Changing and Growing: New Innovations in the U.S.A.

“Watch out Wilbur!” “What?” “I said watch out!” BOOM! The dust clears and you see Orville Wright looking disappointed as he helps his brother Wilbur out of a mess of torn canvas and scrap metal. What has just happened is another test trial of the Wright brothers “flying machine”. These two determined brothers have been working on what you know as an airplane. Their work will soon lead to the test flight of their last prototype in Kitty Hawk North Carolina on a clear day in December 1903. On that day, they will set the record for longest time man has been in the air. And a few years later America will feel the full impact of this remarkable advance in transportation. People will make a 7 hour trip in 5 hours. That’s just the start. Modern airplanes can cut travel time in half. And who do we have to thank for all the work? Orville and Wilbur Wright, that’s who.

Those inventors and their ideas were very important, but they are not the only things happening in the bustling nation during the early nineteenth century. The ideas I said were running like rivers through the nation weren’t just leaking into Edison, Ford, and the Wright Brother’s house; they were flooding the country with innovations that would let people like Alexander Graham Bell and Eli Whitney become famous. All those inventors and their ideas would help America expand and grow, and at the turn of the century the nation would be a nation with spirit!