Transcript Rural Life Changes Chapter 5, Lesson 1

Rural Life Changes
Chapter 5, Lesson 1
Mr. Julian’s 5th Grade class
Essential Question
How
did new machines
and technologies affect
the lives of people
living in rural areas?
Places
Walnut Grove, Virginia
 Ahwahnee Valley, California
 Appleton, Wisconsin

People
Cyrus McCormick
 L.O. Colvin
 Gustav de Laval
 Ellen Eglui
 Aaron Montgomery Ward
 Richard Sears
 Alvah C. Roebuck

Vocabulary
Manual labor
 Mechanization
 Reaper
 Threshing machine

Mechanization on the Farm
Farming in the early 1800’s was difficult.
 Manual labor, or doing a job by hand,
without the help of machines, was the
only way tasks were completed on the
farm.
 Mechanization, or doing work using
machines, dramatically changed
farming.

Mechanization on the Farm
In 1834 Cyrus McCormick perfected the
mechanical reaper, a machine that cuts
grain.
 Steam engines were used to run
threshing machines that separated the
grain from the plant stalks.
 In 1862 L.O. Colvin developed the first
milking machine.

Mechanization on the Farm
The cream separator invented by
Gustav de Laval cut down the time to
separate cream just minutes.
 As farms increased in size, farmers
could sow fields with crops to sell.
 These were called “cash crops” because
farmers grew them to make money.

Industry’s Impact
Factories were producing many
products like Ellen Eglui’s wringer
machine.
 Farmers and people living in rural areas
did not have the ability to buy some of
these products, as most of their
materials were still made by hand.
 Aaron Montgomery Ward started a mail
order establishment which helped
people that did not live near cities to
get the same goods.

Industry’s Impact
In 1893 Richard Sears and Alvah C.
Roebuck formed a mail order company
that grew bigger than all other mail
order companies.
 They promised that their prices were
the cheapest and would deliver any
product you requested.

Getting Connected
Telephones connected people from
around the country.
 A factory owner could call a supplier
with a request without having to travel.
 Emergencies were also less frightening
as you could call a doctor or the police.
 Telephone rate were very expensive
and some rural had no phones at all.

Getting Connected
When Alexander Graham Bell’s patent
expired in 1893 small telephone
companies began to form in rural areas.
 One of the fist rural areas to get phone
service was Ahwahee Valley, California.

Electrifying the
Countryside
People knew of electric power for many
years.
 The first battery was made in 1880.
 The first electric motor was made in
1821.
 The problem was making enough power
stations to deliver the electricity.
 The first power station opened in San
Francisco in 1879.

Electrifying the
Countryside
The first hydroelectric plant opened in
1882 in Appleton, Wisconsin.
 The power plant in Appleton helped run
the paper mill and electric streetcars.
 Farmers, however still would not get
power for many years to come.
 In 1936, the rural Electrification Act gave
money to help create power stations that
would give electricity to rural areas.

Timeline
1834 - Cyrus McCormick invented the
mechanical reaper
 1879 - First electric power station
opened in San Francisco
 1893 - New telephone companies
formed when Bell’s patent expired.

Review Questions
How did advances in mechanization
affect farmers in the late 1800’s?
 How did the growth of the industry
make it easier for farmers to get goods?
