Chapter 6
The Second Industrial Revolution
Section 1
The Age of Invention
Industrial Innovations
 From 1865-1905 the United States experienced a surge of industrial growth know
as a Second Industrial Revolution.
 Coal and steam made the original Industrial Revolution possible in the United
States.
 The Second Industrial Revolution was spurred on by steel and oil.
Steel
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Henry Bessemer developed a method of making steel at a faster rate and cheaper
price.
The Bessemer process could produce more steel in one day than the older
technique could in one week.
Steel was stronger, lighter, and more flexible than iron.
Steel refining
 Provided a strong, cheap source of building material
 Allowed expansion of the railroad industry
 Allowed construction of more complex machines, taller buildings, farm
equipment, and barbed wire
Oil
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In the late 1850s, a process was developed to refine crude oil into kerosene which
could be burned in lamps and used as fuel.
Edwin L. Drake used a steam engine to drill for oil.
By the 1880s oil wells dotted Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
In 1901 oil was discovered in Texas.
Oil refining
 Resulted in the production of kerosene for fuel and light
 Allowed the manufacturing of other petroleum products
 Helped machinery operate
 Patent – a guarantee to protect an inventor’s rights to make, use, or sell an
invention.
 Elijah McCoy (AA) invented a lubricating cup that fed oil to parts of a machine
while it was running.
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Transportation
 Innovations in the steel and oil industries led to a surge of advances in the
transportation industry.
 Railroads
 Horseless carriage (automobile)
 Airplanes
Railroads
 Railroads promoted western settlement, urban growth, and economic prosperity.
 With the increase production of steel, the price of steel decreased; this caused
railroad companies to lay down more tracks.
 The increase in railways led to new innovations such as compressed-air brakes
and refrigerated freight cars.
Promontory Point, Utah
Time Zones
Horseless Carriage (Automobile)
 Horseless carriages had been developed around 1770, using steam to power the
engine.
 The innovations in oil refining in the late 1800s led to advances in development of
motors.
 In the 1890s, the first practical motor car was built in the US, but only wealthy
citizens could afford them.
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Airplanes
 The internal combustion engine (gas powered engine) led to the development of
the first working airplane.
 On Dec. 17, 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first piloted fight near
Kitty Hawk, NC – 12 seconds and 120 feet.
 First Flight
Inventions in Communication
 Telegraph
 Telephone
 typewriter
Telegraph
 The telegraph allowed businesses to place
long-distance orders quickly.
 Samuel Morse developed the telegraph.
 The telegraph went up along railroads.
Telephone
 The telephone brought both businesses and individuals together.
 In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone.
 The invention of the telephone created more jobs for women as operators.
Typewriter
 Christopher Sholes developed the typewriter in 1867.
 The typewriter revolutionized communication and opened the door to many
women needing jobs.
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Thomas Edison
 Thomas Edison holds a patent on or made significant advances in the following
inventions.
 Light bulbs
 Phonograph
 Motion-picture cameras
 Electric voice recorder
 Telegraphic stock ticker
 Electricity (distribution)
 telegraph
Thomas Alva Edison
 In 1876 he went into the “invention business” when he opened a workshop in
Menlo Park, NJ.
 He assembled a team of researchers to come up with new inventions.
 In 1882, he opened the world’s first electric power plants in New York City.
 The availability of electrical power also made possible for people to work at night
and cities began to use electric streetcars.
Section 2
The Rise of Big Business
Capitalism
 The United States operates under an economic system known as capitalism, in
which private business run most industries and competition determines how much
goods cost and workers are paid. (KNOW THIS)
 Entrepreneurs are risk taking businesspeople.
 Horatio Alger Jr. published a popular series of novels that were based on rag-toriches theme. Poor children improving their social and financial status through
hard work and self-motivation.
 LAISSEZ-FAIRE – Many business leaders supported the ideal of laissez-faire
capitalism. Laissez-faire means, “to let people do as they choose.” The theory of
laissez-faire capitalism calls for no government intervention in the economy.
 In a free market or free enterprise economy, supply, demand, and profit margin
determine what and how much businesses produce.
Critics of Capitalism
 Some criticized free enterprise because it gave an advantage to the business
owners and the workers would be taken advantage of.
 Karl Marx (German) proposed a political system that would remove the
inequalities of wealth, called Marxism (communism).
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Communism
 Communism proposes that individual ownership of property should not be
allowed.
 In a communist state, property and the means of production are owned by
everyone in the community. The community in turn ideally provides for the
needs of all of the people equally without regard of social rank.
 Communism calls for the overthrow of capitalism.
Social Darwinism
 Social Darwinists argued that society progressed through natural competition.
 The “fittest” people, businesses, or nations should and would rise to positions of
wealth and power.
 The “unfit” would fail. (Survival of the fittest.)
 Corporation
 In a corporation, organizers raise money by selling shares of stock in a company.
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Stockholders – those who buy the shares – receive a percentage of the
corporation’s profits, know as dividends.
Trusts and Monopolies
 In a trust, a group of companies turn control of their stock over to a common
board of trustees. The Trustees then run all of the companies as a single
enterprise.
 If a trust gains exclusive control of an industry, it holds a monopoly and there is
no competition so the company controls the price and quality of a product.
 Monopolies are not good for the consumer.
Andrew Carnegie
 Andrew Carnegie owned Carnegie Steel.
 He hired the best people and fitted his plants with the most modern machinery.
 He also used vertical integration – he acquired companies that provided the
materials and services upon which his enterprise depended.
 Example of vertical integration
 BEFORE vertical integration Exxon would pay
 another company
 To locate the oil deposits
 To drill the oil.
 To transport the crude oil.
 Would refine the oil at their refineries.
 To transport the gasoline to the gas stations
 Sell the gas to gas stations.
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Example of vertical integration
 AFTER vertical integration. Exxon would buy companies and would
 Locate the oil deposits & drill the oil itself.
 Transport the oil itself.
 Refine the oil at their refineries.
 Transport the gasoline to the gas stations itself.
 Open its own gas stations and sell the gas itself.
Andrew Carnegie
 He sold his company to J.P. Morgan for nearly $500 million. Carnegie retired as
the world’s richest man.
 Carnegie believed in “Gospel of Wealth”. He insisted that the rich were morally
obligated to manage their wealth in a way that benefited their fellow citizens.
 He donated more than $350 million to charity.
Rockefeller and Standard Oil Company
 One of the founders of Standard Oil.
 Used vertical integration. He acquired barrel factories, oil fields, oil storage
facilities, pipelines, and railroad tanker car.
 Used horizontal integration by taking control of the competition. (Monopoly)
 By 1880 the SOC controlled 90%of the country’s petroleum-refineries.
 He donated $550 million to philanthropic causes.
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Robber Barons
 Carnegie and Rockefeller were considered robber barons.
 A robber baron was someone of great importance who got his money at the cost
to someone else.
 Example: The owner of a steel mill pays his employees $1.25 and day while he
makes $5,000 a day.
 Other robber barons capitalized on the booming railroad industry.
 C. Vanderbilt
 Jay Gould
Railroad Giants
 Cornelius Vanderbilt
 Cornelius Vanderbilt was a pioneer of the railroad industry.
 Vanderbilt controlled railroad lines between Chicago, Cleveland, New
York, and Toledo.
 His personal fortune was estimated at $100 million.
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George Westinghouse made a large fortune in the railroad industry.
 Westinghouse invented the compressed-air brake, which allowed trains to
stop more quickly and safely.
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George Pullman designed and manufactured railroad cars that made longdistances rail travel more comfortable.
 He created a massive passenger-railroad-car industry. (sleeping car, dining
cars, luxurious cars)
 He created a company town outside Chicago where his employees lived.
 Pullman strictly controlled daily life in the company town, causing
dissatisfaction to grow among many workers.
Mass Marketing
 Companies began to advertise their products.
 Brand names and packaging became important
 Sears, Roebuck, and Co. targeted the people in the rural areas by sending out
catalogs.
 Department stores began to open up. Example: Woolworth
Section 3
Labor Strives to Organize
Government and Business
 U.S. government’s policies concerning business practices most often benefited the
industrialists.
 Many Americans demanded that trusts be outlawed. Without competition,
monopolies would not maintain the quality of their goods or keep prices low.
 In 1890, Congress passed the SHERMAN ANTITRUST ACT, which outlawed all
monopolies and trusts that restrained trade.
 The law failed to define what constituted a monopoly or trust and thus proved
difficult to enforce.
 The U.S government was more concerned with the interest of big business and
offered little support to the industrial worker. This helped widen the gap between
the wealthy and the poor.
 By 1890 just 10% of the population controlled close to 75% of the nation’s
wealth. 50% of the unskilled industrial workers in the U.S. earned less that $500
per year.
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American’s Arguments
Against Trusts
 argued that without
competition, large
monopolies would not
maintain quality or
keep prices low
Government Response
 Passed the Sherman
Antitrust Act
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Problems with Act
Failed to define a monopoly
or trust
Presented serious
enforcement problems
The Working Class
 By 1900 more that 80% of the city’s African American workers had been born in
states south of Illinois.
 Children worked 12-hours shifts for pennies a day.
 Men worked a least 10 hours a day, six Days a week, for less than $10 a week.
 Women and children worked the same number of hours as men for sometimes as
little as half the pay.
Working Conditions
 Working in a factory at the turn of the century was very difficult work for little
pay.
 The working conditions were unsafe.
 There were no laws or safety codes to follow. There was no minimum wage and
the workhours could be 12-16 hours a day, six days a week.
Labor Unions
 As working conditions grew worse, workers called for change.
 Workers united together to try to get changes made. These groups were called
labor unions. Their purpose was to get
 safer working conditions
 shorter work days
 more pay for the workers.
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Knights of Labor
 In 1869, Uriah Stephen founded the Knights of Labor, a national labor union.
 In 1879, Terence Powderly became its leader and its membership increased.
 Allowed skilled and unskilled laborers
 Allowed African Americans
 Allowed women
 Opposed Chinese workers
 One of the most prominent workers for the union was Mary Harris Jones (Mother
Jones).
 Mother Jones’ ambitious drive to educate and organize laborers was so effective
that some appoints called her “the most dangerous woman in America.”
 Was led by Terence Powderly
 Was open to all workers regardless of race (except Chinese), gender, or degree of
skill
 Supported 8-hour workday and “equal pay for equal work”
 Preferred arbitration instead of strikes
 Worked to abolish child labor
 Fought for temperance
Terms
 Arbitration – settlement of disagreements by an impartial person
 Temperance – moderation in or abstinence from the use of alcoholic beverages.
 Anarchists – people who oppose al forms of government
The Great Upheaval
 In 1886 the nation experienced a year of intense strikes and violent labor
confrontation that became know as the Great Upheaval.
The Haymarket Affair
 On May 4, 1886, 1200 people gathered at Chicago’s Haymarket Square to protest
the killing of a striker by police.
 The police arrived & someone tossed a bomb into the police line. Seven police
and several workers died in the riot.
 The three speakers and five other radicals were charged with inciting a riot.
 All eight men were convicted; four were hanged.
 As a result of the Haymarket violence, the public began to turn against the labor
movement.
 Membership in unions began to decline as a result of the Haymarket Riot.
 Employers also drew up blacklists – list of union supporters – that they shared
with one another.
 Some employees were forced to sign yellow-dog contracts agreeing not to join a
union.
American Federation of Labor
 Was founded by Samuel Gompers
 Focused on collective bargaining, or group negotiations to reach an agreement.
 Used strikes as a major tactic.
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