Nationalism and Innovation

In class today, Mr. Armstrong started the class by explaning the importance of the roads, canals, and steamboats in economy. He drew pictures that showed the Cumberland Road, Erie Canal, and how these affected America back then. After that, we discussed about the Industrial Revolution. For homework, we were supposed to read about the Industrial Revolution and how the important inventions affected the textile business significantly, starting the Industrial Revolution. Brian Kwon started the discussion by answering Mr.Armstrong's question. He said that the large spinning machine called water frame was invented by a man called Richard Arkwright.This was first invented in Great Britain and was kept secret, severly affecting Great Britain's economy. Then Mr.Armstrong showed us a picture of the machine and asked us how it worked by looking at the picture. Few people volunteered to guess how it worked but they did not get it right. While the classmates were thinking, So Yun volunteered to guess and explained how it worked and got it right. Then we talked about a person called Samuel Slater. We have discussed that the invention of the water frame was kept secret but Samuel Slater, who came from Great Britain to America ran a mill at America. This affected the economy of America significantly, being able to compete against Great Britain. At last, we talked about the invention of the cotton gin. At the end of the discussion, Mr.Armstrong explained about the connection between what we discussed today and how this would lead to the Civil War. When we finished discussing about the Industrial Revolution, we had about 30 minutes to start our next immersion, finishing up our class for today.

Junwoo H. 8B