As more people moved west, the need for settling the large expanses of land, making it profitable, grew. Cyrus McCormick's reaper paved the way for the Midwest. Before McCormick's invention, a farmer would have to work for four days, with the help of two farmhands, driving six miles. With the reaper, he could harvest as many as ten acres per hour.
Another invention, one that saw to the needs of farm wives, came about at the same time. The sewing machine, invented by Elias Howe, transformed how women fashioned their clothing. This invention was complemented by the rise of industrialization in eastern cities, as cloth was manufactured more quickly and expediently.
Why include such inventions in a blog devoted to history and patriotism? Both these machines, and others, contributed to a different kind of culture and society. While they eased much of the manual labor, the effects of industrialization brought with it a host of other problems.
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