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The Industrial The Industrial RevolutionRevolution
Post Civil War Era
Major Events in the Industrial Revolution
Early 1700s – Industrial Revolution begins in Britain
1764 – James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny
1764 – James Watt invents the steam engine
1793 – Samuel Slater opens first U.S. cotton mill
1793 – Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin
1814 – George Stephenson invents the first practical locomotive
1830s – First great railway “boom” begins in Europe & the U.S.
Major Events in the Industrial Revolution (cont.)
1856 – Henry Bessemer introduces the Bessemer process for steel production
1869 – Transcontinental Railroad completed
1870 – John D. Rockefeller starts the Standard Oil Company ($$$$$)
1876 – Alexander G. Bell invents the telephone
1882 – Thomas Edison constructs first central power station to electrify New York City
1892 – Andrew Carnegie forms the Carnegie Steel Corporation
RAILROADSRAILROADS
Words to copy are in RED
Transcontinental RR
Lincoln & Republicans promised Transcontinental RR in 1860
1862 – Congress passed Pacific RR act (provided 2 companies to build a transcontinental line)
Central Pacific built East from CA Union Pacific built West from Nebraska
Many workers were required to build the RR, including African Americans, American Indians, & immigrants
Central Pacific = Chinese immigrants Union Pacific = Irish immigrants
Neither group received much credit
for their work.
Biggest Challenge – crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains
Engineers (growing field) figured out how to make tunnels work.
May 10, 1869 – Transcontinental Railroad connected by a golden spike
Two ends connected at Promontory, Utah
Growth of Railroads
Railroads became more efficient after the Civil War
Began to make the rails the same size & network = connect railroad lines to another
Began to consolidate = combining smaller companies with larger ones
Examples: US Airways bought out America West
Time Warner bought AOL
Pixar & Disney
Huge railway companies were built Important RR businessmen:
Cornelius Vanderbuilt (New York & Harlem Railroad)
J.P. Morgan (consolidated RRs)
James J. Hill (Great Northern Railway)
Edward Harriman (Illinois Central &
Union Pacific RRs)
Railroads Change America
Helped end Indian control of the West Tied together the economies of the West &
East Caused the U.S. to grow into an industrial
giant (examples: lumber, steel, coal, aluminum industries)
Helped people settle and farm the plains & valleys of the West.
Changed the way people thought about the country & environment– Pre-railroads = travel was hazardous, weather
was difficult, needed water transport– With railroads = in cold & heat the trains kept
moving, railroads made straight paths to cities without water transport (ex. Denver, Cheyenne)
Railroad agreed to a system of standard time – creating 4 U.S. time zones
1884 – worldwide time zones created
Time Zones