The 2nd Industrial Revolution Unit 2.2: The 2nd Industrial Revolution

Natural resources fuel industrialization: 60 years after the Civil War ended, America went from being an agricultural nation to one of the leading industrial powers in the world. This boom was in large part due to the following factors: immense natural resources, gov. support for business, and a growing population that provided cheap labor and markets for new products.

Oil and the Bessemer Steel process: Indians had been using oil for various reasons for hundreds of years, but it wasn’t until Edwin Drake used a steam engine to drill for oil that removing oil from the earth became practical. It started an oil boom across the west, and the use of kerosene and eventually gasoline became important as new inventions used them for fuel. Coal and iron were also plentiful in the U.S. and while iron is soft and easy to rust, if you could remove the carbon from it… the metal would be lighter, rust-resistant, and strong.

Oil and the Bessemer Steel process: The Bessemer process, developed by British manufacturer Henry Bessemer and U.S. ironmaker William Kelly, injected air into molten iron to remove the carbon and other impurities to create steel. Soon ironworks sprouted up in areas like Pittsburgh, and the innovation helped create better rails for railroads, inventions like Joseph Glidden’s barbed wire and Deere’s farm machines and structures like the Brooklyn Bridge and eventually skyscrapers.

African American Inventors: Lewis Latimer devised a way to make the filament in light bulbs last longer, and eventually worked with Thomas Edison as his chief draftsman.

Garrett Morgan Invented the gas mask and first traffic light. African American Inventors: Garrett Morgan Invented the gas mask and first traffic light.

George Washington Carver was an American botanist and inventor. African American Inventors: George Washington Carver was an American botanist and inventor. developed techniques to improve soils depleted by repeated plantings of cotton through crop rotation. Came up with 145 different uses for the peanut

African American Inventors: Madam C.J. Walker: African American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and a political and social activist first female self-made millionaire in America, she became one of the wealthiest African American women in the country. made her fortune by developing and marketing a line of beauty and hair products for black women

African American Inventors: Sarah Goode: was an entrepreneur and inventor. She was one of the first African-American women to receive a United States patent Invented a folding cabinet bed which helped people who lived in tight housing to utilize their space efficiently. When the bed was folded up, it looked like a desk, with room for storage.

Other notable Inventors: Thomas Edison: He established the world’s first research laboratory, hiring inventors to work for him to make patents for new technologies. He perfected the incandescent light bulb.

Other notable Inventors: Nikola Tesla: A Croatian Inventor who moved to America, he worked with Edison for a time before a conflict in personalities caused him to leave. He is most known for his Tesla Coil and the development of the AC current. He wanted to make a massive wireless transmission energy network to provide cheap electricity for everyone, but Edison ran a smear campaign that made people fear his work.

Christopher Sholes: invented the typewriter. Other notable Inventors: Christopher Sholes: invented the typewriter. Alexander Graham Bell: invented the telephone. These new inventions meant that people could work in the dark, write quicker, communicate faster, and it changed how America worked and how they consumed forever.