【英美概况】【课堂笔记】美国科技Technology in America

Technology in America

McCormick's Revolutionary Reaper

Making Illinois the Hub of Agriculture

The McCormick reaper was a boon to wheat farmers; the first model could do the work of three men. As Cyrus McCormick perfected and improved the capabilities of the new implement, more land was put into production.

Technology is the use of science and engineering to produce something that is effective and useful.

America changed from an agricultural country in the early 19th century to the most advanced technological country in the late 20th century. This was a remarkable development. Why did technology develop so successfully in the United States of America?

Early 19th century

There were many inventions during this period such as Eli Whitney‟s cotton gin and also his mass production process for guns. Whitney and many other inventors are very well-known by Americans. However, there were many other people, not so well known, who played a significant role in the development of the inventions into industries which were subsequently economically successful.

Many of the original inventors had problems with their new inventions, and it often took many years, plus the efforts of many other people, to make the new invention work well. For instance the mechanical reaper (invented by McCormick) took 20 years of development and improvement to become genuinely effective in harvesting large areas of wheat.

It is the consequences of these inventions that are most important for us to understand.

The mechanical reaper worked best when it had to harvest large areas of wheat. Farmers began joining their farms together to make very big farms. As a result, America was soon producing very large quantities of wheat and other crops very efficiently. Because such large quantities of crops were being produced, America had to develop a better system of transportation. The answer was the railroad system. This system was able to move large quantities of crops, very efficiently.

The development of the railroad required engineers and scientists to overcome many problems. The solution to the problems took many years to achieve and involved many people. Although many people know that James Watt invented the steam engine, fewer know the names of the engineers and scientists who developed it into a really useful and successful machine.

Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century

From the invention of a new device (such as the electric light bulb) to the practical use of the invention not only requires a lot of research and development but also requires highly effective manufacturing skills. America was at the forefront of developing the …science‟ of management. The …science of management‟ used critical analysis of the whole manufacturing process, so that products could be made in the most efficient way. This