A NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION 18-1 A NEW INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

VOCAB Factor- condition or quality that causes something else to happen Alter- to change; to make different Patent- a document giving someone the sole to make and sell an invention Thomas Edison- American inventor and businessman, who as been described as America’s greatest inventor Alexander Graham Bell-Scottish-born scientist, inventor, engineer, and innovator he is credited patenting the first practical telephone. Henry Ford- invented the assembly line. Thomas Edison Alexander Graham Bell Henry Ford

Assembly line VOCAB CONT. Assembly Line- a manufacturing method in which a product is out together as it move along a belt. Wilbur and Orville Wright- inventors, and aviation pioneers who are generally credited with inventing, building, and flying the world’s first successful airplane. Wilbur and Orville Wright

WHY INDUSTRY INDUSTRY BOOMED As the United States expanded westward, conditions were ripe for industrial growth. Extensive deposits of iron, coal, copper, lead now lay within reach of a miner’s pick ax. The Pacific Northwest forests’ furnished lumber for building. Government policies were in the favor of industrial growth. Congress gave generous land grants and other subsidies to railroads and other businesses. The government had high tax amounts on imports. The American industry was helped by the taxes because they made foreign goods more expensive.

STEEL AND OIL Technology also spurred industrial growth.In the 1850s the Bessemer process was created. It was a method that made stronger steel cost less to be made. Steel quickly passed iron as the basic building material of cities and industry. The steel making capital was Pittsburgh. The nation’s first oil strike happened in 1859, in the city of Titusville, Pennsylvania.

A RAILROAD BOOM As more railroad lines were built, railroads sought ways to have less competition and keep their prices high. Some big lines consolidated. They bought out small lines or forced them out of business. The Pennsylvania Railroad consolidated 73 smaller companies. Railroads gave their best customers secret discounts. In some places, rival rail lines made agreements to fix rates at a high level. However, high rates angered small farmers who relied on the railroads to get their goods to the market. As a result, many farmers joined the granger and Populist movements.

EDISON’S INVENTION FACTORY During 1876, in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison set up a research lab. There, Thomas Edison and other scientists produced the phonograph, the light bulb, the motion picture camera, and hundreds of other devices. Without a reliable source of energy, these inventions would be worthless. Edison opened the first electrical power plant in the nation in New York City, in 1882. After that electrical power plants sprung up all over the country. These power plants provided electricity that powered city streetcars, lit up homes, and enabled factories to replace steam engines with safer electric engines. The modern age of electricity had begun.

A COMMUNICATIONS REVOLUTION The telegraph, in use since 1844, helped people stay in touch with each other. Yet, Americans had to wait weeks for news from Europe to arrive by boat. In 1886, Cyrus Field had an underwater telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean, which sped up communications from Europe. Alexander Graham Bell wanted to build a device that would carry the human voice.Bell spent years working on the device, which he called the telephone. In 1876, Bell sent the first telephone message t o his assistant in another room: “Mr.Watson, come here. I want you.” By 1885, more than 300,000 phones had been sold, most of them to businesses.

DEVICES FOR HOME AND OFFICE Some invention made work at offices much faster and much cheaper. The typewriter was invented by Christopher Sholes in 1868. The typewriter was a letter- writing device. Soon enough, females working in the offices were typing 60 words per minute. Some inventions affected people more than businesses did. For example the camera. In 1888, George Eastman introduced a lightweight camera. Eastman’s camera was sold at a low price, allowing ordinary people to record their lives on film. Jan Matzeliger, an African American, revolutionized the shoe industry with a machine that sewed the tops to the soles.Granville Woods devised a way to send telegraph messages between moving trains.

A TRANSPORTATION REVOLUTION Another thing that revolutionized transportation was technology. For years people rode horses or walked everywhere they went. Then, in the late 1800s, European engineers created the automobile. With the automobile transportation became faster.

HENRY FORD In 1900, only 8,000 Americans owned automobiles. Then, Henry Ford made it easier for more Americans to have one. Ford believed in making more than one at a time, and making them cost less money. To speed up the process of builiding the automobile, Henry Ford created the assembly line in 1913. The assembly line cut the construction time in half. Lower costs allowed Ford make the prices lower. More than 4.5 million Americans owned cars by 1917.

THE WRiGHT BROTHERS At Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Wilbur and Orville Wright tested the tested a gas- powered airplane. The plane stayed in the sir for 12 seconds and flew 20 feet on its first flight. Orville made four flights that day. His longest one lasted 59 seconds. The first flights did not attract much interest. No one could see any use for flying a machine. The military did not start using the airplane frequently until World War 1. The airplane had begun to alter the world by making travel quicker and trade easier by the 1920s.