Inventors and Inventions
By: Peyton Deur
In the late 1800s, inventions focused on
finding solutions to practical problems.
Communication and transportation took the lead.
The inventions of electricity, the telephone and
the Model T, were a part of the Second Industrial
Revolution of 1865-1900.
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison was the first one to create the
light bulb. His research center in Menlo Park,
New Jersey, was called an invention factory. It
held more than 1,000 patents- exclusive rights to
make or sell invention. In 1878 Edison
announced that he was going to
invent a practical electric light.
By the end of 1879, Edison and his team of
inventors created the light bulb. But only a few
homes and businesses could get electricity. He
then built a power plant to supply electricity to
dozens of New York City buildings in
September, 1882. However it could not
send electricity over long distances.
George Westinghouse
Although the power plant Thomas
Edison created didn’t send electricity
over long distances, George Westinghouse built a
power system that could send electricity over
miles of distance. As Edison and Westinghouse
completed the power plant, electricity grew
rapidly in the nation’s cities. It soon lit up homes,
business and powered the city factories. It was
also used for streetcars in cities across the nation.
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was a scientist, engineer, a
speech teacher, and inventor who created the first
practical telephone. Bell’s father, grandfather, and
brother had all been associated with elocution and
speech, and his mother and wife were deaf.
They influenced Bell’s invention and
his life’s
work. In 1861, telegraph wires
connected the
East and West coasts. Five years
later, a
telegraph cable on the floor of
the Atlantic
Ocean connected the United
States to Great
Britain.
But the telegraph carried only carried
written messages and was hard for people who
weren’t trained to use them. These problems
were solved in March 1879 when Bell patented
the telephone which he called a “talking
telegraph.” Telephone companies
raced to lay down thousands of miles
of
phone lines. In the 1880s there
were
about 55,000 telephones in the
United
States, and by the 1990s there
were
almost 1.5 million telephones.
Henry Ford
In 1876 a German engineer invented an
engine powered by gasoline. In 1893 Charles and
J. Frank Duryea built the first practical motorcar
using gasoline. By the early 1900s, thousands of
cars were being built in the United
States. Henry Ford was an American
industrialist, the founder of the Ford
Motor Company, and sponsor of the
development of the assembly line. He
also introduced the Motel T in 1908.
At first only the wealthy could buy these cars.
Although Ford did not invent the automobile and
the assembly line, he put the automobile and
assembly line together that many middle class
Americans could afford. Ford was the first to
implement the moving assembly line in
manufacturing. This reduced the cost of the
building products, making the cars
more affordable.
Isaac Merritt Singer
Isaac Merritt Singer was an American
inventor, actor, and entrepreneur. He made
improvements on the sewing machine. He was
also the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine
Company. Many of his children had patent
sewing machines before Singer, but his success
was based on the practicality of his
machine, the ease with which it can
be adapted to home use, and its
availability on an installment
payment basis.
In the late 1800s, inventions focused on
finding solutions to practical problems. Between
1865-1900 America was booming with new
inventions. Thomas Edison created the first light
bulb. Alexander Graham Bell created the first
Telephone. Henry Ford created the Model
T.
And Isaac Merritt Singer made improvements
on the sewing machine.
All of these
things were a part of the
Second Industrial
Revolution.
Sources
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Inventers,
http://inventors.about.com/od/timelines/a/Nineteenth.htm
Alexander Graham Bell,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Graham_Bell
Henry Ford,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford
Isaac Singer,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Singer
Thomas Edison,
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Henry Ford,
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&ved=0CGoQrQMwBQ
United States History, Holt Rinehart and Winston, 2007, Chapter 19, Section 1 The Second Industrial Revolution
page 616-617.