EDWIN
DRAKE
Oil Drilling
Dogged persistence led this man to drill -- and drill -- and drill, seeking oil
deposits. His success launched an Oil Rush and brought the world a new energy
source.
Diplomat and Prospector
Edwin Drake's first career was as a conductor on a brand new, sometimes
dangerous conveyance: the railroad. In the late 1850s, New Haven speculator
James Townsend hired Drake to investigate Titusville, Pennsylvania for oil
deposits. He had seen a Yale chemistry professor's report that rock oil could be
refined and employed for illumination, lubrication, and other uses. When Drake
arrived, locals took to the agreeable man right away -- but laughed at his futile
purpose. Small amounts of oil had seeped from the ground forever --but no one
had figured out how to extract it. At last Drake found a reliable driller -- William
A. "Uncle Billy" Smith, a blacksmith who forged his own tools and reported for
work in late May. They built a derrick of pine wood and began drilling.
Oil
Workmen drilled all summer, six days a week, with the Sabbath Drake's
inviolable day off. When water flooded the hole, Drake innovated a solution; he
drove an iron pipe down to bedrock, then placed the drill inside the pipe to
keep water out of the excavated shaft. The men drilled, and drilled, and drilled.
Drake at last struck black gold, on August 28, 1859, nearly seventy feet down.
New Industry, New Wealth
By early fall, Pennsylvania's Oil Rush was on. Real estate prices skyrocketed and
fortune-seekers arrived. Within a few years the oil refining business would
attract John D. Rockefeller, a careful businessman who would use crafty tactics
to build one of America's great industrial fortunes. Drake was not so lucky.
Townsend's company fired him, and he lost his money on Wall Street. He never
patented his drilling method. Years later, the oil barons who owed their wealth
to Drake offered him financial support. And in 1873, Pennsylvania voted an
annuity of $1,500 to the "crazy" man whose determination founded an
industry. Drake died in 1880.
WRIGHT
BROTHERS
Flight Enthusiasts
Like a small but enthusiastic number of people in the U.S. and
Europe, the Wrights believed human flight was possible. They
broke the problem down into three elements: wing shape,
power source, and control. Others had focused on the first two
problems, but the Wrights knew from their bicycle experiences
that control was key. From books in their father's library, the
brothers schooled themselves on the mechanics of flight. Their
"wing warping" mechanism, inspired by watching birds, was a
revolutionary breakthrough.
The Wrights' Flying Machine
In 1899, they made their first flying machine -- a kind of kite
made of wood, wire, and cloth. The small model succeeded on
its test run and the brothers took the next step: human flight.
Funding their experiments with the proceeds from their bicycle
shop, and after much trial and error, Wilbur and Orville built
their "Kitty Hawk Flyer," an instrument that had a lightweight,
gas-powered engine and weighed 600 pounds. On December
17, 1903, lifting off from soft North Carolina sand dunes, the
"Kitty Hawk" flew 120 feet, far enough to demonstrate that
human flight was indeed possible. Almost a year before the
test, the brothers had applied for a patent for their invention,
which they finally secured in 1906.
THOMAS
EDISON
The Science of Innovation
The "Wizard of Menlo Park" brought the world electric light, recorded music,
and the movies, among other things, and turned innovation into a science by
inventing the research laboratory. The self-taught boy set up a mobile
chemistry lab and printing press, and tinkered with telegraphy instruments, his
lifelong habit of experimentation firmly in place. Over his career, Edison would
successfully patent a record 1,093 inventions in the United States -- more than
double the number of his closest competitor, George Westinghouse.
Life-Changing Inventions
Edison invented or refined devices that made a profound impact on how
people lived. The most famous of his inventions was the incandescent light bulb
(1878), which would revolutionize indoor lighting and forever separate light
from fire. He also developed the phonograph (1877), the central power station
(1881), the motion-picture studio (1892) and system for making and showing
motion pictures (1893), and alkaline storage batteries (1901). Edison improved
upon the original designs of the stock ticker, the telegraph, and Alexander
Graham Bell's telephone. He was one of the first to explore X-rays, and in 1875,
he announced his observation of "etheric force" -- radio waves -- although his
claim would be rejected by the scientific community.
The Business of Innovation
Aside from being an inventor, Edison was also a successful manufacturer and
businessman, marketing his inventions to the public. In 1876, the year of the
American centennial, he opened his first full-scale industrial research
laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey. It combined electrical and chemical
laboratories with a machine shop. By 1880, his hand-picked staff was
developing commercial electrical lighting components, and Edison opened a
factory to produce them. Within seven years, there were 121 Edison central
power stations across the country, each obliged to buy Edison components. For
financial security, he sold a share of the business to banker J. P. Morgan,
renaming his company the Edison General Electric Company. In 1892, following
another merger, Edison would get out of the electricity business, and his loyal
assistant, Samuel Insull, would head to Chicago to make his own name in
power delivery.
ALEXANDER
GRAHAM BELL
The Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone grew out of his
research into ways to improve the telegraph. On April 6, 1875, Bell was
granted the patent for the multiple telegraph, which sent two signals at
the same time. for, transmitting vocal or other sounds telegraphically by
causing electrical undulations, similar in form to the vibrations of the air
accompanying the said vocal or other sounds.
The Harmonic Telegraph
In the 1870s the Bells moved to Canada and shortly after that, to Boston,
Massachusetts, where Bell took a teaching position at the Pemberton
Avenue School for the Deaf. He became increasingly interested in the
possibility of transmitting speech over wires. Teaming up with a likeminded machinist, Thomas A. Watson, Bell worked for a year, and
succeeded in transmitting the first telephone message on March 10,
1876. Bell took his "Harmonic Telegraph" to Philadelphia's Centennial
Exhibition, where it astonished crowds. The partners were convinced
their device could make money; they just weren't sure how.
Phone Customers
Doctors and pharmacists became early adopters of the technology, along
with wealthy individuals, including Mark Twain. The famous writer
installed a phone in his Hartford home even though he complained, "The
human voice carries entirely too far as it is." In a mere four years, the
American Bell Telephone Company deployed 60,000 telephones,
providing service in every large American city. Polite young women found
work at the switchboards, which were open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Telephone poles began to dot the landscape; the state of Vermont lost
45,000 pine trees in 1885 alone. By then, Bell had withdrawn from the
business, leaving others to build the telephone industry.
JOHN
ROCKEFELLER
John Rockefeller was an oil
industrialist, investor and
philanthropist. He was the founder
of Standard Oil Company which
was the first great trust and
dominated the oil industry.
Standard’s most potent weapon
was underselling. It had become
the richest, biggest, most feared
business in the world. In today’s
standards, John’s estimated value
would be around 663 billion
dollars, making him the richest
man in history. His donations
pioneered the development of
medical research
ANDREW
CARNEGIE
Andrew Carnegie, the son of a
Scottish immigrant, quickly realized
steel was the future after being
impressed by the Bessemer
process, The Carnegie Steel
Company was created expanded
and steel production from 332,111
to 2,663,412 tons per year. In 1901
J.P. Morgan purchased the
Carnegie Company for
$500,000,000 and established the
U.S. Steel Corporation that was
valued at $1.4 billion. Carnegie set
up a trust fund "for the
improvement of mankind." By
1919, Carnegie donated 350,000 to
his causes.
J.P.
MORGAN
J.P. Morgan started his own private
banking company in 1871, which
became J. P. Morgan & Co. His
company was so powerful that
even the U.S. government looked
to the firm for help with the
depression of 1895. Morgan
dominated two industries in
particular—he helped consolidate
railroad industry in the East and
formed the United States Steel
Corporation in 1901. U.S. Steel
became the world's largest steel
manufacturer. At the time of his
death, he was hailed as a master of
finance and considered one of the
country's leading businessmen.
GEORGE
PULLMAN
George Pullman improved the
comfort of rail travel at a time
when it was America’s most
important form of
transportation. The traveling
public, weary of cramped and
uncomfortable sleeping
accommodations, was so
enthusiastic about the Pullman
car that railroads made
structural changes to bridges
and platforms to accommodate
its size. The first car was named
Pioneer in 1863.
CORNELIUS
VANDERBILT
Cornelius Vanderbilt built his
wealth on shipping and railroads.
He systematically took over New
York by simply buying out his
competitors or running them into
the ground. Many paid him to not
complete, earning the nickname
The Commodore (highest rank in
the navy). His estimated value in
today’s standards would be around
147 billion dollars, making him the
second richest man in American
history. 95% of his inheritance
went to his son William. His
philanthropy went toward
Vanderbilt University, named after
him.
GEORGE
WESTINGHOUSE
George Westinghouse was instrumental in increasing the safety of the American
railroad system and encouraging the growth of the transportation industry.
Westinghouse developed a fascination with steam engines.
Riding the Rails
His time in the army during the Civil War made him realize the importance of railroads
to the national project of industrialization. Perceiving that increased safety on this new
system of transportation was necessary for further development, Westinghouse
invented and patented a compressed-air brake system in 1869 to replace the standard
manual braking system, which was often faulty. He incorporated the Westinghouse Air
Brake Company, the first of more than 60 companies he would form to market his and
others' inventions. The 1893 Railroad Safety Appliance Act made air brakes
compulsory on all American trains. In total Westinghouse made over 300 inventions
that revolved around railroad travel, including a rotary steam engine, an effective
means of righting cars that had been derailed, and a "frog," a switch that allowed
trains to "hop" across rails at a junction. In 1883 he applied his knowledge of air brakes
to the safe piping of natural gas, and within two years he obtained 38 patents for
piping equipment.
AC/DC
Westinghouse also experimented with electricity and developed a transformer that
could bring alternating current (AC) electricity down from high voltage to low -- thus
enabling AC to travel long distances while still making it ready for use. He purchased
Nikola Tesla's patents and hired him to improve his AC motor for use in
Westinghouse's new power system. Westinghouse formed Westinghouse Electric in
1886 to compete with Thomas Edison's direct current (DC) system. Advocates of DC
power set out to discredit AC power, charging that the use of AC power was a menace
to human life and publicizing New York state's use of the Westinghouse AC generator
as its official means of execution. In 1893, Westinghouse proved AC's safety when his
company lit the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Soon after Westinghouse
secured the rights to develop Niagara Falls, creating the first large system to supply
electricity for multiple uses (railway, lighting, power) from one circuit.
GEORGE
EASTMAN
Pupil and Inventor
Invented in the 1830s, photography was a well-established professional
occupation by the 1870s, but it was not a hobby for the masses. It required a
knowledge of chemistry, mastery of cumbersome equipment, and an interest in
laborious wet-plate processes. Eastman, in his early twenties, became the pupil
of two Rochester, New York, amateur photographers, George Monroe and
George Selden. He experimented in dry-plate photography, and developed a
formula for gelatin-based paper film and a machine for coating dry plates. He
went into business selling dry plates in April 1880, and soon resigned from his
bookkeeping position at a local bank to focus on his fledgling company.
Technical Advances
In 1885, with camera inventor William Hall Walker, Eastman patented the
Eastman-Walker Roll Holder, which allowed photographers to advance multiple
exposures of paper film through a camera, rather than handle individual singleshot plates. The roll holder would define the basic technology of cameras until
the introduction of digital photography. It also became the basis for the first
mass-produced Kodak camera, initially known as the "roll holder breast
camera," which retailed for $25 and started a photography craze. The term
"Kodak" was coined by Eastman himself in 1887. In 1889, Eastman hired
chemist Henry Reichenbach, who developed a transparent, flexible film which
could be cut into strips and inserted into cameras. Thomas Edison would order
the film to use in the motion-picture camera he was developing -- and it would
soon become the centerpiece of the Eastman empire.
Photography for the Masses
During the 1890s, Eastman expanded his business, buying patents and investing
in research and development. Faster films and smaller cameras meant
photography could produce more spontaneous pictures -- "snapshots." In 1900,
he introduced the "Brownie" camera, which sold for $1 and was a bullseye in
the mass market. Eastman's insight was that his chemists could do the "photo
finishing," but anyone could take pictures with a simple camera like the
Brownie. Eastman had hit on a memorable slogan: You press the button, we do
the rest." His business grew rapidly, helped by jingles and ads positioning the
brand as an essential tool for preserving memories. A 1902 ad lectured, "A
vacation without a Kodak is a vacation wasted." A blizzard of profits enabled
Eastman to build a 50-room mansion in Rochester.