Scientific and Technological
Achievements at the Turn of the
Century
Scientific and Technological
Advancements
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, advances in
science and technology led to dramatic changes
in daily life
• Medical discoveries
• Better sanitation
• Scientific discoveries
Advances in Medicine
A series of discoveries
revolutionized the field of
medicine at the turn of the
twentieth century
• The Germ Theory and
Disease
– In 1870 Louis Pasteur
discovered a link between
germs and disease
– Proved that killing certain
germs stops the spread of
certain diseases
Advances in Medicine
• The Germ Theory and
Disease
– German physician Robert
Koch discovered the
bacteria that causes
tuberculosis
– Koch and Pasteur’s work
led to germ theory
• Diseases are caused by the
action of microorganisms
– People start washing more!
Advances in Medicine
• Joseph Lister and Antiseptics
– Before the mid 1800s, even a minor surgery might
be followed by infection and death
– Surgeon Joseph Lister believed there was a
connection between infection and germs
• Lister insisted that his doctors use antiseptics at all
stages of operations
Advances in Medicine
• Antibiotics
– Alexander Fleming discovers the mold penicillin
– This mold killed bacteria!
– This antibiotic was not widely distributed and
used until the 1940s
Improved Standard of Living
• Better Wages and Working Conditions
– Industrialization led to horrible working conditions
for most people in Industrialized Europe
– Legalized labor unions, reformers, and workingclass voters pushed for better working conditions
Improved Standard of Living
• Better Housing
– Urban conditions were improving in the late 1800s
and early 1900s
– City governments paved their streets
– Housing improved
– Architects began to use steel to construct
stronger, taller buildings
Improved Standard of Living
• Improved Sanitation
– Underground sewage systems!
– Death rates were dramatically cut…
• Why?
Population Explosion
New Inventions!
Technology of the Industrial Age
Inventor or Developer
Nation
Invention or Development
Year
Henry Bessemer
Great Britain
Process to turn iron ore into
steel
1856
Alexander Graham Bell
United States
Telephone
1876
Thomas Edison
United States
Electric light bulb
1879
Gottlieb Daimler
Germany
Automobile
1887
Henry Ford
United States
Mass-produced automobile
1903
Orville & Wilbur Wright
United States
Airplane
1903
New Scientific Theories
• The Curies and Radioactivity
– Conducted extensive experiments with
radioactivity
– Discoveries such as radium and polonium had an
enormous effect on fields such as energy
production, medicine, and military technology
New Scientific Theories
• Einstein and Relativity
– Theory of Relativity
New Scientific Theories
• Freud and the Human
Mind
– The unconscious drives
human behavior
– Freud felt that the
tension between the
drives of the
unconscious mind and
the demands of civilized
society caused
psychological and
physical illness