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Colt 

Nov 5, 2025

History Summary Of Lessons 41-44

This week I learned about four inventions. The are the steel plow, steam shovel, postage stamp, and vulcanized rubber. These inventions were invented in the 1830s.

The steel plow was a version of the heavy plow that never gave way to rust because it was made of steel. It was Invented by John Deere in 1837. John Deere was born in Vermont in 1804. He went to a congregationalist college to learn how to be a black smith. He became a town blacksmith in 1825. In his studies, he noticed polished and brand new plows worked much better than rusty plows and old plows, so he invented the steel plow to fix the problem in 1837. Not only did it fix the problem, it was so beneficial, that his name is the title of the company that produces the most tractors around the globe.

The steam shovel is a excavator that runs on steam. It was invented by William Smith Odis in 1835. Odis was born in Pelham in 1813, and was fascinated with mechanical inventions. He invented the steam shovel at the age of 22. It was a huge improvement to the excavation industry, and his changes will be remembered.

The postage stamp is a piece of paper stick onto an envelope, to send to someone anywhere around the wold. It was invented by Rowland Hill in 1838. Hill was born in England in 1795, and had influential family friends. He promoted Priestly’s educational reform and then proceeded to invent the postage stamp. It was very beneficial to the letter sending industry because now people could identify where a letter was going. 

Vulcanized rubber is a type of weather proof rubber that make up 99% of all rubber in tires. It was invented by Charles Goodyear in 1839. He was born in 1800 in Connecticut, and had in entrepreneurial mind. He improved a company’s rubber life savors, and was determined to fix a rubber problem. The problem was, the type of rubber he used was sticky, and would melt. One day he was testing it, and he dropped the rubber on a hot stove. He noticed it lost its sticky nature, and added the chemicals to invent vulcanized rubber. Unfortunately, he died 4 years after, at the age of 26. although He wasn’t able to see his invention reach its peek, he still invented the most popular tire rubber.

These inventors were very helpful to our cause because they invented these inventions.