A New Industrial Age1870-1900

Causes -• Built on Renaissance, Scientific Revolution, and scientific method• Abundance of

– Raw materials– Energy resources (coal & oil)– Cheap labor (immigrants)

• Technological Inventions• New ideas about economics and entrepreneurship• Government Help

– Land grants– Protective tariffs– Tax breaks and subsidies to corporations

Vital components• The number of inventions rose rapidly:

– Between 1860-90 440,000 patents were granted by the US patent office

– Before 1860, only 36,000 patents had been issued

Steel• Steel

– Bessemer Process made steel more pure, stronger, cheaper, and faster to make

– Coal mines provided the fuel for steel mills

– Used for railroads, taller buildings, bridges, etc.

Oil• Oil refining improved

– Kerosene & Oil • Used as a lubricant on the machinery of factories• Helped drive the automobile industry

Transportation• Railroads – transcontinental rail lines expanded

– By 1900, about 6 major trunk lines (major railways) crossed the Great Plains and many feeder lines connected outlying areas as well

– Standard widths were set for rail lines– Allowed industries to integrate across the nation

• Internal combustion engine – Allows improvements in automobiles– Only rich could afford, not many roads, no traffic

signals, etc.• Airplanes

– Orville Wright takes the first flight, lasting 12 seconds

communications• Telegraph

– Developed by Samuel F. B. Morse– Communicated with electricity over wires

• Telephone– Patented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876– More than 1,000,000 installed in businesses and

homes by 1900– Many women found opportunities for

work as operators• Typewriter

– Easy document reproduction– The keyboard design is still used today

electricity• Invention of the light

bulb by Thomas Edison led to many changes in American life– Electric lights– Electric streetcars– Appliances

(refrigerators, vacuums, irons, radios, etc.)

Summing Up . . .