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Contributor: Danielle Childers. Lesson ID: 10157
Though the Industrial Revolution had some negative impacts, this lesson focuses on how inventions created positive change in the U.S. You will research an invention and create a project about it!
Look around your kitchen and living room — 120 years ago those rooms would have looked very different! Imagine doing without most of the conveniences you have.
The Industrial Revolution was a time when many machines and appliances we use today were created in mass amounts, unlike any other time in history!
Before the 1820s, most people were farmers, living off their land.
People lived simply, having just the means necessary for surviving. There were specialized jobs, like clothes making, but the process of creating goods was long because everything was done by hand!
Things changed in the U.S. in the late 1800s. People began to see machines being used in Great Britain to mass-produce goods in a faster, easier way.
Once this idea sparked, people in the U.S. started building machines to more quickly do what a single person would have done previously.
To see this change, watch the beginning of the video below.
About 400,000 patents, protections given to inventors for rights over their invention, were handed out from 1860-1890. The age of mass production and factories, known as the Industrial Revolution, had begun!
Though the Industrial Revolution was not all positive, it was a time that created society as we now know it. Many inventions and technologies enhancing our modern lives were invented during this time period, but there were many problems.
For example, there were no laws about the age of workers in the factories and how long they could work. Children your age were working on very dangerous machinery, 10 hours a day with only 1 or 2 breaks.
Watch this next video to learn more.
Continue on to the Got It? section when you are ready.
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