New Inventions (ME) Jill Mingus

            New technology has increased production, transportation and communication since the 1870s. New technology has provided more industries which have brought more money and jobs. New inventions have created more jobs because in order to produce more of those inventions it was required to produce more jobs. The first gas vehicle is a good example because it was produced on a huge production line, which provided a ton of manufacturing jobs for the people. The refrigerator, made in the early 1870’s, established by Gustavus Swift is another good example of the expansion of more jobs. Swift had to hire engineers to produce many refrigerators to keep food cold and also reduce the risk of food contamination and poisoning. A lot of new inventions were created from the early 1870s’ through 1970s’.

 Some of the notable inventions at the turn of the century were as follows. In 1872 Elijah McCoy invented the automatic lubricator for steam engines. In  1873 Christopher Sholes developed the typewriter. In 1876 Alexander Graham came out with the telephone. In 1877 the phonograph was created by Thomas Edison. In 1882 Lewis Latimer made the carbon threads in the light bulbs, allowing the light bulbs to last longer. In 1886 the dishwasher was made by Josephine Cochrane, The first camera was made in 1888 by George Eastman. Charles and Frank Duryea created the first gasoline-powered vehicle. In 1903 the Wright Brother made the first successful powered flight.      

Natural Resources (C) Cameron Pratt

Natural resources are a major part in the United States’ success. In the 1850s and 1860s the United States had large amounts of timber, coal, iron, and copper. They could obtain these resources easily and didn’t have to pay large amounts of money to have them imported. Most of these resources were located in the West. Around the late 1850s the need for petroleum was increasing, so the need for oil rigs was also increasing. The first oil well was made in 1859 by Edwin Drake in Titusville, Pennsylvania. By 1900 oil wells were drilled from Pennsylvania to Texas. While oil production rose, it led to economic expansion. The natural resources helped accelerate the industrialization of the United States.

Transcontinental Railroad (ME) Christian Campbell

           In 1862, two companies were provided for the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Pacific Railway Act. The government offered each company land along their right-of-way and both companies raced for land and money.

            Union Pacific

            Grenville Dodge, a former union general, and an engineer, began pushing the Union Pacific westward from Omaha, Nebraska, in 1865. Mountain blizzards, desert heat, and, sometimes, angry Native Americans were the trials the laborers had to face. Workers of the Union Pacific were civil war veterans, newly recruited Irish immigrants, miners and farmers, cooks, adventurers, and ex-convicts. All in all, there were 10,000 workers in the Union Pacific. Camp life held gambling, hard drinking, and fighting which made it rough and dangerous.

Central Pacific

Central Pacific Railroad was thought up by Theodore Judah. C.P.R. hired 10,000 workers from China and paid them a dollar a day to make up for California’s labor shortage. Their equipment—rails, cars, locomotives, and machinery—was shipped from eastern United States.

Last Spike

The railroad was completed May 10, 1869. Workers finished the railroad in four years. After the last spike was hammered in by Leland Stanford, telegraph operators sent news across the nation.

The Rise of Big Business (ME) Eric Herber

           At the conclusion of the Civil War in 1865 the economy was in a slump and the country was in need of big businesses to increase the economy. Before the civil war, most of the manufacturing businesses were ran and owned by few people. These small enterprises were ran with high operating costs because they paid high wages, they had high costs for manufacturing plants because they had no stock investors to provide funds for the factories, and they had high costs for raw materials because these small companies had no investors. This is one of the main reasons why, after the Civil War, the expansion of big businesses was so abundant.

The creation of corporations and stock were the key points to success of big business. Corporations provided exactly what companies needed in the late 1800s to become successful. The corporations were owned by many people but it was treated by law as if only one person owned the company; this allowed for the creation of stock and stockholders.  A stockholder is basically a person that gives money to a company in order to own a part of the company. The money given by the stockholders created a much broader financial backbone for the corporations. This investment money allowed the big business to hire a larger workforce, purchase more raw materials, and distribute more products. Some of the main advantages of big business in the late 1800s were the ability to produce more goods cheaply and efficiently, the ability of the companies to continue operating in poor economic times, and the ability of big businesses to exchange discounts from the railroads in order to lessen distribution costs. The success of corporations in difficult economic times led to the closing of many small corporations, this was the only downfall to the rise of big business. The creation of corporations in the late 1800s laid a strong foundation for America which can be seen even in today’s society.

 

Andrew Carnegie and Steel (KI) Nena Bossaller

            

Andrew Carnegie’s remarkable life started in Scotland. He was the son of a poor hand weaver so he hoped to improve his life and moved to the United States in 1848. He started out working as a bobbin boy in a textile factory and earned $1.20 per week. Two years later he became a messenger in a telegraph office, and then worked as secretary to Thomas Scott, a superintendent. He later got the job as the President of the Pennsylvania Railroad. When Scott, who was impressed by Carnegie’s energy, was promoted, Andrew became the new superintendent. He knew how to invest his money and by his early 30’s he earned $50,000 per year, which was a tremendous amount compared to his first own earnings. Then he decided to quit his job to focus on his own business investments. He traveled to Europe and met Sir Henry Bessemer, who had a new process for making high quality steel that was cheap and efficient. Carnegie liked his idea and opened a steel company in Pittsburgh in 1875, using Sir Henry Bessemer’s process. By using the vertical integration for his company, which means that he owns all the different businesses that he needed for his business, he had success. When he got required in 1901 he sold his business for $400 Million to John Pierpont Morgan, a banker.

Rockefeller and Standard Oil (KI) Jill Mingus

           John D. Rockefeller almost accomplished the horizontal integration. Horizontal integration is the combining of firms around one business into a bigger corporation. Rockefeller was extremely successful in the oil business, and what made him successful was athe use of oil refineries. While many entrepreneurs drilled for oil, hoping to become rich, Rockefeller built refineries instead. In 1870, Rockefeller Company Standard Oil was founded by Rockefeller and some associates. He would buy out his competitors; he controlled about 90 percent of the oil refineries in the United States by the 1880s.

Europeans Flood into America (ME) Cameron Pratt

             Between 1865 and 1914 the Civil War had ended and World War 1 had begun. 25 million Europeans immigrated to the United States in that time period. By 1890 more than half of the immigrants were from Eastern and Southern Europe. They immigrated because they were looking for better jobs and trying to escape poverty and social classes in Europe and some of the immigrants moved to escape military service. European states had made immigration easy; the immigrants were allowed to take all their savings and belongings with them. Moving to the United States gave the Europeans a chance to move up in a social class, rather than staying at the bottom they could work to move up the social ladder.
             Most of the immigrants were dropped off at Ellis Island, an island off the coast of the New York harbor, where they had to go through inspection. They were checked for heart problems, hernias, scalp problems, and mental disabilities. Those who did not pass the tests were normally shipped back to Europe. In the states, the immigrants often lived in neighborhoods together and re-created their culture. How well they adjusted depended on how quickly they could learn English and adapt to the American culture.