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Speeding up Communications
Better communication= vital for American businesses
Telegraph-Created 1844
Allowed communication within the US
Dots and dashes over wire -
New and improved steel.
William kelly and Henry Bessemer each create new ways to create steel. The Bessemer process allowed for stronger steel at a lower cost. -
Railroads come into history
Railroads help bring the military to the front lines during the Civil War. Railroads also help move raw materials and finished products to their destinations. -
New Inventions in the railway industry
George Westinghouse creates the air brake.
George Pullman creates RR sleeping cars. -
problems with the railways.
Gauges between rails not the same
Rails made of iron not steel. -
Transatlantic cable
Laying a cable under the ocean so for telegraph messages
Created by Cyrus Field
First message sent from London to Washington DC -
Refrigeration
Gustavus Swift-
Introduced refrigeration to the meat packing industry
Set up in Chicago
Could now be shipped long distances in refrigerated RR cars without rotting -
Railway travel improved.
George Westinghouse creates the air brake.
George Pullman creates RR sleeping cars -
Consolidation.
Corneilius Vanderbuilt creates the New York Central Railway.
Connects the Great lakes with New York City.
Smaller lines too expensive to run. -
Oil
New valuable resource
Seen naturally in Pennsylvania
John D. Rockefeller-Prospector for oil
Oil needed to be refined to become kerosene
Eliminated competition, built Standard Oil Company of Ohio
Hated competition -
Standard Oil Trust
Created by Rockefeller to tighten his hold over the oil industry
Created a monopoly of the oil industry -
Telephone
Alexander Graham Bell
Scottish born teacher of the deaf
Wanted to transmit voices
1876- tests his “talking machine”
People see it as a toy at first
Created the Bell Telephone Company in 1885
Pace of business booms -
Thomas Edison
opened first laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey
Turned inventing into a system
Long and grueling
“Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration”
Wizard of menlo park -
The Rise of Corporation
For big factories to be successful need capital
Capital is the money for investment
Expanding businesses become Corporations
Investors buy stocks-Shares in the buisness
Investors known as stockholders
Use money from investors to build & improve factories
Stockholders get dividends
Shares of a corporations profit
Board of directors-protect investments, run the corporation -
Thomas's inventions
Light bulb, phonograph, motion picture projector (silent movies)
Electric Power Plant-
First in NYC
Supplied electricity to businesses and homes in a district
Replace steam powered engines with electric engines -
the rise of big business.
Pittsburgh becomes the steel capital of the world.
A lot of wealthy businessmen are made there. -
Railroads refined and standardized.
The south decides to adopt the northern gauge and standardize it among the 13,000 miles of track in the south at the time. Travel and transportation through railways is possible now. Only one fee needed for shippers. Steel is also implemented and allows for stronger rails. -
James Hill and the Great Northern.
James Hill creates the Great Northern Railway. He created the line without help from the government and used generous policies to reagin the money lost from making the railway. -
Andrew Carnegie
Scottish immigrant who used the Bessemer process and
bought out steel rivals, iron mines, RR & steamship lines & warehouses. -
The rise of big business.
Pittsburgh-steel capital
Lots of wealthy businessmen there. -
Steel becomes popular.
Railroad start using it for rails.
Does not rust and is much stronger. -
Eliminating the competition.
Rate wars- rival RRs slash their prices to win customers= lose money
Rebates- discounts to their biggest (wealthiest) customers
Pool- several RR companies agreeing to divide up the business in the area -
Steel mills thrive
Other industries using steel for pins, screws, needles, and girders for the first skyscrapers. Pittsburgh the capital of steelmaking due to the nearby coal mines. Lots of new jobs and pollution. -
Banks and Industry
Corporations borrow millions from banks.
Loans allow for profits. -
J. Pierpont Morgan
Most powerful banker in late 1800s.
Used his banking profits to gain control of major corporations.
Invested stock in troubled corporations.
Because they were large, stockholders got seats on the board of directors.
Reduced competition, got big profits -
The Case Against Trusts
Trusts abuse the free enterprise system-
Buisnesses are owned by private citizens
Companies compete to win customers by making the best for the least
Believe trusts and monopolies reduce competition
poor quality products
Political influence in trusts
Millionaires using their influence on the government -
Government Control of trusts
Public urges government to control giant corporations
Sherman Anti-Trust Act- 1890
stopped all trusts -
Case for Trusts
Too much competition ruins businesses, puts people out of work
Lower production costs, lower prices, higher wages, better wuality f life -
New Technologies at the Office & Home
Christopher Sholes- typewriter
George Eastman- lightweight Kodak camera & picture development -
African American Inventors
Elijah McCoy- oiled engines automatically
Granville T. Woods- sent telegraphs between moving trains
Jan Matzeliger- shoemaking machine
Many African Americans had trouble getting patents -
Populist party
Populist party founded as a result of railroads pooling and rebates.
They called for government regulation of the railways. -
Patents
1897- 21,000 patents granted
US= land of invention
New inventions help-
Industry grows
Makes domestic life easier -
JP Morgan
Begins to combine corporations
Began to control nation’s RRs
Began to buy steel companies
United States Steel Company- 1901
First buisness in america worth more than 1 billion -
The First Flight
Orville & Wilbur Wright-
Tested their first flying machine in 1903 Kitty Hawk, North Carolina
Powered by a small gasoline engine
Longest flight lasted 59 seconds
Did not attract much interest at first
US Military first to take interest -
Automobiles & the Assembly Line
No single person created the automobile
Only the wealthy could afford cars
Henry Ford’s Assembly Line-
1913- made cars a part of everyday life
Moving Assembly Line- workers stay in one place as products move along a moving belt
Allowed for mass production-making large quantities of a product quickly and chaply
Can sell cars at a lower price for everyone
