All Rights Reserved / Unauthorized Electronic Publishing Prohibited / http://www.davidwfletcher.com
THE GROWTH OF BIG BUSINESS IN THE LATE 1800s / DR. DAVID W FLETCHER
Second American Industrial Revolution (IR)
Began in mid-1800s
Centered in United States and Germany
More diverse than First IR in innovations and inventions
Transformed U.S. into modern urban-industrial society
Based on three developments
1) Creation of national transportation and communication networks
2) Advances in use of electric power and its delivery systems
3) Application of scientific research to industrial processes
Transcontinental Railroads
Pacific Railroads Act (1862)
Union Pacific & Central Pacific work crews
“Coolie” laborers
Plains Indian attacks
May 10, 1869 at Promontory, Utah
Railroad Financing
Railroad bonds
Federal land grants
Government aid
Public benefits
“Robber barons”
Growth in Manufacturing and Inventions
Over 1/4 million patents registered during 1890s
New processes in steelmaking and oil refining
Technological advances changed people’s lives
Electric power
Bell’s telephone
American Telephone and Telegraph Company
Edison’s phonograph and incandescent lightbulb
General Electric Company
Westinghouse’s alternating-current electric system
Tesla’s alternating-current motor
Westinghouse Electric Company
1
All Rights Reserved / Unauthorized Electronic Publishing Prohibited / http://www.davidwfletcher.com
Second American IR Entrepreneurs
John D. Rockefeller & Standard Oil Company (1870)
Vertical integration
Corporate organization as a trust
Holding companies
Sherman Anti-Trust Act (1890)
Andrew Carnegie, J. P. Morgan, & United States Steel (1901)
Leaders in mail-order catalog selling
Aaron Montgomery War in the 1870s
Richard Sears and Alvah Roebuck in the 1890s
Dominance of Sear, Roebuck and Company
“A cornucopia of goods”
High volume, low prices
National retail market
Social Trends of the “Gilded Age”
Increased standard of living
“Rags to riches” rare, but “upward mobility” common
Demand for labor, both skilled and unskilled
Poor working/living conditions, especially in large cities
Growing dependency on machines, factories, and bureaucracies
“World of personal relationships” versus “impersonal, contractual relationships”
Labor Concerns
Child labor
Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Organized unions
National Labor Union (1866)
Knights of Labor (1869)
American Federation of Labor (1886)
Agenda - better pay, shorter work days, safe work conditions
Strikes and violence
Haymarket Affair (May 1886)
Homestead Strike (1892)
Pullman Strike (1894)
Anarchism
Socialism & Eugene Debs
IWW (Industrial Workers of the World)
2
All Rights Reserved / Unauthorized Electronic Publishing Prohibited / http://www.davidwfletcher.com
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL AND THE TELEPHONE
“‘Mr. Watson, come here, I want you,’ was the
sentence heard ‘round the world, as Alexander
Graham Bell spoke for the first time through his
incredible new invention, the telephone. In
March 1876, the ability to communicate by
speech across vast distances could not have come
at a better time. America was expanding
exponentially and the telegraph–with its central
stations, low bandwidth, and delivery boys–was
becoming inadequate to serve the needs of a
burgeoning industrialized nation. In this
fascinating record, discover how Bell’s initial
interest in telephony stemmed from his desire to
find a cure for genetic deafness, and how he
might have just been a footnote in history had his
lawyer not filed for the patent a mere two hours
before his rival Elisha Gray. Man, Moment,
Machine proves that ‘necessity is the mother of
invention’ in this captivating look over the great
inventor’s shoulder as he toils to bring a worldchanging technology to a young nation in need.”
[DVD Jacket, “Alexander Graham Bell and the
Telephone” (A & E Television Networks, 2006)]
Chapters:
1. Introduction
00:00
2. Deaf Inspiration
01:00
3. Science of Sound
09:32
4. Gallows Telephone
18:52
5. Liquid Transmitter
25:06
6. Bell’s Triumph
32:00
7. Conclusion/Credits
44:00
3
A. Bell’s telephone communication from
New York to Chicago, 1892
All Rights Reserved / Unauthorized Electronic Publishing Prohibited / http://www.davidwfletcher.com
Questions for Alexander Graham Bell and the Telephone (A & E Television Networks, 2006):
1. Why was a better system of long distance communication needed in the United States by the
late 1800s?
2. How did people communicate over long distances before the telephone?
3. What was the “multiple message telegraph”?
4. How is speed in communication power?
5. What type of work was Bell involved in that helped him develop a “harmonic telegraph” or an
early type of telephone?
6. Was Bell the only person who was working on a way to transmit voice over an electrical
wire?
7. Who do you think was the most important influence on Bell and his work on the telephone?
Why?
8. What was the “gallows telephone”?
9. Why could the patent for the telephone be called “the most valuable patent ever written”? Do
you think this is true? Why or why not?
10. Why was the liquid transmitter more effective in carrying voice over wire than the
mechanical transmitter of the gallows telephone? How was this modified later to avoid problems
with the use of liquids in commercial phones?
11. Why was Bell’s unveiling of his telephone or speaking telegraph at the United States
Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia (May 1876) so important?
12. How well was Bell’s telephone received by the American public? And, what difficulties did
this popularity give the Bell Telephone Company?
4
All Rights Reserved / Unauthorized Electronic Publishing Prohibited / http://www.davidwfletcher.com
THOMAS A. EDISON: FATHER OF INVENTION
“Without the success of his innovative and
groundbreaking inventions, modern-day life as we
know it would be wholly unimaginable. Thomas
Alva Edison rightly earned a place among the most
important persons in history when his inventions,
such as the light bulb, phonograph, and movie
camera, literally transformed the way the world
functioned. In this compelling program, discover
the complete story of the famous inventor, from his
long quest to develop the light bulb to the
devastating effect his growing fame had on his
domestic life. In a captivating interview, Edison’s
great-grandson speculates that his famous relative’s
unfailing dedication to his work may have led to
the suicide of Edison’s first wife, while scholars
reveal the little-known stories behind some of
Edison’s 1,093 patents.”
[DVD Jacket, “Thomas A. Edison: Father of
Invention” (A & E Television Networks, 1995]
T. Edison with incandescent bulb, 1879
Chapters:
1. The Best and the Brightest
00:00
2. Creating A New World
11:28
3. Perfecting the Phonograph
21:50
4. Master of an Empire
29:05
5. An American Icon
37:44
6. Credits
44:54
5
All Rights Reserved / Unauthorized Electronic Publishing Prohibited / http://www.davidwfletcher.com
Questions from Thomas A. Edison: Father of Invention (A & E Television Networks, 1995):
1. Which of Edison’s big three inventions (the light bulb, the phonograph, the movie camera)
has impacted you personally the most? Why?
2. From watching the A&E Network biography of Thomas Edison, what caught your attention,
stood out, or surprised you about Edison’s personal life? Why?
3. From watching the A&E Network biography of Thomas Edison, what caught your attention,
stood out, or surprised you about Edison’s “lesser” inventions (other than those listed above)?
Why?
4. The work of Edison and his teams at Menlo Park, New Jersey and elsewhere brought about
tremendous technological changes for the United States and the world. These changes have been
permanent and literally have changed the world. Are there any comparable “discoveries” or
“inventions” in the last twenty or thirty years that have changed in a similar way our country
and/or our world? Explain.
For Further Study:
Collins, Theresa M., and Lisa Gitelman. Thomas Edison and Modern America: A Brief History
with Documents. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002.
Edwards, Rebecca. New Spirits: Americans in the Gilded Age, 1865-1905. Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 2006.
Evans, Harold. They Made America: From the Steam Engine to the Search Engine, Two
Centuries of Innovators. New York, NY: Back Bay Books, Little, Brown and Company,
2004.
Greenwood, Janette Thomas. The Gilded Age: A History in Documents. Oxford, UK: Oxford
University Press, 2000.
Pursell, Carroll. The Machine in America: A Social History of Technology. Second Edition.
Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.
Vance, James E., Jr. The North American Railroad: Its Origin, Evolution, and Geography.
Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995.
Van Dulken, Stephen. American Inventions: A History of Curious, Extraordinary, and Just
Plain Useful Patents. Washington Square, NY: New York University Press, 2004.
6
All Rights Reserved / Unauthorized Electronic Publishing Prohibited / http://www.davidwfletcher.com
Questions:
What was the “Gilded Age”? How did this period of United States change the country? In your
opinion, was it for the better or for the worst?
Who was the satirist that wrote about the excesses of the Gilded Age, especially the corrupt
partnership between business and government?
Discuss three important contributions to the rapid industrialization of the United States, the
second American Industrial Revolution, from about 1865 to 1900. Be sure to illustrate each
contribution with specific examples.
What was the “iron belt” that developed in the United States during the late 1800s?
What was the country’s first big business monopoly? Who was an important “player” in this big
business? How did this industry accelerate industrialization in the United States?
What was the significance of May 10, 1869? What happened and where? How did this impact
industrialization in the United States?
Who were the “Robber Barons” of the Gilded Age?
What new inventions helped spark industrial and urban growth in the United States in the late
1800s?
In what ways did John D. Rockefeller reorganize Standard Oil Corporation in order to limit
federal regulatory agency control of his company’s monopoly of the oil refining business?
How did the emergence of a national retail market in the United States, that made available
abundant goods for less cost (for example, by retail stores like Montgomery Ward and Sears &
Roebuck), impact common people?
Explain three socioeconomic trends of the “Gilded Age” and whether these trends contributed to
a better or worse country for lower income people.
What was Social Darwinism? How was it used by the well-to-do to justify their opulent
lifestyle?
What problems did rapid industrialization in the United States during the late 1800s create for
common laborers? How did the labor force “fight back”? Were laborers generally successful or
unsuccessful in their attempts to control and reform big business? Why or why not?
7