Dirt and Iron
The Industrial Revolution in the Delta
Innovation for the Heartland
During the Second Industrial Revolution, mechanics and engineers who designed a new invention could file for a patent. A patent is a type of property that comes in the form of a legal document that gives a person the exclusive rights to make, use, or sell an invention. In the United States, an inventor has to apply for a patent by sending in documentation of an invention, with evidence of the invention being unique and useful, to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Below, you can find photos of inventions from the Delta Valley, newspaper clippings on patents issued to Delta inventors, and patent filing drawings from local inventions. Click on images for more information.
Between the late 1880s and roughly 1930, the California Delta was a major source of patents in the United States. Over 30,000 patents were attempted in San Joaquin, Sacramento, Contra Costa, and Solano Counties, an impressive number considering the region never had more than 200,000 people during that time period.
It is important to point out that only about 1,500 patents were actually granted during this time period to Delta inventors, reflecting how many inventions were too similar to products that already existed to be granted a patent.
Below is a graphic of patents in San Joaquin County between 1890 and 1924, during the height of the Second Industrial Revolution in the California Delta. What are some trends that you notice? What happened in 1914 that might have led to the increase in the number of patents that year, and for the next fourteen years?
Designing, inventing, and manufacturing equipment requires a large, educated, and mobile workforce. To provide this type of workforce in the Delta region, three local school districts – the Stockton School System (the precursor of Stockton Unified School District), Lodi School District (which would become Lodi Unified), and the Sacramento School District, would implement a number of key changes in their educational programs in the 1890s and 1900s.
The Stockton School System (SSS) provides a helpful example: in the 1890s the SSS created a new curriculum, known as the Stockton Method, that prioritized skills-based education. Once students reached high school, they were required to take courses in drafting, construction arts, mechanical engineering, accounting, visual arts, agriculture, or theater, in addition to traditional coursework in language, math, and science. Graduates from local schools could expect to find work in industrial foundries and workshops in the area, or in local commercial, agricultural, or financial fields.
The SSS was the third school district in California to desegregate, and many schools had faculty from other countries, including India, Japan, and Brazil. Stockton High School was considered the best public high school in California for much of this time period, and the Stockton Method would be adopted by school systems in Portland, and Chicago, as well as in England and Australia.
