Innovation & Industry

American Industrial Growth• Factories increase production– New tools and production methods for larger numbers

of goods– Mass production – Assembly lines– Long work days

• Transformation of the food Industry– Methods of processing food for shipping

• Railroads expand markets and shipping for resources

Natural Resources—Coal • Abundant resources

help fuel growth

• Coal mines on Eastern Seaboard –fuel for powering steam locomotives and factories

Forests & Riverways• LUMBER - Thick

forests cut down and used for construction

• Riverways transported resources to cities

Discovery of Oil• World’s first oil well

drilled in 1859–Titusville,

Pennsylvania–Edwin Drake

• Drilled Oil cheap to produce/easy transport

• Oil industry grew quickly—encouraged growth in kerosene & gasoline industries

Oil before Drake

• Oil used for light and fuel

• Oil obtained from boiled down whale blubber– Time consuming– Scarcity of whales

A Growing Workforce• Large numbers of

immigrants come to the United States after the Civil War

• 1 million/year by 1900• Reasons for

Immigration– Political upheavals– Religious

Discrimination– Crop failures

Immigrants & the Workforce

• Large willing workforce

• Provided cheap labor

• Prepared to move frequently

Entrepreneurs• Flourish in system of Capitalism & Free

Enterprise

• Fuel industrialization by investing in products or ideas to make a profit

• Invested in factories, railroads, & mines

Rags to Riches• Horatio Alger,

Jr. – an American author

• Stories of poor boys who worked hard and gained wealth and fame

• Anyone who works hard can escape poverty

Government & Business• Gave free land to railroad builders • Use of protective tariffs• Laissez-faire policies• Patent—granted by the federal

government to an inventor for exclusive rights over their invention• Encourages invention and

innovation

• 1876—Established research lab at Menlo Park, NJ

• Received more than 1,000 patents for new inventions– Battery for electric car– Mechanical voice recorder– Motion Picture Camera– Improved the Light Bulb

THOMAS EDISON

George Westinghouse

• Technology for sending electricity over long distances• Powered homes,

factories, and city streets• Patent for train air

brakes in 1869

Alexander Graham Bell• 1876—patented the

telephone• Spread quickly• By 1881, more than 34,000

miles of wire strung• Long distance lines connected

cites in the Northeast & Midwest

• More than 1 million telephones in the United States by 1900

• 1896—Guglielmo Marconi invented wireless telegraph

Henry Bessemer & Steel• Bessemer Process -

developed in the 1850s in England by Henry Bessemer

• Process for purifying iron—resulted in strong and lightweight steel!

Steel and Innovation• Quickly adapted by

Americans– out producing British in steel

manufacture by 1890• Steel used for skyscrapers,

elevators, suspension bridges – roadway suspended by steel

cables• Brooklyn Bridge (1883)• Flatiron building(1902)– one of first skyscrapers

ELISHA OTISWorked on the elevator system in the U.S.

Created a system for abraking system for the elevator

His invention made skyscrapers practical

Steel made them possible!!!!

Granville Woods & the Steam Boiler Furnace• 1884– Improved steam-

powered furnace for running trains

1887Telegraph system for trains

• More than 60 patents—mostly relating to trains and streetcars

Gustavus Swift• Meatpacker• Developed

refrigerated cars for food• Pioneered use of

animal by-products for items such as soap, glue, & fertilizer

C.F. Dowd’s Time Zones

• Throughout the 1800s, most towns set clocks independently

• Time differences made it hard to set train schedules

• In 1884, delegates from 27 countries divided the globe into 24 time zones.

• Railroads adopted this system

Mass Production

• Growing demands from the American and European consumer

• Need for quickly and cheaply developed products

• Machinery and systems for making many products once done by hand

Exports• By the 1880s,

Americans dominated international markets with grain, steel, and textiles

• Fueled the expansion of American economy

Farming and Society• Farms became mechanized–Reduced need for farm laborers

• Many farmers moved to urban areas–Added to growing workforce–Dependent upon cash wages to buy

food–Higher cost of living

Concerns for the Environment• Industrial waste, soil erosion,

and dust storms– Fueled concerns about

protecting the environment & natural resources

• Congress responded by setting aside land– Yellowstone National Park

(1872)