Chapter 6
1865 – 1905
The Second Industrial Revolution
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6.1 Objectives:
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How did the development of steel and oil
refining affect U.S. industry?
What innovations were made in
transportation?
How did innovations in communications
technology change business practices and daily
life in the United States?
How did Thomas Edison’s research laboratory
change American life?
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Steel refining
Results
 provided a strong, cheap source of
building material
 allowed expansion of the railroad industry
 allowed construction of more complex
machines and taller buildings
Facts
 Bessemer Process – Blast Furnace
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Oil refining
Results
 resulted in the production of kerosene for
fuel and light
 allowed the manufacturing of other
petroleum products
 helped machinery operate
Important Facts
 Edwin L. Drake – steam engine to drill
 Elijah McCoy – lubricating cup
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Transportation innovations
Results
 Railroads promoted western settlement,
urban growth, and economic prosperity.
 Automobiles became a substantial industry.
 Airplanes introduced new possibilities.
Important Facts
 Horseless Carriage
 Transcontinental Railroad
 George Westinghouse – Air Brake
 George Pullman – Railroad Sleeping Car
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Communications innovations
Results
 The telegraph allowed businesses to place
long-distance orders quickly.
 The telephone brought both businesses and
individuals together.
 The typewriter allowed the quick
production of legible documents.
Facts
 Morse – Morse code
 Bell – Telephone
 Christopher Sholes - Typewriter
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Thomas Edison’s research
laboratory
Results
 the light bulb
 the phonograph
 early motion-picture camera
Facts
 Menlo Park
 Held more that 1000 patients
 Electric Power Plant in NYC
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6.2 Objectives:
What arguments did business leaders and social
critics make about the role of government in
business?
 How did business strategies change during the
Second Industrial Revolution?
 How did entrepreneurs take advantage of changes
in business organization?
 How did new methods of marketing products
change American life?
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Concerning government’s role in business

Business leaders:
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Capitalism – private business and competition
determine costs
Laissez-faire – let the people doo as they choose,
no government intervention
Free Enterprise – supply and demand determine
prices

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◦ Individuals should be self-reliant.
◦ Businesses prosper most without government
interference.
◦ Government interference reduces self-reliance.
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Concerning government’s role in business

Social critics:
◦ Factory life and poor working conditions harm
workers.
◦ All citizens should own all means of production.
◦ Government assistance would prevent the best
businesses from rising to the top.
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Communism – no individual ownership of
property, means of production should be
owned by everyone
Social Darwinism – the fittest people or
businesses would rise to the top
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New business strategies
Corporation – sell a percentage, or
“Share” of a company
 Vertical integration – acquiring companies
that provide material and services that
the primary company depends on
 Horizontal integration – on companies
control of other companies producing the
same things
 Technological innovation
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The Corporation
Trust – a group of companies turn control
over to a board of trustees
 Monopoly – when a trust gains exclusive
control with little to no other
competition left
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Entrepreneurs take advantage
Carnegie created corporations and used vertical
integration to dominate the steel industry.
 Rockefeller created corporations and used
horizontal integration to dominate the oil industry.
 Vanderbilt bought and consolidated many railroad
lines.
 Westinghouse and Pullman introduced and
controlled new railroad technologies.
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New marketing methods
use of brand names and special packaging
 advertising
 department stores
 catalogs
 chain stores
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6.3 Objectives:
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Why did some Americans want trusts to be
banned, and how did the government respond?
What types of working conditions did laborers
face in the new age of rapid industrialization?
How did the Knights of Labor attempt to
address the needs of many workers?
How did businesses react to strikes in the late
1800s, and how did this affect unions?
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The banning of trusts
desired because of belief that without
competition, large monopolies would have
no reason to maintain quality or keep
prices low
 not accomplished despite passage of the
Sherman Antitrust Act
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Working conditions
Workers
 African Americans
 Women and Children
Working Conditions
 low pay
 long hours
 unsafe environments
 possibility of racial discrimination
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The Knights of Labor
included both skilled and unskilled workers
 included women and, later, African Americans
 organized strikes, marches, and
demonstrations
 educated and organized workers
Facts
Terence V Powderly – 1st leader of KOL
Mary Harris Jones – organized strikes,
marches, and demonstrations
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The Great Upheaval
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1886 saw a year of intense strikes and
violent labor confrontations
Haymarket Riot
◦ May of 1886; 40,000 Chicago workers strike
◦ May 3 confrontation results in 2 deaths
◦ May 4 a peaceful rally was breaking up when 200
police showed up, bombs and gunfire opened 60
police wounded

American Federation of Labor – Samuel
Gompers organized independent craft
unions
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Strikes in the late 1800s
Businesses responded with blacklists, yellowdog contracts, lockouts, and violence.
 Business tactics hurt many unions and caused
skilled workers to break away from unskilled
ones.
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Other Strikes
 Homestead Strike – steel
 Pullman – sleeping car factory
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