BELL WORK
Page 228-229
INTERACT with HISTORY
Examine the Issues
Answer the 3 questions
Chapter 6
A New Industrial Age
Essential Question: What impact did
scientific discoveries and manufacturing
processes have on the nature of work, the
American labor movement, and American
businesses?
Section 1 – The Expansion of Industry
Examples: railroads, skyscrapers, nails, pins
The Steel Industry
1850’s – The Bessemer Process allowed steel to be produced
cheaply.
· Therefore, the steel industry grew rapidly.
Henry Bessemer
Bessemer
converter,
Kelham
Island
Museum,
Sheffield,
England
(2002)
· Scottish immigrant Andrew
Carnegie became the “King of
Steel”, producing the majority
of America’s steel.
Andrew Carnegie
Section 2 – The Age of the Railroads
· Railroad companies raced to lay tracks to the mines in order
to supply the miners.
The Transcontinental Railroad
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j
. . x
Omaha, Nebraska
Sacramento,
California
Promontory Point, Utah
Union Pacific
Railroad
Central
Pacific
Railroad
· In 1863, two companies, the Union Pacific and the Central
Pacific, began building the first transcontinental railroad.
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j
On May 10, 1869, a golden spike was hammered into a track
joining the two tracks in Promontory Point, UT.
- Once the gauge, or width, of tracks was standardized,
railroads formed a network, or system of connected lines.
Growth of Railroads
Top: Railroads in 1890
Right: Railroads in 1918
- Cornelius Vanderbilt was one of the richest men in America,
and the most powerful railroad baron.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
- Railroad companies began to consolidate, or combine, in
order to compete with large companies, such as Cornelius
Vanderbilt’s.
- This forced many small
railroad companies out of
business.
Abuses:
- Railroad companies offered
rebates, or discounts, in order
to keep or win customers.
- In order to end competition
and keep prices high, railroad
companies agreed to divide up
business in an area and set
high prices. This was known as
pooling.
- The railroads opened
up the country to
settlement and growth.
Effects on Industry:
- The railroad industry
created thousands of
new jobs.
Examples: steelworkers,
lumberjacks, miners,
railroad workers
Anti-railroad
propaganda
The Grange and the Railroads
1. Farmers were angry with RR
companies:
• Price fixing
• Selling gov’t land to businesses
2. Congress passed the Interstate
Commerce Act.
3. Gave gov’t right supervise RR
companies & established the Interstate
Commerce Commission (ICC)