Technological Advances in the Industrial Revolution
**Although the first 60-100 years of the Industrial
Revolution changed the lives of many for the worst,
the next 100 years brought about many inventions
and technologies that improved people’s lives.
Thomas Edison
-light bulb (1880)
-phonograph
-ediphone /dictaphone
-motion pic camera
-General Electric Co.
George Westinghouse (1885)
-Alternate current (AC) which enabled
electricity to be carried farther distances
and be increased or decreased in voltage.
-Compressed Air Shock Absorber
-Air Brake
-Natural Gas Reduction Valve
Samuel Morse
-Electro Magnetic Telegraph (1844)
-Sent messages through Morse Code
-20 years later cable is run across
the Atlantic Ocean
Alexander Graham Bell
-invented the telephone (1876)
-metal detector
-Created the American Telegraph
and Telephone Co. (AT&T)
Milton S. Hershey
-making milk chocolate for the masses
-Lancaster Caramel Co.
-developed his own recipe for milk chocolate
that was affordable.
-built world’s largest chocolate company
in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
E.I. DuPont
-French immigrant
-started milling gun powder in 1802
-company later branched into nitroglycerin and dynamite
-accused of having a monopoly in explosives industry
-branched into laquers, chemicals, teflon, lucite, lycra,
kevlar
Armour Brothers
-Armour Co.
-Chicago, Illinois
-all products made from animals and
animal by-products
-meat, glue, fertilizers, hairbrushes,
oleomargarine
Gustavus Franklin Swift
-Swift and Co.
(Chicago, IL)
-created the 1st practical
refrigerated railcar
-”everything but the squeal!”
-glue, soap, hairbrushes, buttons,
fertilizers, oleomargarine, knife handles,
medical products
John D. Rockefeller
-Created the Standard Oil Co.
-Controlled all aspects of oil industry through
Trusts (monopolies)
-Controlled 95% of all oil production
in the U.S.
-Richest man in .America during his time
**Rockefeller was known for philanthropy. He financed
many foundations that had an effect of medicine,
education, and scientific research. He is given credit for
eradicating Hookworm and Yellow Fever through one
of his foundations.
Andrew Carnegie
-Scottish immigrant
-started Carnegie Steel Co. which later became U.S. Steel
-used Bessemer process for making steel cheaply
-real example of “rags to riches”
-philanthropist
The Vanderbilts
Cornelius Vanderbilt
-fortune in steam ships
-bought railroads
-philanthropy included
Vanderbilt University in Nashville
William Vanderbilt
-Doubled the family’s fortune
in the R.R. industry
Henry Ford
-built affordable cars using mass production of
interchangeable parts. (1908)
-The Model T
**Ford was not the first to create personal transportation.
German Carl Benz created a three wheeled vehicle and
German Gottlieb Daimler put an engine in a horse
carriage.
**Think about the inventions and technologies just
discussed. If you could only have one of them in your
life, which one would it be? Explain why in a paragraph.
Explain how our life would be different today without
this particular technology.