Cowan 5

The development of technology is not always based on science.

• it can be based on craft knowledge rather than science
• science is a specific kind of knowledge--scientific laws, not just ordinary experience
• I'm interested in what the person doing the development actually knows and uses
• can you draw a clear line between technology and science?
• technology changes the environment (invention), science is knowledge about how the universe works (discovery)
  
• in recent years some science and some technology have come together--the two circles have begun to overlap (Cowan calls that technoscience)
  

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In order to have factories, there needed to be better transportation to distribute factory-made goods over a wide area

• again England took the lead
• the technologies were copied in the United States
  
• U.S. conditions were different particularly because the distances were much greater

In all of these industrial revolution topics look at how technology came from England to the U.S. and had to be adapted to meet American conditions

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Transportation technology in England:

• improved roads built in large numbers 1750-1815 (about 1000 miles), reduced transportation costs 20-30%
• Canals
  • The Duke of Bridgewater's Canal started in 1759--7 miles but had to cross a river valley.  People thought this was a wild dream, but built in 5 years.  Very profitable--halved the cost of coal in Manchester
  • canal building boom 1750-1800--by 1830 England had 3875 miles of navigable water (though only 1/3 of that was canals).  The Oxford canal paid a 30% return for 30 years.
  • provided much cheaper transportation of bulky goods

 canals in Birmingham

• railroad in England:
  • locomotives tried in coal mines first, but were generally too heavy for existing tracks used by horse-drawn cars
  • 1825 Stockton and Darlington Railroad was first common carrier to use locomotives
  • in 1829 the Liverpool and Manchester had a contest to test locomotives.  Thousands of people came to watch.  Won by the Rocket designed by Robert Stephenson.

  1829 Rocket

• railroad spread rapidly after that 
•  National Railroad Museum

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Now consider how things were different in the United States:

Turnpikes in the U.S.:

• First turnpikes (improved toll road) in the United States in Pennsylvania and Virginia in 1795.  1796-1814 Mass. chartered 97 turnpike companies.
• in 1775 it took a week to go from Boston to New York by land, in 1800 it took four days.
• cleared and leveled land, built simple wooden bridges (even floating bridges to cross deep ponds).  Large rivers were crossed by ferry.
  • 1785 bridge over the Connecticut at Bellows Falls--wooden covered bridge 365 feet, 50 feet above river--build by a simple carpenter.
  • Bridges longer than a single stringer were built first with arches then with trusses--Burr Truss was one American innovation that combined the two.

  A Burr Truss Covered Bridge

Canals in the U.S.:

• Many proposals for canals in late 18th century America
• First canal completed was the Santee Canal in 1800, connecting Charleston with Columbia
• the person who knew how to built a canal was Christian Senf: came from Europe during the American revolution as a Hessian mercenary with knowledge of military engineering
  
• With a couple of exceptions developed to meet military needs, there were no engineering schools until the 1860s--the expertise to build canals did not exist except for mill races and a few short canals around rapids.

• Such engineering as there was learned by apprenticeship, and there was not a clear distinction between an engineer and a mechanic.  Most engineers were entrepreneurs, not employees of larger businesses (there weren't yet any large businesses until the railroads)
• Bridges were built by the local carpenter, and the canals built for water-powered grain mills or to carry boats short distances around rapids did not use much technology. They were often built with local businessmen or civic leaders (the first canal on the Merrimack at Amoskeag was build by a judge of common pleas) who had no experience.

The Middlesex canal--27 miles joining the Charles River with the junction of the Concord and Merrimack, with 20 locks, 8 aqueducts, and 48 bridges.   Map ,  History, Visitor Center

•  Chartered in 1793 by Boston merchants who wanted to bring more trade through Boston.  Director: Loammi Baldwin,  a retired colonel who dabbled in cabinetmaking, surveying and experimentation and had a Harvard-education in Latin and Greek.
• A local surveyor and magistrate, Samuel Thompson, set out to survey the route, using a compass, his eye, and his best judgment.  In one 6 mile stretch he measured the route with a rise of 16 1/2 feet.  A later survey turned up a descent of 25 feet.
• You can't build a major canal without specialized knowledge
  • They had only simple tools: axes, hoes, shovels, mattocks, crowbars, scythes, and pitchforks, cold chisels for cutting stone.
  • They did not know how to excavate efficiently, how to seal the canal so that it would not leak, or what was the best shape for retaining walls and the best material for locks.
  • They did not know how to make mortar that would hold under water or how to design the machinery to open and close the valve gates of the locks.
• They needed an expert.  In 1793 they hired William Weston, an experienced Englishman who had recently come to America to supervise the construction of a canal in Philadelphia.
  • He agreed to come to Boston in the summer of 1794 because the Philadelphia project had run out of money.  For six weeks work and travel time he was paid $2107.60.
  • sent in advance the key instruments--a spade, an improved wheelbarrow, and his own leveling instrument
  • 
• The wheelbarrow got lost in transit, and no one could figure out how to use the leveling instrument until Weston arrived himself.
• When he arrived he did the necessary surveying and taught the locals how to solve their problems--taught them the specialized knowledge of canal engineers
  • sealing the canal by puddling with clay in many thin layers
  • he arranged for machinery for the lock gates to be cast in a foundry in New York from molds he made himself
• The Middlesex canal was finally successfully completed in 1803 at a total cost of $1,164,200.  It was a moderate financial success, but, more important, the investors profited by increased trade through Boston.  "The trip to New Hampshire took five days, and passage back to Charlestown took four days, and while the cost of carrying goods from Boston by a team of oxen was $20 per ton, the rate of boating freight on the canal cost from $5 to $13." ( source )
• Three people who worked with Weston went on the be successful canal engineers--Loammi Baldwin's son Loammi Baldwin Jr., Benjamin Wright, and Robert Brooke

 Middlesex Canal

 image credit

• Planning for the Erie canal began about 1804, construction authorized in 1816 after much unskilled study.
• Completed in 1825--at 363 miles the longest canal in the world.
• Also a major source of engineering training--by 1825 all but one principal engineer had worked their way up in the canal system and at least 11 of the 24 principal engineers went on to other engineering work.

 Celebration of the Completion of the Erie Canal

Steam Boats in the U.S. 

• experiments as early as 1780s both in England and American, but the need was greater in America.
• a lot of varied speculation, including an 1785 paper by Benjamin Franklin in which he concluded that paddlewheels were inefficient and proposed jet propulsion.
• This put John Fitch on the wrong track--his mechanic convinced him not to try water jets but he worked on crank and paddles instead of paddle wheels.  he did demonstrate a boat in 1787 and run boats on the Mississippi in a commercial operation as early as 1790, although he ultimately failed.
• Robert Fulton trained in England and France (he had gone to London originally to study art but ended up studying civil engineering).  He built his first commercially successful steamboat for the Hudson starting operation in 1807 (with a promise of a 20 year monopoly from the NY legislature) with a 133 ft. boat called the Clermont with twin sidewheels.  He used a Watt engine and built his boats for passenger comfort and speed.

  The Clermont, from an early history of steam power

• He also ran boats on the Mississippi, but they didn't do very well.
• Other engineers solved the problems of adaptation of the steam boat to western conditions .
• The key innovation was the high-pressure steam engine invented by Oliver Evans in 1801.  Dominated western steamboats because less fouled by muddy water.
• Gradual development of shallow hull and flat bottom, upper decks, horizontal engine (easier to connect to a stern paddlewheel.  Model
• Extremely profitable--sometimes 100% a trip.  Henry Shreve did the best job of putting all these innovation together and also invented the snagboat . clearing snags
• The steam boat was the first time the United States took the lead in developing a major new technology

 removing snags

The railroad in the U.S.:
 

• started with short horsedrawn lines--eg. Granite Railroad, Quincy, Mass., 2 miles long, also in coal mines

 Best Friend of Charleston, 1830

• From Charleston to Hamburg on the Savannah River--136 miles opened in 1833.  The South Carolina Canal and Rail-Road Company hired an engineer names Horatio Allen who not only built the first domestic-built locomotive, The Best Friend of Charleston , but also was a pioneer in the 1830s in adapting locomotive design to American conditions by inventing the swivel truck.
• the railroad met a tremendous need and grew quickly

started with the problem that English locomotives were too heavy and rigid--distances were long, iron track was expensive.  Inventions concentrated on the problem of cost/mile

• wooden ties in loose gravel instead of granite blocks
• T-rail--requires less iron and skilled labor

 railroad construction (image HD217)

• equalizing lever suspension (1839) to prevent damage on rough roadbeds
• swivel truck--jointed locomotive for sharp curves
• engines that burned anthracite (though wood lasted a long time)
• cowcatcher--because roads were not walled off.  Isaac Dripps first design impaled the cow on prongs--difficulty of extricating the cow alive led to design to sweep the cow aside
• gauge standardized by law in 1863--30 years after England.  Issue of states rights but also Erie Railroad deliberately chose 6 ft. gauge to prevent diversion of traffic
• standard time 1883

 The John Bull,  imported in 1831

Government helped with the huge expense.

• State charters gave privileges of eminent domain, sometimes monopoly, no taxes--about 20% of railroad capital came from state purchase of stock and loans
• Many projects failed, eg. Stumphouse Tunnel north of Walhalla
• Federal congress started early debating land grants for a transcontinental railroad --debates over the constitution and sectional jealousies over the route.
• In 1850 there was a federal land grant for a railroad from Illinois to Alabama, but the transcontinental railroad was blocked by route partisans until the civil war.
• 1862 Pacific Railway act set a route from Omaha Nebraska to Sacramento Calif, completed May 10, 1869 .  Other routes in 1880s.

 A timeline of railway history