Invention Pit Stops
Display these pit stops through out
your room for students to visit during
our journey through Georgia.
Cotton Gin
Inventor: Eli Whitney
How it Worked
Advantages
The cotton gin had spiked teeth on a
1. People didn't have to
revolving cylinder that pulled the cotton
separate cotton by hand
through small openings to separate the
anymore.
cotton seeds from the lint. At the same
time, a brush removed the lint from the 2. Cotton fiber made from the
spikes.
lint could be produced much
Why was this invention
important?
1.The invention of the cotton gin
meant that people didn't have to
separate cotton by hand anymore.
2.It also meant that the cotton
fiber made from the lint could be
produced much faster than ever
before.
faster than ever before.
3. Cotton soon became a huge
cash crop in South.
Disadvantages
1. Growing cotton became so
profitable for the planters
that it greatly increased their
demand for both land and
slave labor.
Cotton Gin
Mechanical Reaper
How it Worked
Inventor: Cyrus McCormick
The first reapers cut the standing grain
Advantages
and, with a revolving reel, swept it onto a
1. Allowed farmers to harvest crops
platform from which it was raked off into
six times faster.
piles by a man walking alongside. It could
harvest more grain than five men using the 2. It enabled Georgian's to work
large amounts of land for more
earlier cradles.
profit.
The reaper was eventually replaced by the
3. It was the first step in a transition
self-propelled combine, operated by one
from hand labor to the
man, which cuts gathers, threshes, and
mechanized farming of today.
sacks the grain mechanically.
Why was this invention important?
The Mechanical Reaper allow farmers to
harvest crops much faster.
The Mechanical Reaper was the inventions
that would change farm work from hours of
back-breaking labor by introducing the
farmers to a new invention called the
mechanical reaper.
4. It brought about an industrial
revolution, as well as a huge
change in agriculture.
Disadvantages
1. Georgian's want more land and
more slaves to work the land.
A major economic development during
the early 1800s was the building of
railroads. Before the railroads were built,
people traveled on horses, boats, or
stagecoaches.
• Freight was sent to market by riverboats,
ferries, or wagon trains. Many of
Georgia’s roads were stagecoach trails
cut where Indian footpaths had been.
Most of the roads ran from east to west.
Stagecoaches ran regularly from
Savannah to Athens in the north and
Brunswick in the south. Augusta was the
main east-west gateway into the state.
• A main stagecoach line connected
Augusta and Columbus by way of
Macon, but the stagecoaches could only
cover thirty to forty miles a day. Roads in
wet, swampy places had logs across
them and were known as plank roads.
The federal government built some major
highways in the early 1800s. These
roads were called turnpikes because
they had “pikes” or gates.
Transportation
Improves
Turnpikes
Travelers had to pay a fee at each
pike to remain on the road, much
like present-day toll roads. Among
these turnpikes was the Old
Federal Road, built in 1815 to run
from Athens north through
Cherokee territory into Tennessee.
However, even the “good” roads
were poor until the late 1800s.
Turnpikes and
Better Roads
Why were Ferries Important?
Ferries were an important mode
of transportation. These unique
horse-drawn log rafts carried
travelers across the rivers at their
shallowest points, especially
along the Flint River.
How did Ferries operate in
Deep Water?
In deeper river waters, the ferries
used a pulley and cable system.
That required a strong back and
arm as the ferry operator pulled
the raft across the river.
Ferries
At first, rail travel was, perhaps, the
least favored means of transportation.
In 1830, there were only 13 miles of
laid track in the United States, and
those belonged to the Baltimore &
Ohio Railroad. But just ten years
later, there were 3,300 miles of track.
Railways
Change Georgia
Who Owned most of Georgia’s
Railway track in the 1800’s?
Most of the track in Georgia belonged
to the Western and Atlantic Railroad,
which was chartered in 1836.
That point was called Terminus,
which literally means the end of a
railroad line. Today it is known as
Atlanta.
What Major points did the Western
and Atlantic Railroad Connect?
The Western and Atlantic ran from a
point near present-day Chattanooga,
Tennessee, to a point on the
southeastern bank of the
Chattahoochee River.
What was the end of
the line?
Why were railways an important
technological advancement for
people in Georgia?
The railroads dramatically shortened
travel time for both passengers and
freight, reducing to hours trips that
had previously taken days.
Railways in
Georgia