I. A TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION

American History Chapter 6: The Expansion of American Industry

Bellringer

Typewriter Phonograph telegraphTelephoneWhat is the most important invention?How many times do you use the telephone?If you lived before the telephone was

invented – how would you communicateHow would your life be different without

telephones?

Objectives

Learn how daily lives changed in the decades following the Civil War.

Find out how advances in electric power and communication affected people and businesses in this era.

Discover the effects the development of railroads had on industrial growth.

Think about the impact of the Bessemer process on American culture.

A) Setting the Scene

Samuel Morse in 1844 sends the first successful telegram from Washington DC to Baltimore.

US on the verge of a second industrial revolution

New inventions will change our lives

B) Changes in Daily Life

No internal electricity in house – went to bed at dark and up at first light – unless had money for candles and lamps

Ice cost too much – saved it in ice houses Took over a month for mail to go coast to coast Paten and Trademark Office issued patents1) patents: licenses that give an inventor the

exclusive right to make, use or sell an invention

2) Productivity: amount of goods and services created in a given period of time’

By 1900 – US standard of living was one of the highest in the world.

C) New Forms of Energy

In 1858, Edwin L Drake strikes oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania.

Drilling for oil cheaper then diggingMade kerosene, gasoline the byproduct was thrown

away until the automobile invented.Thomas A. Edison – invented the light bulb in 1880

– by 1882 had set up the first electric power plantLewis Latimer improved light bulbs – son of a slaveGeorge Westinghouse – used alternating current –

travel farther – transformers to boost powerEdison created General Electric – Westinghouse

created Westinghouse Electric

Electric sewing machine in 1889 led to ready made clothing growth

Refrigerator possible

D) Advances in Communications

Samuel F.B. Morse perfected the telegraph – 1844

Western Union formedAlexander Graham Bell invented the “talking

telegraph” in 1876 at the age of 29.Set up the American Telephone and

Telegraph Company1879 first telephone in White House – by

1900 1.5 million telephones

E) Railroads Create a National Network

3) Transcontinental railroad: railway extending from coast to coast

Government paid for it – not as efficient if private industry paid for it

Irish worked for the Union Pacific and Chinese worked on the Central Pacific

Met at Promontory Summit Utah in 1869 Time Zones created to help scheduling Railroads were good because they were

faster, cheaper, crated national markets, model for big business, stimulated other industries.

F) The Bessemer Process

4) Bessemer Process: easier and cheaper way to make steel

5) Mass production: production in great amounts

Steal is lighter and stronger than iron Could mass produce steal Brooklyn Bridge built – Chicago Reliance

Building Symbols of American inventiveness and

hard work

Review

Why did people’s daily lives change in the decades following the Civil War?

How did advances in electric power and communication affect life for people and businesses?

What effects did the development of railroads have on industrial growth?

What was the impact of the Bessemer process on American culture?