Chapter 19 – The Industrial Age
Section Notes
The Second Industrial Revolution
Big Business
Industrial Workers
Quick Facts
Factors Affecting Industrial
Growth
Chapter 19 Visual Summary
Video
The Impact of the United
States as the World’s
Most Powerful Industrial
Nation
Maps
Major Labor Strikes, Late
1800s
Standardized Test Practice Map
Images
Homestead Steel Mill
Poor Working Conditions
Orville Wright
Rise of Investing
The Second Industrial Revolution
The Big Idea
The Second Industrial Revolution led to new sources of
power and advances in transportation and communication.
Main Ideas
• Breakthroughs in steel processing led to a boom in
railroad construction.
• Advances in the use of oil and electricity improved
communications and transportation.
• A rush of inventions changed Americans’ lives.
Main Idea 1:
Breakthroughs in steel processing led to a
boom in railroad construction.
• Technological advances were important to Second Industrial
Revolution, period of rapid growth in U.S. manufacturing in late
1800s
• Bessemer process, invented mid-1850s, allowed steel to be
produced quickly and cheaply.
– Helped increase steel production from 77,000 tons in 1870 to more
than 1 million tons in 1879
• As steel dropped in price, so did the cost of building railroads,
generating a boom in railroad construction.
– Growth of railroads helped the country expand and prosper.
Main Idea 2:
Advances in the use of oil and electricity
improved communications and
transportation.
• Chemists invented a way to convert crude oil into fuel
called kerosene in the 1850s.
• Kerosene, which could be used for cooking, heating, and
lighting, created a demand for oil.
• A huge oil industry developed after a way to pump oil from
the ground was developed in 1859.
Development of Electricity
Invention
Spread
• Inventor Thomas Edison,
who held more than 1,000
patents, worked to invent
an electric light.
• Edison created a power
company to distribute
electricity, but could not
send it over long distances.
• Edison and his team
introduced the first
practical electric lightbulb
in 1879.
• George Westinghouse built
a power system that could
send electricity many miles
across the country.
Main Idea 3:
A rush of inventions changed
Americans’ lives.
• New telegraph technology connected the United States
with Britain by cable in 1866.
• Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876.
• Telephones were rapidly adopted, the number rising from
55,000 in 1880 to almost 1.5 million in 1900.
Automobiles and Planes
• The automobile industry grew in steps.
– 1876 – German engineer invented the gasolinepowered engine.
– 1893 – The United States built its first practical
motorcar.
– 1908 – Henry Ford introduced the Model T.
• Ford was first to implement the moving assembly line in
manufacturing, making cars more affordable.
• Wilbur and Orville Wright invented an airplane powered
by a gas engine in 1903.
Big Business
The Big Idea
The growth of big business in the late 1800s led to the
creation of monopolies.
Main Ideas
• The rise of corporations and powerful business leaders led
to the dominance of big business in the United States.
• People and the government began to question the
methods of big business.
Main Idea 1:
The rise of corporations and powerful
business leaders led to the dominance of big
business in the United States.
• Many entrepreneurs formed their businesses in the late
1800s as corporations, or businesses that sell portions of
ownership called stock shares.
• Corporate leaders were some of the most widely respected
members of American society.
• Successful corporations rewarded not only the people who
founded them, but also investors who held stock.
• Corporations encouraged more investment in businesses
because stockholders could sell stock whenever they
wanted.
Business Leaders
Andrew Carnegie
John D. Rockefeller
• One of most
admired
businesspeople of
the time
• Standard Oil
Company was
country’s largest
refinery
• Focused on
steelmaking
• Developed
horizontal
integration,
owning all
businesses in a
field
• Used vertical
integration,
owning businesses
involved in each
step of
manufacturing, to
lower costs
• Formed a trust,
grouping many
companies under a
single board
Leland Stanford
• Made fortune
selling equipment
to miners
• Governor of
California, one of
founders of Central
Pacific Railroad,
and founder of
Stanford University
Main Idea 2:
People and the government began to
question the methods of big business.
• People and the government began to view big business as
a problem in the late 1800s.
– Concerned about child labor, low wages, and poor working
conditions
• Many business leaders believed in social Darwinism.
– Darwin’s “survival of fittest” applied to which human beings
would succeed in business and in life in general.
• Other business leaders believed that the rich should help
the poor.
– Carnegie, Rockefeller, Stanford, and other business leaders
gave away large sums of money to charities.
The Antitrust Movement
• Critics said many businesses earned their fortunes through
unfair business practices.
– Used size and strength to drive smaller competitors out of
business
– Powerful trusts sold goods and services below market value
until smaller competitors went out of business, then raised
prices.
• Some people were concerned when a trust gained a
monopoly, or total ownership of a product or service.
• The Sherman Antitrust Act passed in 1890 made it illegal
to create monopolies or trusts that restrained trade.
– The act did not clearly define a trust in legal terms, so it was
hard to enforce.
– Corporations and trusts continued to grow in size and power.
Industrial Workers
The Big Idea
Changes in the workplace led to a rise in labor unions and
workers’ strikes.
Main Ideas
• The desire to maximize profits and become more efficient
led to poor working conditions.
• Workers began to organize and demand improvements in
working conditions and pay.
• Labor strikes often turned violent and failed to accomplish
their goals.
Main Idea 1:
The desire to maximize profits and become
more efficient led to poor working conditions.
• Several factors led to a decline in the quality of working
conditions in the late 1800s.
– Machines and unskilled workers replaced skilled craftspeople.
– These low-paid workers could easily be replaced. They brought
costs down and caused production to rise.
• Frederick W. Taylor, an efficiency expert, published The
Principles of Scientific Management in 1909.
– Encouraged managers to view workers as interchangeable
parts
– Injuries increased, and conditions worsened.
– Workers looked for ways to bring about change.
Poor Working Conditions
• Small, crowded rooms
• Specialization made workers tired, bored, and more likely
to be injured.
• Managers paid less attention to working conditions.
• Stuffy air
• Unsafe workplaces
• Long hours
• Low wages
• No job security
Main Idea 2:
Workers began to organize and demand
improvements in working conditions and pay.
Knights of Labor
• First national labor union,
founded in 1870s
• Pushed for eight-hour
workday, equal pay for
equal work, and end to
child labor
• Included both skilled and
unskilled workers
• Terence V. Powderly
became leader in 1879 and
ended secrecy of
organization.
American Federation of
Labor
• Organized individual national
unions, such as mineworkers’ and steelworkers’
unions
• Limited membership to
skilled workers
• Used collective
bargaining, in which all
workers acted collectively, or
together, to negotiate with
management
Main Idea 3:
Labor strikes often turned violent and failed
to accomplish their goals.
Haymarket Riot
Homestead Strike
Pullman Strike
• Erupted
between
protesters and
police in Chicago
• Strike occurred at
Carnegie Steel
Company in
Homestead,
Pennsylvania.
• Began with
workers who made
Pullman train cars
• Resulted in
decline of
Knights of Labor
• Resulting fight
left workers and
Pinkerton guards
dead.
• Spread to workers
who worked on
trains pulling
sleeping cars
• Federal troops
stopped strike.
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