Selective Breeding
Interchangeable Parts
In the mid 1700’s
Robert Bakewell was one
of the farmers who proved
that selectively breeding
animals
could
help
livestock
raisers
to
improve the quality of
their products. In England
Mr. Bakewell did many
experiments on his farm
and came out with many
great outcomes of much
better breeds of draft
horses, sheep and cattle. Selective breeding happens when you choose
the right pair of animals, which have beneficial traits to breed a new
generation. For example, if you have a large male cow and a large
female cow their breed will be an even larger cow. When this happens,
the new generation then produces finer quality of milk, meat and many
other more products. Selective breeding can be done to any animals that
humans control.
Selective breeding was both an advantage to humans and animals
in many ways, but it was still a disadvantage mainly for animals.
Selective breeding has very high importance to farmers even today to
raise the finest quality of animals. Before selective breeding was
introduced the animals were kept on farms for mostly providing wool
and milk, but later on it raised a lot of improvement for livestock and
market pricing and value. Not only did it have positive effects but
negative as well. “Continuous in-breeding and selective breeding of
particular genes runs the risk of losing some of the other genes from the
gene pool altogether, which is irreversible.” When this happens, it is
called in-breeding depression. Selective breeding was a great method
that was invented and is still used today.
In 1798, Eli Whitney discovered a way of making
interchangeable parts for guns. After he was neglected, and could not
get paid for his invention of the Cotton Gin, he moved up towards the
north. As war was approaching against France, the U.S government was
hopeless and was in great need of muskets. Craftsmen only made a
thousand guns in three years using individual parts. But when Eli
Whitney arrived he was asked to make ten thousand muskets in three
years. “He devised a system in which unskilled workmen used machine
tools to each produce one particular part of the gun.” After this process
was done the interchangeable parts which were made then combined to
assemble into a musket. Whitney could not keep his promise of ten
thousand guns at the end, but his system turned out as a very productive
system.
Interchangeable parts were very effective; they helped speed up
production, made repairs much easier and gave more opportunities for
unskilled
workmen.
This system made a
way of standardizing
parts of a machine or
object to make it easier
for
further
replacement. Not only
was it useful for
replacing things but
also
for
making
duplicates of objects.
Earlier, before the
interchangeable parts were invented, there was only a way of making
many types of things but not the same thing. For example, if there was
need of making two pairs of chairs it would be much more efficient then
making two different types of chairs. This way it took less time to make
a duplicate of the object. The new method of Eli Whitney saved a lot of
time and effort.
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10
References
Alexander Graham Bell [Photograph]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://inventors.about.com/‌
od/‌bstartinventors/‌a/‌telephone.htm
Ament, P. (2006, January 11). Telephone. In The great idea finder. Retrieved from http:// www.
ideafinder.com/‌history/‌inventions/‌telephone.htm
Bakewell Robert. (2010). World book student. Retrieved November 28, 2010,
http://worldbookonline.com/‌student/‌article?id=ar728179&st=selective+breeding
Bellis, M. (n.d.). The history of the Telephone - Alexander Graham Bell. In Inventors.
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Burchill, S. (n.d.). Improvements in Farming in the 18th century. In The open door
web site. Retrieved from http://www.saburchill.com/‌history/‌chapters/‌IR/‌
005.html
[Cotton Gin] [Photograph]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://en.wikivisual.com/‌index.php/‌
Cotton_gin
[Diagram of crop rotation] [Diagram]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://aberaeronallotments.
org/‌ basics_preparation.htm
Early 19th-century gun-making [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.uh.edu/‌
engines/‌epi1 252.htm
Effects. (n.d.). The path of innocence. Retrieved from http://library.thinkquest.org/‌trio/‌
TTQ02189/‌effects.htm#
Harkin, T. (n.d.). Child labor in U.S history. In Child labor public education project.
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continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/‌ laborctr/‌child_labor/‌about/‌us_history.html
Hines, L. (n.d.). Breaker boys [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://www.continuetolearn.
uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/us_history.html
[Housing in the Industrial Revolution] [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved fromhttp://www.schools
history.org.uk/IndustrialRevolution/lifeduringindustrialrevolution.htm
Industrial Revolution [Painting]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.flickr.
com/photos/blvesboy/2121487586/
from
[Industrial Revolution] [Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.industrial
revolutionresearch. com/
Ten Significant
Innovations and
Changes in the
Industrial
Revolution
Mahima Wadhwa
The Industrial Revolution was a period of time from the 18th
Life during the Industrial Revolution. (n.d.). Schools history. Retrieved from http://www.
schoolshistory.org.uk/IndustrialRevolution/lifeduringindustrialrevolution.htm
century to 19th century in which major changes were made.
[Photo taken inside a mine] [Photograph]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://library.think
quest.org/‌05 aug/‌01419/‌mines.html#
These
Railroads. (2006). Thinkquest. Retrieved from Thinkquest website:
http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/01419/mines.html#
manufacturing, and also technology had a great impact on
Reynoldson, F. (1991). The Agricultural Revolution. In Conflict and change (p. 17).
New York, NY: Simon and Schuster Young Books.
[Selective breeding] [Photograph]. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.saburchill.com/‌history/‌
chapters/‌IR/‌005.html
St. Thomas Trains [Photograph]. (1850). Retrieved from http://www.execulink.com/‌~
firby/‌
history.htm
Understanding the Industrial Revolution. (n.d.). Cotton times. Retrieved from
http://www.cottontimes.co.uk/housingo.htm
11
changes
were
made
in
transport,
agriculture,
socioeconomic and cultural conditions, beginning in United
Kingdom, and then started spreading out throughout Europe,
North America, and eventually throughout the world.
Railroads
Crop Rotation
George Washington Carver was the man who came up with the
idea of not wasting land while farming and thinking of a way to re-use
the land. This way came out to be Crop Rotation. Crop Rotation is one
of the oldest systems in which you plant a different type of crop on the
same field each year. The rotation of crops goes in a planned order and
can vary for many years. When they would rotate the crops, each one
would take many
types of chemicals
and minerals from
the soil or even
would leave some.
Before
crop
rotation existed the
old way of farming
included
having
“one field fallow (which means resting) every third year, so that it
would not become drained of nourishment”. After that, since the system
of crop rotation occurred, you did not have to leave any land fallow
because the variation of crops each year put enough nutrition into the
soil.
The crop rotation system was one of the inventions, which were
really helpful. With this system, it improved the amount of food
produced since you could grow more crops and get better yield from the
land. Since crop rotation occurred the typical total of land that could be
farmed, expanded by one-third, which was considered a very large
jump. A major impact on economic bases of crop rotation was that the
yield improved a lot more. For example, “Rotating to a different crop
such as wheat on barley ground usually results in higher grain yields
when compared to continuous cropping of wheat.” As each crop either
left or took some nutrition and minerals from the soil, the crops became
healthier. Crop rotation is still been done today as it is a much more
efficient way of farming.
9
2
Change in Environment
Coal Mining
The
Industrial
Revolution had a
major impact on
earth’s
eco
system
and
human’s
connection with
the environment.
Even
though
industrialization
changed
everything
of
people’s lifestyles by development it also changed people’s health,
energy use and sanitation. “It started in the mid-1700s in Great Britain
when machinery began to replace manual labor and fossil fuels replaced
wind, water, and wood primarily for the manufacture of textiles and the
development of iron making processes.” All of this spread out in the
1800s around Europe, North America and many other places around the
world.
Urbanization changed the environment in many ways. When
mills and factories started during the industrial revolution a lot of people
moved to the cities from the countryside for work. This caused for more
housing which led to more water and air pollution. This also led
factories for having more machinery usage. The traveling of people on
railroads caused more usage of coal. All of this led to more pollution.
The agricultural life was also influenced by the industrialization, as more
inventions had been accessible for farming. The new techniques of
farming “caused the soil to degenerate and increased the amount of land
used in farming - ruining animal habitats.” There were many affects
done by the Industrial Revolution to the environment and they still carry
on till today.
It was considered
that coal was mined in
England until the period of
Romanization.
In
the
medieval times, it was
most used for fuel mainly
in London. Though it
caused pollution they still
kept on using coal as there
was shortage of wood.
This continued on in
Britain as the lack of wood led into an increase in coal as fuel for many
sorts of things. As there was more need for coal there was also need in
more mining. Mining was a very difficult job to do until the Industrial
Revolution. To do mining close to the surface was not a big possibility.
Miners would have to travel very deep underground; nevertheless, as
they would mine deeper they would come across water seepage.
However, It was necessary for the water to be “removed either by
dragging bucket loads of water up the shaft or by building an adit in the
side of the mountain to drain the water.”
Coal Mining was one of the most essential industries at the time
of the Industrial Revolution as it supplied the most important material
known as fuel—coal. Coal was a very demanding supply as it was
needed to produce steel, the main building material back then, also it
was required to function steam engines, and lastly it was used for
creating light and heat. But not only did it help people, it was a very
dangerous and difficult job to do. The Industrial Revolution brought in
some new technological changes, but the industry still relied more on
manual labor. There were many times when miners would get trapped
by cave-ins or even mines would flood when tunnels were dug deep
underground. The most threatening was the fear of gas explosions.
3
8
Housing
5
Telephone
6
Cotton Gin
7
Child Labor
4