Triumph of Industry
1850 - 1900
Technology and
Industrial Growth
By Mrs. Brown
1
Bellringer 1:
Make a list of inventions of the
period.
Which one was most important
to American society?
Give reasons for your choice.
2
Learning Targets…
I Can…
1. Analyze the factors that led to the
industrialization of the United States in
the late 1800s.
2. Explain how new inventions and
innovations changed Americans’ lives.
3. Describe the impact of industrialization in
the late 1800s.
3
Section Focus Question:
 How did industrialization and new technology
affect the economy and society?
 Witness History (CD2 #30)
Celebrating the Nation’s Centennial
“Song of the Exposition” by Walt Whitman
1. Why was the Centennial Exhibition so popular?
2. Why might it represent a turning point for the
United States?
4
Changes in Daily Life
1. Daily life in 1865



Indoor electric lighting or
refrigeration did not exist.
Ice blocks were sawed out
of ponds, packed in sawdust
and stored in icehouses.
Mail took 10 days to three
weeks to reach from east
coast to Midwest to the
west. News from Europe to
the frontier took months.
5
Natural Resources Fuel Growth
 Coal mines along the eastern seaboard
provided fuel to power steam locomotives
and factories.
 Forests provided lumber for construction.
 Navigable river ways transported goods
6
First Oil Well
 1859 Edwin Drake drilled the world’s
first oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania.
 Before Drake’s invention, oil, was mainly
obtained from boiling down whale blubber.
7
http://www.cbsd.org/pennsylvaniapeople/level1_biographies/images/Drak
e'%201.jpg
8
Capitalism Encourages
Entrepreneurs
 1868 Horatio Alger published the novel,
Ragged Dick, or Street Life in New York.
 It was the rags to riches story of a poor boy
who achieved fame and wealth through
hard work.
 This idea depended on the system of
capitalism.
 Heroes of the system were entrepreners.
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2. Daily life in 1900


The patent and
trademark office
issued 36,000
patents between
1790 and 1860.
Between 1860 and
1890 500,000
patents were issued
for inventions such
as the typewriter,
sewing machine and
phonograph.
Phonograph
http://inventors.about.
com/bledison.htm
10
Thomas Edison
 Edison did not invent
the light bulb but
improved on a 50year-old idea.
 1876 Edison,
supported by
industrialist like J.P.
Morgan established a
research library at
Menlo Park, New
Jersey
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Thomas Edison
 Edison had only a few
months of formal
education would
receive more than
1000 patents for new
inventions
http://www.nndb.com/people/333/000022267/
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Thomas Edison
• European investors and
American business
leaders began to invest
heavily in new
inventions.
• By 1900 Americans’
standard of living was
among the highest in the
world as was the nation’s
industrial productivity.
13
Railroads Improve
Transportation
1.
The Transcontinental
Railroad
•
The transcontinental railroad
was the key event in the great
improvement of the rail
business after the Civil War.
(Extending coast to coast)
Government involvement was
vital.
The federal government
awarded huge loans and land
grants to two private
companies.
•
•
http://www.utahcrossroads.org/F1097_09.htm
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• The Central Pacific Railroad
began moving eastward out of
Sacramento.
• The Union Pacific Railroad
began work toward the west in
Omaha.
• Most of the workers were
immigrants: Irish or Chinese
• After seven years, On May 10,
1869, the final golden spike
was hammer in Promontory
Point, Utah.
Near Promontory Point
http://www.utahcrossroads.org/F1097_16.htm
15
http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/scientists/woods.html
2. Rail Problems and Solutions

By 1870 railroads could carry
goods and passengers from
coast to coast.
 Steel rails replaced iron rails,
and track gauges and signals
became standard.
 In 1869 George Westinghouse
developed more effective air
brakes.
 In 1887 Granville Woods
patented a telegraph system
for communicating with
moving trains.
Meatpacker, Gustavus Swift
developed refrigerated cars
for transporting food.
Granville Woods
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3. Rail Roads and Time Zones
 In the 1800s most towns set their clocks
independently according to solar time.
• In 1884, 27 countries divided the globe into 24
time zones – one for each hour of the day.
• The railroad adopted this system.
 By the end of the century, some 190,000 miles
of rails linked businesses and their customers.
 Shipping costs dropped enormously.
 In 1865 shipping a barrel of flour from Chicago
to New York cost $3.45. In 1895 it cost 68
cents.
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Advances in Communication
1. The Telegraph
•
•
•
Self-Portrait
Samuel F.B. Morse
perfected and took out
a patent on the
telegraph.
Morse devised a code
of short and long
electrical impulses to
represent the letters of
the alphabet.
He sent his first
message in 1844.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bltelegraph.htm
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2. The Telephone
 Alexander Graham Bell of
Scotland patented the
“talking telegraph” on
March 7, 1876. He had
just turned 29.
 That same year President
Rutherford B. Hayes
had a telephone
installed at the White
House.
http://www.picturehistory.com/find/p/14836/mcms.html
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The Telephone
 By 1900, there were more than 100,000
miles of telegraph wire linked across
America.
 1896 Guglielmo Marconi invented the
wireless telegraph.
 Future inventors would develop the radio
based on this innovation.
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Electric Power
1. Edison, A master
of invention
•
•
•
Born in 1847, Edison grew
up tinkering with electricity.
Edison’s favorite
invention, the phonograph,
recorded sounds on metal
foil wrapped around a
rotating cylinder.
His goal was to develop
affordable, in home lighting
to replace oil lamps and
gaslights.
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/edhtml/edmvhm.html
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2. Westinghouse and
alternating current


 1n 1885 George
Westinghouse began to
experiment with alternating
current, which could be
produced and transmitted
more cheaply and
efficiently.
 Westinghouse also used a
device called a transformer
to boost power levels at a
station so that electricity
could be sent over long
distances.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blwestinghouse.htm
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

 Westinghouse’s system
made home use of electricity
practical.
 By the early 1890’s,
investors had used Edison’s
and Westinghouse’s ideas
and inventions to create two
companies, general electric
and Westinghouse electric.
1st Light – Lighting Main Street
http://www.georgewestinghouse.com/1stlight.html
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3. Electricity’s Impact on Daily
Life

 Electricity made the
refrigerator possible,
transformed the world
of work and created
new jobs.
 The electric sewing
machine, first made in
1889, led to the rapid
growth of the clothing
industry.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsewing_machine.htm
24
Turning Point: The Bessemer
Process
• In 1856 in England, Henry Bessemer
received the first patent for the Bessemer
process.
• Steel had long been produced by melting
iron, adding carbon, and removing
impurities.
• The Bessemer process made it much easier
and cheaper to remove the impurities.
25
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsteel.htm
• Steel is lighter,
stronger, and more
flexible than iron.
• The Bessemer process
made possible the
mass production of
steel.
• By 1890, the US was
outproducing British
steel manufacturers.
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http://www.skyscraperpicture.com/index1.htm
Witness History:
 CD 2 #29
 The March of American Progress – The
Brooklyn Eagle
 How do you think the completion of this
bridge changed the lives of the people
living around it?
27
The Brooklyn Bridge
•
•
The only way to travel
between Brooklyn and
Manhattan was by ferry
across the east river.
John A. Roebling, a
German immigrant
designed a suspension
bridge with thick steel
cables suspended from
high towers to hold up
the main span.
http://www.germanheritage.com/biographies/mtoz/roebling.html
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Brooklyn Bridge
•
Disasters plagued this
massive project.
Roebling died, his son
then in charge was
disabled with “the
bends”. Explosions,
fires, and dishonest
dealings by a greedy
steel-cable contractor
also occurred.
http://www.wirednewyork.com/bridges/brooklyn_bridge/
images/brooklyn_manhattan_bridge_26may02.jpg
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2. A Symbol of American Success


The Brooklyn bridge was completed and
opened on May 24, 1883.
Its inventive genius and hard work stood
plainly visible for all the world to see.
Witness History: CD 2 #29
The March of American Progress
The Brooklyn Eagle
 How do you think the completion of this bridge
changed the lives of the people living around it?
30
The Impact of Industrialization
 Linked World Markets
– US exports of grain, steel, and textiles
dominated international markets
 Changed American Society
– Industry altered how Americans lived and
worked
 Concern about the Environment
– 1872 Yellowstone National Park was created
in response to concerns
31
Textbook Resources:
 Read Major Inventions of the 1800s on
page 102
 Read and study Focus on Geography on
page 105. Answer the two Geography and
History questions in the green box.
32
Exit Slip:
1. Why did industry continue to expand after the
civil war? P101
2. Why would a patent encourage the work of
inventors? P102
3. How did the Bessemer process affect
transportation? P103
4. How did industrialization change the population
of U.S. cities and rural areas? p106
5. How did industrialization affect people’s
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relationship with their environment? p106