Technology and Industrial Growth

Chapter 6 Section 1

Encouraging Industrial Growth

• Second Industrial Revolution:– Following the Civil War:

• Americans embraced technology and innovation.• Turned the United States into an industrial powerhouse.

• Section Objectives:– Analyze the factors that led to the industrialization of

America in the late 1800s.– Explain how new inventions and innovations changed

Americans’ lives.– Describe the impact of industrialization in the late 1800s.

Encouraging Industrial Growth

• The Civil War caused:– Factories increased production, employing new

methods of production.– Food industry developed ways to process foods so

they could be shipped long distances.– Railroads expanded.– More efficient methods of creating power.– Government encouraged immigration to meet the

increasing demand for labor.

Encouraging Industrial Growth

• Natural Resources Fuel Growth:– Coal mines provided fuel to power steam

locomotives and factories.– Thick forests were cut into lumber for construction.– Navigable riverways provided ways of transporting

these items.– Edwin Drake, 1859, drilled the first oil well.

• Previously, oil for light and fuel by whale blubber.• Oil was cheap to produce and easy to transport.• Encouraged the growth of kerosene and gas industry.

Encouraging Industrial Growth

• Workforce grows:– Immigration from Europe and Asia.

• 1881: ¾ of a million immigrants arrive.– Reached about 1 million per year by 1900.

• Factors: political upheaval, religious discrimination, and crop failures at home.

– Immigrants were willing to work for low wages.• Also willing to travel in pursuit of opportunity.

– Competition for jobs grew even larger in the 1890s, when droughts and competition from foreign farmers drove American farmers to seek jobs in the cities.

Encouraging Industrial Growth

• Capitalism (Free Enterprise) Encourages Entrepreneurs:– Horatio Alger• Wrote Street Life in New York which portrayed a poor boy

who rose to wealth and fame by working hard.• Stressed the possibility that anyone could vault from

poverty to wealth and fame. (American Dream).

– Entrepreneurs – people who invest money in a product or enterprise in order to make a profit.• The factories, railroads and mines established created

jobs and attracted foreign investment.

Encouraging Industrial Growth

• Government Policies Encourage Free Enterprise– Land grants to railroads to quickly link the West

and East.– Protective tariffs – taxes that make imported

goods cost more than local, encouraging the buying of American goods.

– Laissez-faire policies – allowed businesses to operate under minimal government regulation.

Innovation Drives a Nation

• Patent – a grant by the federal government giving an inventor the exclusive right to develop, use and sell an invention for a set period of time.– The number of patents grew exponentially during the late

1800s.• Thomas Edison – invented the light bulb in 1880,

developing affordable lighting for homes.– George Westinghouse developed technology to send

electricity over long distances.– Extended the number of hours a day Americans could

work.

Innovation Drives a Nation

• Revolutionizing Communications:– Samuel Morse – perfected telegraph technology,

process of sending messages over wire in 1844.– Alexander Graham Bell – patented the telephone

in 1876.• By 1900, there were over 1 million telephones in the

U.S.• Future inventors would build on this innovation,

inventing the radio.

Innovation Drives a Nation

• Steel: A Practical Wander– Bessemer Process – a process for purifying iron,

resulting in strong, but lightweight, steel.• Developed by Henry Bessemer in the 1850s in England.• Strong steel made possible a host of inventions,

including skyscrapers and the elevators to service them.

– Suspension Bridges – bridges in which the roadway is suspended by steel cables.• One of the first was the Brooklyn Bridge, completed in

1883.

Innovation Drives a Nation

• Linking the Nation by Rail:– By 1883, there were 3 transcontinental railroad lines

in the U.S.• New Technologies:

– George Westinghouse invented the air brake for trains in 1869.– Granville Woods invented a telegraph system for trains.– Gustavus Swift developed the refrigerated car.

– Problems from expanding transportation.• Time differences between towns made scheduling

difficult.• Time Zones: 24, one for each hour of the day.

Innovation Drives a Nation

• Linking the Nation by Rail cont…– Led to the development of many new towns,

especially in the West.– Reshaped Urban landscapes:• Electric streetcar, commuter trains and subways,

powered by electricity appeared in major cities.– Allowed Americans to live in neighborhoods outside of cities,

resulting in the growth of suburbs.

Innovation Drives a Nation

• A Spiral of Growth– Railroads play key role in American transformation• Transport large amounts of goods quickly, cheaply and

efficiently.• Allowed businesses to obtain raw materials easily and

sell finished goods to larger numbers of people.• Encouraged new methods for management and

administration, which were soon adopted by businesses.

Innovation Drives a Nation

• A Spiral of Growth cont…– Railroads set up a spiral of related growth.• Factories turned out plate glass for windows of passenger rail

cars.• Freight cars were created in factories to transport fuel.• Factory production generated more factory production.

– To meet the growing demand, factory owners developed systems for turning out large numbers of production quickly and inexpensively, known as mass production.• Depended on machinery to carry out tasks that were once

done with hand tools.

The Impact of Industrialization

• Linking World Markets– By the 1880s, American exports of grain, steel and

textiles dominated international markets.• The U.S. could easily transport goods from where they

were grown to ports where they could be shipped around the world.

The Impact of Industrialization

• Changing American Society– Farms became mechanized, meaning fewer farm

laborers were needed• Where did the out of work farmers go?

– Mass production meant people living in cities had easy access to clothing and supplies that they would have made by hand in the past.

– They faced higher costs of living, dependent on cash wages for food, and repetitious work in factories.

The Impact of Industrialization

• Thinking About the Environment– By the late 1800s, industrial waste had risen

dramatically.– Mining had denigrated the land.– In the Midwest, agriculture procedures led to soil

erosion and dust storms.• People raised concerns:– Government responded by setting aside protected

lands.• Resulted in the National Park System and the creation of

Yellowstone in 1872.