Unit 3:Industrialization

and Urbanization

OHS US HISTORY TEAM

Learning Objectives

• Describe the changes in American life that resulted from the inventions and innovations of business leaders and entrepreneurs of the period.

• Locate major industrial centers

• Describe how industrialization influenced the movement of people from rural to urban areas

Bic Concepts

• During the Gilded Age many inventors and business leaders created economic growth.

• Steel, oil, railroads and electricity became big business in the United States

• New innovations and inventions made America the leading economy in the world and improved life for many

• Cities grew as “new immigrants” came to the United States for jobs

• Rural(countryside) to urban(city) migration increased the growth of cities

Key Vocabulary

Alexander Graham Bell

• Invented the telephone

• Evolution of communication letters to telegraphs to telephone

Henry Bessemer

• English man who invented cheap way to make steel

• STEEL = stronger and more flexible than iron

Bessemer

• Steel is lighter and stronger than iron which allows construction of:

• Railroads / Bridges (Brooklyn Bridge) / Skyscrapers: (Home Insurance Building in Chicago

Andrew Carnegie

• Built the largest steel business in the United States

• Pennsylvania – Pittsburgh and Homestead

• Philanthropist – donated fortune to build libraries and community centers

Thomas Edison

• Greatest American Inventor

• 1,000 patents (patent government protection of invention)

• Research laboratory in Menlo Park , New Jersey

• Electricity – electric motors, power supply, and light bulbs

• Invented the phonograph

Major Inventions

Thomas Edison (1876)

1876:He opens Menlo Park (New Jersey) as a research lab. (America’s first)

Inventions

1. Light Bulb (1880)

2. Electricity (direct current)

a. His invention of the light bulb and help with electricity create more usable hours in the American day. (fuels more inventions)

b. His electricity is very dangerous and expensive

Thomas Edison

Nicknamed “Wizard of Menlo Park”

General Electric (GE)

J.P. Morgan

• Banker and investor

• Invested in Thomas Edison

• Edison Electric Company

• Buys Carnegie’s Steel Company

John D. Rockefeller

• Created Standard Oil in Ohio

• Owned over 90% of the oil market (monopoly)

• Oil used for kerosene lamps and later the automobile

a. Market Structures threaten Free Enterprise

(competition)

Monopolies

• Complete control over a market

• Buy out competitors then raise prices

• Examples:

Nikola Tesla

• Serbian immigrant

• Worked Edison then left to start own research lab

• Electricity – Alternating Current –travel long distances from power

plants

• Fought “War of the Currents” with Thomas Edison and won.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

• Wealthy railroad owner

• Built vast railroad empire in New York

Magnate of the Railroads

Cornelius Vanderbilt (1860s)

i. Made initial money on sailing converted over to railways

ii. Donated money to create Vanderbilt University

iii. His son William eventually took over and ran business

Madam CJ Walker

• African American Business woman

• Sold beauty products

• First female millionaire in the United States

Largest Urban Areas

Northeast

Boston, Pittsburgh, New York City

Midwest

Chicago

West

San Francisco

Chronology Timeline

1876-Bell invents telephone

1877 Vanderbilt dies had $205

billion

1879 – Edison patents the

lightbulb

1892 – Carnegie Steel created

in Pittsburgh

1895- Tesla’s Alternating

Current motors used at

Niagara Falls Power Station

1901 – JP Morgan buys

Carnegie steel for $303 million

1910-Madam CJ Walker

Company Created

Continuity and change Unit 1, 2 to Unit 3

Continuity Change

Railroads

Immigration

Growth of cities

Steel and Oil Industry

New inventions – Electricity

and Telephone

Big Business most powerful

part of society