Chapter 12
A.
Industrial boom due to several factors:
1. wealth of natural resources
2. govt. supported business
3. urban population provided cheap labor
4. population provided market for new products
A.
Edwin Drake: created steam engine drill
Outcome: creates an oil boom in the United States
B.
Bessemer Process: created a new way to produce steel
Outcome: new steel uses: barbed wire, railroads, skyscrapers, bridges, machines
C.
Thomas Alva Edison: created incandescent light bulb
and new way to distribute electrical power
Outcome: made electricity safer & less expensive
D.
Christopher Sholes: invented the typewriter
Outcome: created new job opportunities for women
E.
Alexander Graham Bell: invented of the telephone
Outcome: opened worldwide communications network
A.
Govt. makes huge land grants & federal loans to
railroad companies
Outcome:
1. opened new markets for economy
2. growth of new towns & cities
3. widespread abuse of power by railroads
B.
Transcontinental Railroad: Union Pacific & Central
Pacific connect east to west on May 10, 1869
C.
Time Zones: Earths surface divided into 24 time
zones to help all railroads share common time
1. United States divided into 4 time zone
-Eastern, Central, Mountain, & Pacific
D.
Gerorge M. Pullman: built factory for manufaturing
sleeper & other railroad cars
Outcome: creates a town called Pullman, Illinois to control his employees
environment and create profit
E.
Credit Mobilier: an infamous scheme in 1864 which
Union Pacific stockholders formed a construction
company to skim off railroad profits for themselves
Outcome: Union Pacific officials pocket 23 million (kickbacks to govt. officials)
reputation of Republican Party tarnished
A.
Abuses by the Railroad:
-misuse of govt. land grants
-price controls
-shipping charges
B.
Granger Laws: laws passed to protect the
interests of farmers & regulate the railroads
Example: set maximum freight rate for shipping goods
Outcome: Munn v. Illinois (1877 Supreme Court case which upheld the state’s
right to regulate the railroads)
C. Interstate Commerce Act: 1887 act passed by
Congress which establishes the govt. right to
supervise railroad activities; estab. 5 member
commission (ICC)