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America Enters the Industrial Age
The Industrial Revolution Continues Section 1 Chapter 20 Pg
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The Industrial Revolution Continues
Key ? - What new inventions changed life in the 1800s? Patent – a government document that gives an inventor the exclusive right to make and sell an invention for a number of years. Factory machines replaced hand tools. Manufacturing began to replace farming. Causes for growth: Steel industry – Kelly (US) Bessemer in England developed the Bessemer steel process. Cut the cost of steel – increased output – 350xs between 1867 & 1900.
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Edison & Bell Electric power industry – Edison and Latimer – laboratory in Menlo Park, NJ. Invented a safe steady lightbulb; system to deliver electricity to buildings. Bell invented the telephone in Thomas Watson assistant. Breakthrough on telephone was an accident.
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New Industries New inventions became the basis of new industries.
Telephone – switchboard operators. Typewriter – Christopher Latham Sholes invented. Elias Howe & Isaac Singer patented sewing machines – ready made clothes.
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Corporations Gain Power
How did corporations affect business competition? Corporations – a business owned by shareholders – investors who buy part of the company through shares of stock. Late 1800s few laws regulating corporations. Growth of a few powerful corporations.
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Rockefeller & Carnegie
Rockefeller dominated the oil industry by creating a monopoly – a company that wipes out its competitors. Bought refineries and built pipelines. Created a trust – a legal body created to hold stock in many companies, often in the same industry. Robber baron – a business leader who uses dishonest methods to grow rich. Carnegie – steel industry – wanted to make the best and cheapest product by controlling all the processes of making steel. Philanthropists – people who give large sums of money to charities.
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Business Cycle Business cycle – the pattern of good and bad times. Booms – good times; busts – bad times; lay off workers and make fewer goods. Depression – period of extremely low economic activity.
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Economic Growth Brings Wealth and Poverty.
Key ? - What inequalities emerged in the late 19th century? Industrialization raised living standards in US and wealth to business owners. Did little to help minorities, factory workers, and the South.
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The Gilded Age “Rags to Riches” stories – Horatio Alger wrote popular stories. Mark Twain & Charles Warner – named it the Gilded Age. ( to coat an object with gold) masked society’s problems of corrupt politics and widespread poverty. 1890 – 11 out of 12 million people – income $380; below the poverty line. South remained mostly agricultural and continued to struggle economically through this period.
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