Industrial+Progress

Industrial Progress

James Duke started a new industry in Charlotte, when he moved. After 1904, he built dams across the Catawba River to produce hydroelectricity. Hydroelectricity is water powered electricity. Duke originally sold the power to earby textile mills. Duke had many customers, but his first was James W. Cannon. James W. Cannon built a new town, known as Kannapolis, in 1906 to take advantage of the situation. The Duke Power Company benefited most North Carolinians. Tobacco, textiles, and furniture was what most of the industrial growth was concentrated on. Because of the Duke family, Durham became a known source of the nation's cigarettes. After 1913, due to R.J. Reynolds, Winston-Salem began to rival it.


 * Invention || Inventor || Date invented ||
 * George Westinghouse || air brakes || 1868 ||
 * Thomas Edison || Electric Light Bulb || 1879 ||
 * brassiere (bra) || Mary Phelps Jacobs || 1913 ||
 * Camera || George Eastman || 1888 ||
 * Coupons || Asa Candler || 1894 ||
 * Crayons || Edwin Binney, C. Harold Smith || 1903 ||
 * crossword puzzles || Arthur Wynne || 1913 ||
 * dishwasher || Josephine Cochrane || 1886 ||
 * dynamite || Alfred Nobel || 1867 ||

The Wright Brothers

The Wright Brothers flew the first plane in Kitty Hawk. Their names were Orville Wright and Wilbur Wright. They had two older brothers named Reuchlin and Lorin and a younger sister named Katharine. They were the children of Bishop Wright and Susan Catherine Wright. Wilbur Wright was born near Millville, Indiana on April 16, 1867 and Orville Wright was born in Dayton, Ohio, August 19, 1871. Wilbur and Orville Wright were given a toy "helicopter" that was based on an invention by a French aeronautical pioneer. It was made of paper, bamboo, and cork, with a rubberband holding it together which made the blades spin. This created their thoughts and as they remodeled it and made it bigger, they found it was harder to fly. They then turned to kites which had a big advantage to them. The brothers designed a printing press and wrote articles for the weekly paper. They then opened a bicycle shop that allowed them to make money. The brothers were more on the side of gliders and needed an area where the land was proficcient enough to fly to be able to fly their first airplane. They found the perfect place called Kitty Hawk.

media type="custom" key="8927442"