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A shuttle is a holder that carries horizontal threads back and forth between the vertical threads in weaving. John Kay's mechanical flying shuttle enabled one weaver to do the work of two.
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Using James Hargreaves's invention, a spinner could turn several spindles with one wheel and produce many threads. Machine-made thread was weak, so it was used only for the horizontal threads of fabric.
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Edmund Cartwright created the first water-powered loom. Others later improved on the speed and efficiency of looms and the quality of the fabrics.
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John Dalton theorized that atoms are the basic parts of elements and that each type of atom has a specific weight. He was one of the founders of atomic chemistry.
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Robert Fulton held the first commerically successful steamboat run. One advantage of a steamboat was that it could travel against a river's current. These boats soon began to travel rivers around the world.
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In 1830, the first steam locomotive wa put into operation in the United States. besides passengers, locomotives could rapidly transport tons of raw materials from mines to factories, and manufactured goods from factories to consumers and ports.
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Jospeh Lister pioneered the use of carbolic acid to kill bacteria in operating rooms and later directly in wounds. The rate of death by infection after surgery dropped from 50 to 15 percent.
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Alexander Graham Bell produced the first instrument that successfully carried the sounds of speech over electric wires. The telephone's design underwent a number of changes in its early years.
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The light bulb that Thomas A. Edison and his staff made was first used in businesses and public buildings that installed small lighting plants. Cities slowly built the electrical systems needed to power lights.
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Guglielmo Marconi's radio sent Morse code messages by electromagnetic waves that traveled through the air. It enabled rapid communication between distant places.
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The Wright Brothers built the first machine-powered aircraft, which burned gasoline. The edge of the wing was adjusted during flight to steer.
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By using a moving assembly linem Henry Ford produced an automobile that working people could afford to buy.
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Marie Curie won the Nobel prize in chemistry for her (and her late husband's) discovery of the elements polonium and radium. Their work paved the way for later discoveries in nuclear physics and chemistry.
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The Panama Canal shortened trips betweent he Atlantic and Pacific oceans by thousands of miles since ships no longer had to go around South America.
