American History Chapter 6: The Expansion of American Industry

1. American History Chapter 6: The Expansion of American Industry I. A Technological Revolution

2. Bellringer • Typewriter Phonograph telegraph • Telephone • What is the most important invention? • How many times do you use the telephone? • If you lived before the telephone was invented – how would you communicate • How would your life be different without telephones?

3. Objectives • Learn how daily lives changed in the decades following the Civil War. • Find out how advances in electric power and communication affected people and businesses in this era. • Discover the effects the development of railroads had on industrial growth. • Think about the impact of the Bessemer process on American culture.

4. A) Setting the Scene • Samuel Morse in 1844 sends the first successful telegram from Washington DC to Baltimore. • US on the verge of a second industrial revolution • New inventions will change our lives

5. B) Changes in Daily Life • No internal electricity in house – went to bed at dark and up at first light – unless had money for candles and lamps • Ice cost too much – saved it in ice houses • Took over a month for mail to go coast to coast • Paten and Trademark Office issued patents • patents: licenses that give an inventor the exclusive right to make, use or sell an invention • Productivity: amount of goods and services created in a given period of time’ • By 1900 – US standard of living was one of the highest in the world.

6. C) New Forms of Energy • In 1858, Edwin L Drake strikes oil in Titusville, Pennsylvania. • Drilling for oil cheaper then digging • Made kerosene, gasoline the byproduct was thrown away until the automobile invented. • Thomas A. Edison – invented the light bulb in 1880 – by 1882 had set up the first electric power plant • Lewis Latimer improved light bulbs – son of a slave • George Westinghouse – used alternating current – travel farther – transformers to boost power • Edison created General Electric – Westinghouse created Westinghouse Electric

7. Electric sewing machine in 1889 led to ready made clothing growth • Refrigerator possible

8. D) Advances in Communications • Samuel F.B. Morse perfected the telegraph – 1844 • Western Union formed • Alexander Graham Bell invented the “talking telegraph” in 1876 at the age of 29. • Set up the American Telephone and Telegraph Company • 1879 first telephone in White House – by 1900 1.5 million telephones

9. E) Railroads Create a National Network • Transcontinental railroad: railway extending from coast to coast • Government paid for it – not as efficient if private industry paid for it • Irish worked for the Union Pacific and Chinese worked on the Central Pacific • Met at Promontory Summit Utah in 1869 • Time Zones created to help scheduling • Railroads were good because they were faster, cheaper, crated national markets, model for big business, stimulated other industries.

10. F) The Bessemer Process • Bessemer Process: easier and cheaper way to make steel • Mass production: production in great amounts • Steal is lighter and stronger than iron • Could mass produce steal • Brooklyn Bridge built – Chicago Reliance Building • Symbols of American inventiveness and hard work

11. Review • Why did people’s daily lives change in the decades following the Civil War? • How did advances in electric power and communication affect life for people and businesses? • What effects did the development of railroads have on industrial growth? • What was the impact of the Bessemer process on American culture?