The Opening of the Brooklyn Bridge on May 24, 1883 displayed American ingenuity, ambition, and industrial

might to the world

Section 1: A Technological RevolutionPages 456-465

Main Ideas (make sure you know these!)

• After the Civil War (1861-1865) the U.S. developed into one of the world’s industrial powers

• Entrepreneurs funded inventors & scientists leading to an explosion of new products & improvements to many existing ones

• This 2nd Industrial Revolution continued to impact & change people’s daily lives at work and home

• The social problems that accompanied early industrialization & urbanization still existed

Investing in Technology

• Business leaders in Europe & America began to invest in new inventions, as well as fund scientific research to find the next big thing– How much innovation was going on??

• From 1790-1860 there were 36,000 patents issued• From 1860-1890 there were more than 500,000

• This investment led to a dramatic rise in America’s industrial productivity– The amount of goods and services created in a

country in a given period of time

Growth of the Oil Industry I

• Old Methods of Obtaining Oil:– Melting whale fat– Digging a huge pit and hoping

it seeped through to the surface

– Time consuming & expensive

• Edwin Drake’s new idea:– DRILL!– Drake Oil Well Museum,

Titusville, Pennsylvania

Growth of the Oil Industry II

• Drake first struck oil by drilling in 1859• Drilling for oil became a major industry• Crude oil was refined to produce kerosene for

heating fuel & lighting fuel– A byproduct of this process is ethanol (gasoline),

which was thrown away at first but became a separate industry in the early 1900’s with the invention of the automobile

• Oil refineries became a huge part of the industry

Electricity!!

Thomas Edison – direct currentGeorge Westinghouse – alternating current

Thomas Alva Edison

• Famous lab located in Menlo Park, NJ• 1880 – invented the light bulb!• 1882 – opened 1st central power station that

lit dozens of buildings in NYC• By 1890 power stations were nationwide– Supplying electric power to new products like:• lamps• Fans• Other new inventions (that means new industries!)

George Westinghouse

• Used a transformer to boost power levels as the electricity left the station so it could be sent long distances

• A second transformer at the receiving station reduced the power level so it could be used

• Made home use of electricity for the masses practical!

Direct vs. Alternating Current

• Direct– Edison– Expensive– Could only travel 1-2 miles

• Alternating– Westinghouse– Cheaper to generate than direct current– Could travel very long distances

Impact of Electricity

• Improved the productivity of business• Created new jobs• Made refrigeration possible• While most urban Americans benefited from

electricity, many rural Americans went without the benefits of electricity until well into the 1900’s

The 1st Communication Revolution

• 1st message sent by telegraph in 1844– “What hath God

wrought?” (bonus ?!!)

• Technology perfected by Samuel Morse, who developed a system of dots and dashes to represent letters of the alphabet– MORSE CODE

The Telephone (what would you do without your phone??)

• Invented by Alexander Graham Bell, 1876

• 1885: American Telephone & Telegraph Co. established to build long distance phone lines

• By 1900 there were 1 million phones in use in the United States

A National Market is Created

• Transcontinental Railroad: trans = across; continental = continent (North America, in this case)

• New rails were to be laid between the existing track in the East and West Coast

• Federal Gov’t gave huge loans & grants to two private companies to strengthen the nation’s infrastructure– Union Pacific: build from Omaha, Nebraska to the West– Central Pacific:from Sacramento, California to the East

Transcontinental Railroad

• Most workers were immigrants– Union Pacific: Irish & Euros– Central Pacific: Chinese

• Fiercely proud of the work they did– Moved to America for

economic opportunity– Happy to have a job– Proud to contribute to the

growth & strength of their new country

Railroad Improvements

• Steel rails replace iron rails• Track gauges became standardized• Signals became standardized• Westinghouse – developed an improved air

braking system • Train-specific telegraph patented for

communication between trains (early CB radio)

How did the Railroads aid industry?

• Faster & more practical way to transport goods• Lower production costs• Creation of a national market• A model for other big business• Stimulates the growth of other industries

• Hmmm….this seems important, and there are 5 bullet points… I wonder if this will be an extended response question??

A New Age of Building

• Bessemer Process: a cheaper, easier way to remove the impurities from steel during the steel making process

• Advantages of Steel vs. Iron– Lighter– Stronger– Flexible– Could build taller, stronger,

more architecturally innovative buildings

The Steel Industry

• The geography of Pennsylvania soon made it the steel capital of the world

• Pittsburgh sits at the junction of three rivers, thus a crucial spot for shipping steel… hence the football team PITTSBURGH STEELERS!

• The Bessemer Process made the mass production of steel possible– Production of any good in a great amount– By the early 1900’s the US accounted for more than

80% of the world’s steel production