Seeds of Invention

Making a better life
                 In Europe, the ordinary person had no way to gain a better life.  Peasants would always be peasants, and their kids would always be peasants.
                 Regular people did not even think they had a right to take the place of their "betters".
                 America changed this.  For the first time, ordinary people had a chance to make better lives for themselves and their children.  They believed they could become anything they wanted to be ---- an artist, a landowner, an inventor.
The Clock
                The clock became a symbol of the new country.  Most citizens worked hsard many hours of the day to improve the country and their lives.
                Clockmakers in the early 1800s made every clock by hand.  They were expensive.  But then, a group of Connecticut clockmakers began making the same, or standard, parts for every clock.
                In the early 19th century, U.S. weapons makers had begun using standard parts to make guns, a process called mass production.  When the clockmakers borrowed this idea, they were able to make clocks affordable for everyone.
The Gun
               The gun became a symbol of many victories: winning independence, hunting wildlife and taming the Wild West.  But many people in the 1800s worried about growing gun violence.
               Because of the new mass production techniques, arms manufacturers were able to make record numbers of guns during the Civil War.  At the beginning of the war, they were making about 30,000 small arms a year.  By the end of the war, they were making more than 700,000 a year.
The Train
               Although the steam locomotive was invented in England, American inventors improved on it.  They made trains that could travel up mountains and reach record speeds of 60 to 80 miles per hour.
Railroads
               In the middle of the Civil War, the U.S. Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act to help railroad companies link the country by train. 
               In 1869, a track from Omaha, Neb., going west was joined with a track going east from California.  The ease of traveling across the great distances of the U.S. changed the country.
               Before trains, even travel between cities was hard.  Carriages had to cross 2-foot-deep ruts.  They got stuck in the mud.  Many roads were so rough that passengers were tossed around the carriage for days.  Many threw up or suffered broken bones.
Solving Problems
               We have inherited the 19th-century experiments that worked and those that didn't.  But one of the best things we can learn from the people of the 1800s is that everything is possible withwork and creativity.
               People in the 1800s faced big problems, just as we do today.  But they saw this as a challenge.  Americans worked together to solve problems.