11/4/11. Between 1860 and ,000 patents were issued for new inventions By 1900, Americans standard of living was among the highest in the world

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1 A Technological Revolution Indoor electric lighting did not exist After dark people lit candles or oil lamps or went to bed Ice had to be cut out of lakes and stored in ice houses Mail from the East coast took 10 days to reach the Midwest and 3 weeks to get to the west Between 1860 and ,000 patents were issued for new inventions By 1900, Americans standard of living was among the highest in the world In 1858, Edwin Drake was sent by the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company to drill for oil in Titusville He began drilling using a steam powered engine He struck oil in 1859 The oil industry grew rapidly What was daily life like for people who lived in 1865? How many new patents were issued between 1860 and 1890? Why was this important? Who was Edwin Drake? Why was his innovation in the oil industry important? 1

2 Experimented with electricity to developed an affordable, in-home lighting to replace oil and gaslights Found a way to produce light within a sealed glass bulb (light bulb) Developed the idea for a central power station and built a power plant that lit dozens of buildings in New York index.cfm?guidassetid=aa99c1c bd0- baa2-20b89d034cf7 Lewis Latimer patented an improved method for producing the filament in light bulbs George Westinghouse began experimenting with alternating current, which was cheaper to produce than direct current Westinghouse also used a device called a transformer to send electricity over long distances In the 1890 s, General Electric and Westinghouse Electric were formed Electric power was cheaper and more efficient than existing sources of power This helped the clothing industry to open up thousands of jobs for Americans looking for work Household uses of electricity revolutionized many aspects of daily life What innovations did Thomas Edison make in electricity? Who was Lewis Latimer? Who was George Westinghouse? How did the advancements in electricity change life in the late 1800 s? 2

3 Samuel Morse devised a code of short and long electrical impulses to represent letters on the alphabet He sent his first message in 1844 By 1870, Western Union Telegraph Company had more than 100,000 miles of wire transmitting 9 million telegraphs By 1900, the company owned more than 900,000 miles of wire and was sending 63 million messages Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876 In 1885, Bell and a group of partners set up the American Telephone and Telegraph Company to build long-distance telephone lines By 1900, 1.5 million telephones were in use index.cfm?guidassetid=7f74a421-3be b3e fc07b Who invented the telegraph? How did the use of the telegraph change over the years? Who invented the telephone? How did use of the telephone change over the years? Started in 1862 New rails were laid between Omaha, Nebraska and Sacramento, California Funded by the federal government The Central Pacific Railroad laid track eastward out of Sacramento The Union Pacific Railroad began work toward the west from Omaha Most workers were immigrants (Chinese, Irish) On May 10, 1869 at Promontory Summit in Utah, the last spike was driven in the transcontinental railroad 3

4 Problems of trains: noisy, dirty, uncomfortable Steel rails replaced iron rails Track gauges and signals became standardized George Westinghouse developed more effective air brakes Granville Woods patented a telegraph system for communicating with moving trains In 1883, railroads adopted a national system of time zones to improve scheduling By the end of the century, 190,000 miles of rails linked businesses to their customers Shipping costs dropped dramatically Railroads revolutionized business and industry in several ways They were a faster and more practical means of transporting goods Caused production costs to drop It helped to create national markets It was a model for big business It caused the stimulation of other industries When and where was the transcontinental railroad completed? What were some of the problems with trains? What advances were made to improve railroads in the late 1800 s? Why were time zones developed? How did railroads effect industry? 1. Steel had been produced by melting iron, adding carbon, and removing impurities 2. Henry Bessemer s process made it easier and cheaper to remove impurities 3. This made the mass production of steel possible index.cfm?guidassetid= df14-41ecb2ab-082deb915e84 4

5 John A. Roebling designed a suspension bridge connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn It was made with thick steel cables suspended from high towers to hold up the main span The bridge was completed and opened on May 24, 1883 How did the Bessemer process change steel production? Why was the building of the Brooklyn Bridge important? 5