Ben Grimes, age 15, of Burlington, Vt., for his question:
WHEN DID THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION START IN THE U.S.?
First industrialization outside Europe occurred in the British colonies that became the United States. The colonies had a wide range of industries with the most successful being shipbuilding. By about 1776, a third of all Britain's ships were being built in America.
The industrial revolution started in the land that was to become the United States around 1750. Iron manufacturing was one of the early major industries in the colonies. Some of the American companies even exported iron to Great Britain.
By the early 1800s, the United States had developed machines and machine tools that could produce standard parts required for mass production.
Industrial production, especially of textiles and light metals, started to increase sharply during the 1820s. The greatest increase in manufacturing took place in the southern New England states.
Industrialization benefited from improvements in rivers and canals. These improvements reduced the cost of transporting goods to and from the interior of the country.
Beginning in the 1830s, industrialization increased quickly throughout the eastern United States. The iron industry in Pennsylvania made especially great advances as iron was adapted for agricultural tools, railroad track and a variety of structural uses.
By the 1850s, the quality and price of American iron enabled U.S. ironmakers to compete with Great Britain in the international market.
During the mid 1800s, the agricultural, construction and mining industries expanded as the population spread westward. Manufacturing accounted for less than a fifth of all U.S. production in 1840. But by 1860 it accounted for a third.
Industrialization grew quickly. By the late 1800s, the United States had become the largest and most competitive industrial nation in the world.
By 1870, the trends of the Industrial Revolution were clearly marked. Industry had advanced faster than agriculture. Goods were being made by power driven machinery and assembled in factories where management planned operations and the workers did little more than tend the machines.
Capital controlled industrial production, but labor was being allowed to organize to fight for better working conditions, for shorter hours and for higher wages.
The railroad, the improved sailing ships powered by steam and the telegraph had reduced the cost and time of transportation and communication.
Living standards of the workers in industrial counties were higher than they had ever been. Populations grew rapidly and more people lived in cities than ever before.
Wherever the Industrial Revolution spread, it destroyed a traditional way of life. But as the revolution progressed in each country, more and more workers came to accept the routines and disciplines of industrialization.