Gilded Age er were just some of the many things that ...-+Inventions+Infomerical+Project.pdf · The...

The Age of Invention & Industry

At the turn of the century, life in America was becoming dramatically different

than it had been for previous generations. Industries grew and expanded, people

moved from farms to the cities, immigrants arrived looking for new

opportunities, and the country began to establish itself as an international power.

Despite economic and social progress, there were still great disparities between

the rich and the poor. Mark Twain dubbed it the Gilded Age—a time when

society looked prosperous on the surface, despite problems of corruption, poverty,

and greed.

One of the reasons life changed so abruptly was because inventions and innovations allowed people to do things

better and faster. Technological, scientific, and medical advances changed the way people traveled, dressed,

communicated, worked, and spent their leisure time. The typewriter, telephone, camera, internal combustion

engine, and even the zipper were just some of the many things that changed people’s lives at home, at work, and

at play. When the United States celebrated its 100th

anniversary in 1876, the Centennial International Exhibition

in Philadelphia featured over 12,000 awards for new technology.

Directions

Your group will be assigned one of the most significant inventions of this period. As

a group, you must plan out a 30 second to 1 minute infomercial that you will act out

for the class. In your infomercial, you must be sure to include

1. Who are you the inventor?

2. What year did you invent this?

3. Why is it necessary?

4. How will your invention benefit society?

Be creative in your sales pitch. Think about the parts of your invention

that will amaze your audience and change the lives of those listening.

As you present, each group will fill out a graphic organizer based on

your presentation, so be sure you include all essential information!

© Students of History - www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Students-Of-History

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Students-Of-History

Name:

Inventions of the Industrial Age Invention 1 – The Light Bulb

Who invented this?

When was it invented?

Why was this necessary?

How did this help society?

Invention 2 – The Telephone

Who invented this?




Invention 3 – The Bessemer Process

Who invented this?




Invention 4 – The Elevator Who invented this?




Invention 5 – The Airplane

Who invented this?




Invention 6 – The Assembly Line

Who invented this?




Invention 7 – The Kodak Camera

Who invented this?






The Airplane On December 17, 1903, the Wright brothers showed the

world that man could fly. Their invention of the airplane

astounded everyone. At first flying was a sport or

hobby, like other inventions of its time, because of how

dangerous it was. Through various twists and turns, the

airplane was able to become a great success in the 1920s

and even became one of the most important inventions

of the 1920s.

During the early 20s, airplanes had been used in World

War I for reconnaissance and attacks, but its high

instability and poor control made it less glamorous as

other weapons of World War I. So it was tossed aside as

an impractical invention. After World War I, the airplane started to become a hit again. At local carnivals and

fairs, airplane pilots would fly around in the air doing various tricks and stunts to entertain an

audience. Gradually, the airplane stunts at local carnivals became commonplace throughout America.

Although the airplane had become used more throughout America, it was never taken seriously by anyone until

the federal government developed the idea of Air-Mail. The idea of using airplanes to transport mail quickly

caught on. Instead of receiving long-distance mail in a few weeks, one could receive it in only a few days. Air-

Mail quickly became a great success. As Air-Mail became more popular, other industries began turning to the

airplane as air freighting was much faster than land based transportation.

After using airplanes to transport freight became commonplace, the idea of airplanes carrying people quickly

took hold. A few airplane companies began to offer flying people from one place to another, for a price

though. Usually it was costly and only upper-class people could afford it. But as flights became more common,

prices fell, and it almost reached a point where upper-middle class people could afford flights.

Although the airplane did not catch on as quickly as other inventions of the 1920s did, it still caught on. During

the 20s, many people began to do airplane stunts to entertain themselves and the public. Various people would

climb onto an airplane wing and start dancing the Charleston, or try flying around in circles for a whole

day. Airplane fads even managed to produce an American hero, Charles A. Lindbergh, when he crossed the

Atlantic Ocean by himself in an airplane. The success of the airplane surely makes the airplane one of the most

important inventions of the 1920s.


http://www.gravitywarpdrive.com/Wright_Brothers_Images/Wright_Brothers_Airplane.gif


The Assembly Line An assembly line is a manufacturing

process in which parts (usually

interchangeable parts) are added to a

product in a sequential manner to create a

finished product much faster than with

handcrafting-type methods. The

assembly line developed by Ford Motor

Company between 1908 and 1915 made

assembly lines famous in the following

decade through the social ramifications of

mass production, such as the affordability

of the Ford Model T and the introduction

of high wages for Ford workers.

Henry Ford was the first to master the

moving assembly line and was able to

improve other aspects of industry by

doing so (such as reducing labor hours

required to produce a single vehicle, and

increased production numbers and parts.

Ford was the first company to build large factories around the assembly line concept. Mass production via

assembly lines is widely considered to be the catalyst which initiated the modern consumer culture by making

possible low unit cost for manufactured goods.


http://larvalsubjects.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/assembly-line.jpg

http://purpleopurple.com/inventions-and-inventors/assembly-line.jpg


The Kodak Camera "You press the button, we do the rest" promised George Eastman in 1888 for his Kodak camera.

Photography was invented in the early 1800’s but it was an expensive

and difficult process. It required chemicals and a long difficult process to

shoot and develop the film. George Eastman wanted to simplify

photography and make it available to everyone, not just trained

photographers. In 1883, Eastman announced the invention of

photographic film in rolls. Kodak the company was born in 1888 when

the first Kodak camera entered the market.

The Kodak camera was pre-loaded with enough film for 100 exposures,

or pictures. The camera could easily be carried and handheld during its

operation, something that was unheard of at the time. After the film was

exposed (all the shots taken), the whole camera was returned to the

Kodak company in Rochester, New York, where the film was developed,

prints were made, and new photographic film was inserted. Then the

camera and prints were returned to the customer through the mail.

George Eastman was one of the first American industrialists to employ a

full-time research scientist. Together with his associate, Eastman

perfected the first commercial transparent roll film which made possible

Thomas Edison’s motion picture camera in 1891.

He was a major philanthropist, establishing the Eastman School of

Music, and schools of dentistry and medicine at the University of

Rochester and in London; contributing to RIT and the construction of

MIT's second campus on the Charles River; and donating to Tuskegee and Hampton universities. In addition, he provided

funds for clinics in London and other European cities to serve low-income residents.

In his final two years Eastman was in intense pain caused by a disorder affecting his spine. He had trouble standing, and

his walk became a slow shuffle. On March 14, 1932, Eastman committed suicide at age 77 with a single gunshot to the

heart, leaving a note which read, "To my friends: my work is done. Why wait?



The Light Bulb The one inventor credited with the greatest achievement concerning

electricity was Thomas Edison. Edison’s most famous invention was

practical electric lighting. While others had already created electric

light sources, they were often too bright or flicker for home and

business use. Edison is credited with figuring out how to make a light

bulb that produced a safe and steady source of light in 1879.

Edison had always had a desire to invent practical things. “Anything

that won’t sell, I don’t want to invent,” he said. In 1876,

Edison set up his own workshop in Menlo Park, New

Jersey. There he thought up hundreds of ways to use

electricity and during one five year period, he took out a

new patent almost every month.

Because of Edison’s invention, electric lighting quickly

began to replace gaslights in homes and businesses across the United States. By In 1882, New

York City’s buildings were glowing with electric light. the end of the 1880’s, Edison’s factory

produced about a million light bulbs per year.



The Telephone Alexander Graham Bell was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1847.

However, he eventually moved to Canada and then to the United States,

where he settled in Boston. It was in Boston where Bell began his career

as an inventor.

At the time, the telegraph had been an established means of

communication over long distances for about 30 years. Although it was

revolutionary at the time,, the telegraph could only transmit dot-and-dash

Morse code and could only send or receive one message at a time. Bell

wanted to try sending multiple messages over the same wire at the same

time. Although the idea of a multiple telegraph had been in existence for

some time, Bell offered his own musical or harmonic approach as a

possible practical solution. Throughout his life, Bell had been interested

in the education of deaf people. Together with his assistant Thomas

Watson, his interest lead him to invent the microphone and, in 1876, his “harmonic telegraph” or “electrical

speech machine.” This machine went on to become what we now call a telephone.

The communications potential of being able to “talk with electricity” far outweighed anything that could be

done with telegraph lines. News of his invention quickly spread throughout the country, even throughout

Europe. By 1878, Bell had set up the first telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut. By 1884, long

distance connections were made between Boston, Massachusetts and New York City.



The Bessemer Process More than anything else, steel moved America into the Industrial Age. Steel

is an iron alloy; that is, a mixture of iron and other metal. Steel had been

used to make swords, guns, and other objects for years. In the 1850’s

however, Henry Bessemer developed a new process for making steel that

was easier and cheaper than any previous method. He patented his new

invention in 1865. It used 1/7 the coal that older processes had used and

resulted in steel that was much cheaper. This new “Bessemer Process”

resulted in an increased output of steel by 500% between 1867 and 1900.

Steel became used to create skyscrapers in America’s cities, barbed wire,

plows, and more. However, the main use for this new brand of steel was the

expanding railroad industry in America. Without the Bessemer Process,

America’s rail network would have been much more expensive and thus

have taken much longer to build.



The Elevator As early as the 3

rd Century BC, platforms were raised and lowered

in a shaft to transport people and freight. These primitive elevators

were usually operated by human, animal, or water wheel power.

Almost 2,000 years later, in 1743, a counter-weighted, man-

powered, personal elevator was built for King Luis XV

connecting his apartment in Versailles with that of his mistress,

Madame de Chateauroux, whose quarters were one floor above

King Luis.

During the Industrial Revolution, steam-powered elevators were

used in factories and mines to lift heavy objects, but these

required large engines and could not be brought into more

traditional buildings for people to use. Soon, hydraulic machines

began to replace the steam-powered elevators and were supported

by a heavy piston, and operated by the water (or oil) pressure

produced by pumps. These still did not catch on because they

were unsafe and could not be installed

in most buildings.

In 1853, however, the American inventor Elisha Otis demonstrated a freight

elevator equipped with a safety device to prevent falling in case a supporting

cable should break. This increased public confidence in the elevator for

the first time. Otis established the Otis Elevator Company for

manufacturing elevators and patented a new and safer steam elevator in

1861. His brake system is still used in modern elevators, and this

invention made skyscrapers a practical reality.



Inventions Infomercial Rubric Exemplary (5) Commendable (3) Acceptable (1) Teacher Notes

Presentation

names the

invention and

inventor.

Presentation was

clear and could

easily be

understood by the

class.

Presentation was

somewhat clear and be

understood by the class.

Presentation left out

important

information or was

incorrect in the

information it

presented.

The

presentation

explained why

the invention

was made.

Includes all

required

information and

could easily be

understood by the

class.

Some required

information is missing

and could somewhat be


Several essential

pieces of information

were missing.

The

presentation

explained why

the invention

was necessary

and how it

would benefit

society.

Includes all

required

information and

could easily be

understood by the

class.

Some required

information is missing

and could somewhat be


Several essential

pieces of information

were missing.

Creativity and

presentation

skills

All group members

participate, speak

clearly, and clearly

understand their

topic and

demonstrated

enthusiasm and

creativity.

All group members

participate but might

not speak clearly, or

misunderstand their

topic. The group

showed some

enthusiasm and

creativity.

Not all group

members participate

and do not speak

clearly. Important

parts are

misunderstood and

the group did not

demonstrated

enthusiasm or much

creativity.

Total Points/Grade



Name: Answer Key/Teacher’s Guide

Inventions of the Industrial Age Invention 1 – The Light Bulb

Who invented this?

Thomas Edison

When was it invented? 1879


Allowed for less dangerous fires from

candle-light and brought light to cities.


Open to student interpretation.

Invention 2 – The Telephone

Who invented this?

Alexander Graham Bell



Improved communication over the

older system of using the telegraph and

Morse Code.



Invention 3 – The Bessemer Process

Who invented this?

Henry Bessemer



Cheaper and stronger steel allowed

for the expansion of railroads and larger

buildings and bridges.





Invention 4 – The Elevator Who invented this?

Elisha Otis



Allowed for the invention of

skyscrapers



Invention 5 – The Airplane

Who invented this?

The Wright Brothers



Better transportation.



Invention 6 – The Assembly Line

Who invented this?

Henry Ford

When was it invented? 1908-1915


Faster production of goods made

them cheaper and more available.



Invention 7 – The Kodak Camera

Who invented this?

George Eastman



Allowed regular people to save

their images and document their

lives.


Open to student interpretation. © Students of History - www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Students-Of-History


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