PA Early Industrial Growth and Development

Chapter 5Lesson 15 – Geographic ObstaclesLesson 16 – Canal EraLesson 17 – Steam Engines for TransportationLesson 18 – Iron-Smelting and Oil Industries

Vocabulary• Industry – the production and sale of a good or service

for profit• Manufacture – process of making wares by hand or

machinery• Freight – cargo• Tollgate – a point where vehicles stop to pay a toll• Turnpike – an expressway on which tolls are paid• Ferry – a boat used to carry things over water• Prairie Schooner – covered wagon used by pioneers

Geographic Obstacles

• Success of industry is dependent upon geographic, economic, and technological factors

• Before the 1800’s, no good transportation system is in place– Dirt roads (rain, snow, mud, & ice)– Boats could only go downstream– West and east separated by mountains– Horses could only carry limited goods/supplies

Enter the Conestoga Wagon

Conestoga wagon timelinehttp://explorepahistory.com/show_results.php?show=38

• Built in Lancaster• The only wagon strong enough to carry

supplies and trade goods• Better roads were developed to accommodate

these heave vehicles• 6 or 8 horses• Could haul up to 7 tons (14,000 lbs) • Ferryboat crossings started to float wagons

across rivers on large rafts• Confused with prairie schooner

• Around 1800’s, stone surfaced road was built between Philadelphia and Lancaster

• Toll gate built to help pay for cost of road• By 1832, Pennsylvania had 3,000 miles of

turnpike– 2 months to build road– 12-15 miles traveled per day– Cost to walk on toll road - $ .02 for 11 miles– Cost of horse and rider - $ .16 for 10 miles– Free for children (school), church goers, clergymen,

and military

Vocabulary• Canal System – transportation system people

thought would be more effective than the Conestoga Wagon

• Canal – a waterway dug through the earth to connect lakes and rivers

• Portage – to carry or transport something over land for a distance

• Aqueducts – special water bridges built to carry the canal across river

• Locks – enclosure used in raising or lowering boats from level to level

• Bankrupt – having little or no money

Canal Era

• Canals were faster and more profitable• Canal Fever cost state $100,000,000• Nearly bankrupted the state building them• Railroads were used in places canals could not

be built• ALLEGHENY PORTAGE – railroad over the

Allegheny mountains– 2 sets of tracks – as one went up, the other went

down– 37 miles long, taking 28 hours to go from

Johnstown to Pittsburgh

Problems with Building Canals

• Tunnels had to be dug through hills• Aqueducts built to carry the canal across

rivers• Dams built to supply canal with steady water• Locks built to raise or lower

Steam Engines for Transportation

• John Fitch's First Steam Boat

Vocabulary• Steamboats – boat driven by steam power• Locomotives – self-propelled engine used to

draw trains along railway tracks• Steam Engine – engine having piston driven by

steam• Hearth Stove – invention used to burn coal• Anthracite – hard coal• Railroad – permanent road with rails fixed to

ties providing a track for special cars to ride on

• Steam Engine at Cornwall Iron Furnace

• John Fitch, of Philadelphia, first experimented with steamboat designs in the 1780s-1790s

• 1807 – Roger Fulton, native of Lancaster, first successful steamboat with a paddlewheel

Steam Locomotives Become King of Travel and Trade

• Faster and cheaper means of moving freight and passengers

• 1809 – railroads operated without a steam engine

• 1829 – steam engine was imported from England to Honesdale, PA– Problem was that engine was too heavy for the

wooden rails– Steel rails later introduced

• 1830s – steam locomotives were introduced• Matthias Baldwin built first train in Philadelphia

(16 mph)– Problems – wood fuel sent showers of sparks– Hearth stove introduced to burn coal– Anthracite (hard coal) was source for heat for

homes and steam for locomotives

• Railroads built in every county• By 1860, 2,600 miles of track• Steam engine timeline • http://explorepahistory.com/show_results.php

?show=38

• 1850s, canals and Conestogas could no longer compete with railroads

• Travel time from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh– Wagon – 6-8 weeks– Canal – 4 days– Railroad – 28 hours

Iron-Smelting and Oil Industries

• Baldwin Locomotive Works, Philadelphia, Pa., established 1831.

Iron-Smelting and Oil Industries Emerge

Vocabulary• Iron smelting – heating process to remove unwanted

parts from iron ore and fuse/melt together the leftover pure iron

• Coke – product of soft coal• Iron ore – natural resource which iron is made• Refined – to purity from a crude state• Kerosene – a thin oil produced from petroleum for a fuel

and a solvent• Petroleum – an oily flammable liquid obtained from wells

drilled in the ground and refined into gasoline and fuel oils

• Derricks – oil towers

• Railroads created a huge demand for iron• Iron produced from iron ore, smelted into

pure iron• Coke, byproduct of soft coal, was ideal fuel for

iron-smelting industry• Pittsburgh and Johnstown became centers for

the industry• Pittsburgh because of three-river system used

to move iron ore and coal

Oil is Discovered

• Samuel Kier – 1840s, began to bottle “rock oil” and sold it as a medicine

• 1850 – Samuel Kier built nations first oil refinery in Pittsburgh – kerosene

• 1859 – Edwin Drake and Oil Creek – first well– 69 ft hole drilled with a steam engine– Saturday, August 27, 1859 – quit drilling– Oil discovered floating on surface on Sunday

• 400 barrels a day• Titusville population went from 300 to several

thousands• 1870 – 5,000 oil towers sprang up in the area• Scientists discovered refined oil could be used

as a cheap burning fluid for lamps– Oil eventually replaced coal as a cheap source of

heat

• 1863, Drake left Titusville, lost his money and died poor