Today machines to sweep streets- the machines alone represent a more than 3.6 billion dollar annual market- are recognized around the world. But the mechanical street sweeper is a rather new invention that took some time to sweep a skeptical public off its feet..
During the civil war, the manufacture of powder and explosives was often handled by the most vulnerable, young women and children, whose labor was needed when so many men had been sent off to war. On March 13, 1863, the confederacy experienced a munitions disaster, in the confederate capitol of Richmond.