-
Bessemer Process
The Bessemer process was the first process discovered for how to mass produce steel. The main engineers behind this process were Bessemer and William Kelly. Kelly introduced the use of air blast to purify pig iron. Bessemer was then able to develop this into a commercial success. The final product was a large amount of mass producing steel that revolutionized construction and steel supply. -
Transcontinental Railroad Completed
In 1847 the Colombian and ivestors from the United States negotiated a plan to build a transcontinental railroad. This railroad helped the gold rushers destined for California get there quickly and easily. However due to health problems and political disagreements the railroad was not fully operational until 1855. -
Edwin Drake
In 1857 Drake met stockholders who leased land with oil seepages on ground level. Later on the stockholders developed a new company called Seneca Oil Company and sold some stock to Drake. Drake decided to try to bore the oil. After a failed atttempt in May 1858, he solved the problem by driving sections of pipe into the ground until he hit bedrock. On August 27,1859 he reached the oil and forever changed the way people mined for oil. -
John D. Rockefellar
Rockefellar was an American industrialist who owned an essential oil company and was the first great U.S. trust. Because of Rockefellars emphasis on economical operations were so great they were able to buy out most of its competitors until, by 1872, it controlled nearly all the refineries in Cleveland. Then Rockefellar put his stock in the market and it became one of the U.S's finest trusts. -
Thomas Edison
Edison began his career in 1863. He was very motivitated due to his deafness at a young age. Some of his creations are phonograph, the carbon-button transmitter for the telephone speaker and microphone, the incandescent lamp, a generator of unprecedented efficiency, the first commercial electric light and power system, an experimental electric railroad, and elements of motion-picture apparatus. Thomas Edison was a crucial part of discovering modern day electricity. -
Credit Mobilier Scandel
The Credit Mobilier Scandel was a group of people who manipulated there contracts by a construction company and finance company associated with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad. -
Christopher Sholes
Christopher Sholes is the grand inventor of the type writer. He started his work as an apprentice to a printer for four years. Then he slowly climbed his way to the top until he was working as editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel. Then he worked for President Lincolm as a collector. Then in 1864 he and a friend, Samuel W. Soulé, patented the page numberer. Which they later turned into a type writer which they got a patent for on June 23, 1868. -
Eugene Debs
Eugene Victor Debs was a presidential candidate who had huge roles in civil rights acts such as the Pullman Strike. However most of these roles landed him in prison. But he still managed to run for president in the years 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, and 1920. In 1918 he was accused of sedition, and his United States citizenship was taken away. However 50 years after his death it was restored. -
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was a high school dropout who invented one of the most important devices that we still use today. He invented the telephone. He also helped Gardiner Hubbard out with the harmonic telegraph which transmitted musical tones. Then on March 7, 1876 Bell got a patent for the telephone. Howver he did not have an actual working produck until March 10, 1876 where he was then able to transmit his voice to his assistant. -
Munn v. Illinois
Munn v. Illinois was a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the power of government to regulate private industries when the Chicago grain warehouse firm of Munn and Scott were fouund guilty. They illegedly didn't follow the maximum rates that private companies could charge for the storage and transport of agricultural products. The judge of the supreme court ruled that the state had the power so Munn lost. -
Haymarket Riot
The Haymarket Riot began when laborers wanted to reduce the amount of work hours to 8. To prove there point workers at McCormick Harvesting Machine Company in Chicago went on strike. However when the police went to intervene the situtation esculated and got very brutal. One person died and several were injured. The Haymarket Riot made very people angry and they directed against labor leaders and immigrants. -
Interstate Commerce Act
President Clevelend established the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887. This act established the Interstate Commerce Commission, which was the first regulatory agency in the United States. The regulatory agency was an indepedent goverment commision that was in charge of setting and reinforcing standards in a specific field of activity, or operations. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act is named for the U.S. Senator John Sherman of Ohio. It was the first legislation enacted by the U.S. congress to stop strong powers from differing trade or business oppurtunitie and taking to much economic power. This act was put into place in 1890. -
Mother Jones
Mother Jones, Mary Harris Jones, was a labour organizer known as a great leader in the fight for union rights. By 1890 she become a highly visible figure in the American labour movement by going and supporting many labour movements such as strikes and organizing for the United Mine Workers. She also was agaisnt the use of child labour. -
Homestead Strike
The Homestead Strike was a violent dispute between the Carnegie Steel Company and many of its workers that occurred on July 6, 1892, in Homestead, Pennsylvania. It all started when the Carnegie Steel Company wanted to cut the contract with the Union short. To do that he eventually fired all of the workers which led to a huge riot between the Pinkertons and the workers where multiple people were killed and several injured. Eventually the workers won and the Pinkertons fled. -
Pullman Strike
The Pullman strike was a railroad strike that caused railroad traffic to be backed up for weeks. It originally started when the Pullman Palace Car Company cut there workers wages by 25%. This later turned into a hugely spread boycott and strike of workers in the rail road industry. To settle the boycotters aggression President Clevelend set an injuction into place. The president, along with the congress, then made labor day a national holiday to pay tribute to the workers. -
Lochner v. NY Decision
Lochner was a bakery owner that disobeyed the bakeshop act. This act was an act prohibiting workers in bakers to work over 60 hrs in one week and there was a basis of sanitary situations that needed to be met. Lochner was said to have had one of his workers work more then 60 hrs so he was brought to court. He argued that the bakeshop act was unconstitutional and limited his rights. Then U.S. Supreme Court agreed and found the Bakeshop Act unconstitutional. Many people argued agaisnt it. -
J.P. Morgan
JPMorgan Chase & Co. was created by J.P. Morgan. It is an American banking and financial services company. The company was formed through the 2000 merger of J.P. Morgan & Co. and The Chase Manhattan Corporation. -
Henry Ford
Henry Ford built his first car in a shed behind his house. In 1902 he marketed his first auto mobile and started the Ford Motor Company. The automobile became the main prop of the American economy. -
The Wright Brothers
The Wright brothers were the first people ever to build and test an airplane. Their interest in flying started when the boys began interseted in gliders which they flew all the time on the dunes near where they lived. The boys then decided to build a glider powered by its own gaseline engine. This became the first airplane.
