer who spent years trying to invent a reaper at last his wife said let Cyrus finish the building. Cyrus with the help of a slave named Joe Anderson patented the Mechanical Reaper in 1834. It was pulled by horses while a moving knife cut the wheat and tossed it off to the side. It reduced limits on farming and increased profit. It was slow to spread because there was some reluctance. So Cyrus McCormik offered a money back guarantee with the purchase of a reaper. If the reaper worked, you payed the money and you got a good piece of farming equipment. It it did not work you sent it back and kept your money. The reaper changed farming and became the harvester.
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