The Gilded Age (1876 – 1900)

The Gilded Age (1876 – 1900) Period of great industrial growth and expansion of the economy. Resulted in many very wealthy businessmen…super rich.

OIL • Before the Civil War people used to skim oil form creeks. • 1859 Edwin Drake used a steam engine to DRILL for oil near Titusville, PA • This touched off an oil boom. Petroleum refining industry grew rapidly to transform oil into kerosene. • Gasoline, a byproduct of the refining process, originally was thrown away.

STEEL Oil was not the only natural resource that was plentiful in the United States • The industrial age would not have been possible without significant amounts of coal and iron ore. • Coal production skyrocketed form 33 million tons in 1870 to 250 million tons in 1900

The raw materials necessary to make steel were plentiful; all that was needed was a cheap and efficient way to manufacture steel… The BESSEMER Process • The Bessemer Process was developed by British manufacturer Henry Bessemer and American William Kelly. • The process injected air into molten iron which removed the carbon and sparked its fiery transformation into steel. • By 1886 the Bessemer process had been further improved by the open hearth process. • This process allowed the manufacture of quality steel from scrap metal as well as raw materials.

New uses for steel… • Barbed Wire • Farm machines • Bridges • Railroads • Skyscrapers

ELECTRICITY • 1876 Thomas Edison…Light Bulb • Also developed system for producing and distributing electricity

Westinghouse – A rival of Edison made electricity even safer and less expensive • Encouraged scientists to develop new uses for electric power • Electricity allowed manufacturers to locate facilities wherever they wanted…not just near sources of power. Christopher Sholes – Typewriter (1867) Alexander Graham Bell – Telephone (1876) 1880 James B. Duke, machine to produce 4,000,000 cigarettes per day Singer sewing machine

RAILROADS • Time Zones (1870) • Synchronized time (Nov. 18, 1883) • New towns and markets…Chicago, Minneapolis

Meat Packing • * The mass slaughter, preparation, and preservation of beef, pork, chicken, etc. • Railroads and the technology of refrigeration led to huge boom in meat packing industry • Big money, but big corruption • Tainted beef was not uncommon

Robber Barons Ultra, super-wealthy industrialists who had obscene amounts of wealth and abused the power and privilege such wealth gave them. They were called “robber barons” because they reminded people of feudal lords from the Middle Ages They made their money in the new industries of the Gilded Age

Steel Andrew Carnegie Steel • Scottish immigrant • Founder of Carnegie Steel • By mid 1880s he was out producing ALL of Great Britain • Sold out to J.P. Morgan in 1900 for $500 million Steel Steel

OIL John D. Rockefeller OIL • * President and founder of the Standard Oil Company • 1870 Standard refined 2% of America’s oil/kerosene • 1880 – 90%, a near monopoly • 1900 – Rockefeller becomes America’s first billionaire and the wealthiest businessman in the world • (one billion then about 170 billion NOW) • Under sold competition to put them out of business • Very mean, very cheap OIL OIL

J. P. Morgan Banker, railroad owner, investor He made most of his money forming trusts and buying companies and selling them He became one of the wealthiest and most powerful men in the United States So rich and so powerful, he could meet with the president anytime he want … 24/7

Other Robber Barons Cornelius Vanderbilt Railroads Philip Danforth Armour Meat Packing Gustavus Franklin Swift Meat Packing

The Gilded Age (1876 – 1900)