Titans of Industry Rockefeller & Carnegie

The Oil Rush Fortune seekers raced to put down oil wells. –Crude: The raw oil before it is processed. –Refineries: Factories that purify raw oil.

John Davison Rockefeller

Rockefeller grew up in New York State & Cleveland, Ohio. He is the founder of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio. By 1880, he produced 90% of all the oil in the U.S. Rockefeller was ambitious, hard working, and well-organized.

Oil Monopoly Rockefeller made a secret deal with the Railroad ~ they would charge him less for shipping or he would not sell oil to them. This deal allowed him to sell his oil cheaper than anyone else. The secret deal forced everyone else out of business.

Standard Oil Refinery No. 1 in Cleveland, Ohio (1899)

Standard Oil Company is the company started by Rockefeller, and it later becomes SOHIO and is now BP.

By Rockefeller owns 90% of all oil business in the U.S. ~ a monopoly. A monopoly is when one person or company has complete control of an industry, product or service. Rockefeller combined many smaller companies and formed a "trust.“ The government developed laws called "antitrust" laws to prevent any one person/company from taking all of the business in an industry. In 1911, the Supreme Court forced Standard Oil to separate into 34 companies.

Andrew Carnegie

Carnegie is a Scottish immigrant who came to this country when he was 12. When he was 18 he learned how to invest his small salary. Carnegie bought stock and got rich as companies grew.

Andrew Carnegie built world’s largest steel mill in Pittsburgh, U.S. Steel. Carnegie invented a process, called the Bessemer process, in which the impurities are blasted out of steel with a burst of air. It make higher quality steel cheaper and faster.

A Major Philanthropist Later in his life, Carnegie gave away most of his riches to libraries, schools, and college universities in Scotland, America and worldwide.