The Expansion

of Industry
ti
I .I
I
I
,, I At the end of the 19th
J[ WHY IT MATTERS NOW

Technological developments of
Terms & Name~ ;
• Edwin L. Drake
•Bessemer
J
• Christopher
Sholes
'
l century, natural resources, the late 19th century paved th e process • Alexander
'' creative ideas, and growing way for the continued growth of • Thomas Alva Graham Bell

' ;!
I markets fueled an industrial
boom.
American industry. Edison

One day, Pattillo Higgins noticed bubbles in the springs around

Wil¥:k1~£ij@[E~ Spindletop, a hill near Beaumont in southeastern Texas. This and
Use the graphic other signs convinced him that oil was underground. If Higgins
organizer online to found oil, it could serve as a fuel source around which a vibrant
take notes on
the causes of the
industrial city would develop.
industrial boom and Higgins, who had been a mechanic and a lumber mer-
their impact on chant, couldn't convince geologists or investors that oil was
industrialization. present, but he didn't give up. A magazine ad seeking
investors got one response-from Captain Anthony F. Lucas,
an experienced prospector who also believed that there was oil
at Spindletop. When other investors were slow to send money,
Higgins kept his faith, not only in Spindletop, but in Lucas.

A PERSONAL VOICE PATTILLO HIGGINS

...-Captain Lucas, . . . these experts come and tell you this or that
can't happen because it has never happened before. You believe A.
there is oil here, ... and I think you are right. I know there is oil Pattillo Higgins
here in greater quantities than man has ever found before/'
--quoted in Spindletop
I
I In 1900, the two men found investors, and they began t 0 d ill
i .ffi l fru
After month s of d1 cu t,
• r that autumn
strating work, on the morning of Janua 10 .·
gushed from their well. The Texas oil boom had begun. ry , l901, 011

I Natural Resources Fuel Industrialization

After the Civil War, the United States was still largel ·
the 1920s-a mere 60 years later-it had become the~e:n _agri~ultura~ nation. By
the world. This immense industrial boom was due t dmg rndustnal power in
o several facto .
wealth of natural resources, government support f b . rs, mcluding: a
. . or usmess d
urban populat10n that provided both cheap labor and , an a growing
markets for new products.
 BLACK GOLD Though easter N . . .
cine from eruct . n ative Amencan tribes had made fuel and med1-
American sett! e OI h long before Europeans arnved . .
1
on the contment, early
ers ad little u f . .
kerosene to light se or oil. In the 1840s, Amencans began usmg
I
how to distill th fuamps after _the Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner discovered
e el from 01I or coal
It wasn't until 1859 h .
steam engin t d . ' owever, when Edwin L. Drake successfully used a
111
beneath th/ e~rt r, for 011 near Titusville, Pennsylvania, that removing oil fro~
boom th t h s surface became practical. This breakthrough started an 011
vocabulary Pet a sf~read to Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, and, eventually, Texas.
entrepreneur: ~o1eum-re ming industries arose in Cleveland and Pittsburgh as entrepreneurs
a person who rus ed to transform the oil into kerosene. Gasoline a byproduct of the refining
organizes, process · · ll Y was thrown away. But after the 'automobile became popular,
. ' ongma
operates, and .
assumes the nsk gasolme became the most important form of oil.
tor a business BES~EM_ER STEEL PROCESS Oil was not the only natural resource that was
venture
plentiful m the United States. There were also abundant deposits of coal and iron.
In 1887, prospectors discovered iron ore deposits more than 100 miles long and
up t~ 3 miles wide in the Mesabi Range of Minnesota. At the same time, coal pro-
duction skyrocketed-from 33 million tons in 1870 to more than 250 million
tons in 1900.
Iron is a dense metal, but it is soft and tends to break and rust. It also usually
contains other elements, such as carbon. Removing the carbon from iron pro-
duces a lighter, more flexible, and rust-resistant metal-steel. The raw materials
needed to make steel were readily available; all that was needed was a cheap and
efficient manufacturing process. The Bessemer process, developed indepen-
dently by the British manufacturer Henry Bessemer and American ironmaker
William Kelly around 1850, soon became widely used. This technique involved
injecting air into molten iron to remove the carbon and other impurities. By
1880, American manufacturers were using the new method to produce more than
90 percent of the nation's steel. In this age of rapid change and innovation, even

ATLANTIC
OCEAN
• Other cities _ _ ___..i.:::::;..,._ _~..;;;_:__;.~-------1
'
0 Coal mining
GEOGRAPHY SKILLBUILDER
0 Iron ore mining 1. Region Which state had the most steel-producing ar~as?
2. Human-Environment Interaction What connection can you
Oil
draw between natural resources (including water) and steel
Steel production
production in Pittsburgh?

231
 The Technological Explosion, 1826-1903
1813 1877
1895 1 903
1837 1848 1880 1867 181!.,..!!!!-- ~ Radio •~
1826 1831 - - - - - - - - ----- . --•--:--- : : • Ught Bulb Motion Pictures
--""'"'--
• Telegraph • Sewing Machine : DynamRe \ PhOnogrllPh e X-Ray
Internal-• Typewriter • • Telephone
. • Reaper
• Photography Com bu atIon ElactrlC Motor
Engine
bettered by the 1860s. It
the successful Bessemer process was
th O
en-hearth process, I MAIN_ID~
was eventually replaced by e ~Ii steel from scrap Summarizing
enabling manufacturers to produce qu ty i,e) What natural
metal as well as from raw materials. (6) resources were
. d with thousands of most important for
NEW USES FOR STEEL The railroa s,
. tomers for steel, but industrialization?
miles of track, became the biggest cus . h
inventors soon found additional uses for it. Josep
Glidden's barbed wire and McCormick's and Deere's farm
machines helped transform the plains into th e food pro-
HISTORICAL
ducer of the nation.
5pOTLIGHy Steel changed the face of the nation as well, as it made
innovative construction possible. One of the most remark-
ILLUMINATING THE able structures was the Brooklyn Bridge. Completed in
LIGHT BULB 1883, it spanned 1,595 feet of the East River in New York
Shortly after moving into a long City. Its steel cables were supported by towers higher than
wooden shed at Menlo Park, any man-made and weight-bearing structure except the
j Thomas Alva Edison and his
associates set to work to develop
pyramids of Egypt. Like those ancient marvels, the com-
pleted bridge was called a wonder of the world.
the perfect incandescent bulb.
Arc lamps already lit some city Around this time, setting the stage for a new era of
streets and shops, using an elec- expansion upward as well as outward, William Le Baron
tric current passing between two Jenney designed the first skyscraper with a steel frame-the
sticks of carbon, but they were
Home Insurance Building in Chicago. Before Jenney had his
glaring and inefficient.
Edison hoped to create a long- pioneering idea, the weight of large buildings was support-
lasting lamp with a soft glow, and ed entirely by their walls or by iron frames, which limited
began searching for a filament the buildings' height. With a steel frame to support the
that would.burn slowly and stay weight, however, architects could build as high as they
lit. Edison tried wires, sticks,
blades of grass, and even hairs
wanted. As structures soared into the air, not even the sky
from his assistants' beards. seemed to limit what Americans could achieve.
Finally, a piece of carbonized
bamboo from Japan did the trick.
Edison's company used bamboo Inventions Promote Change
filaments until 1911, when it
began using tungsten filaments, By
. capitalizing on natural resources and their Own mgenmty,
· •
which are still used today.
1~ventors changed more than the landscape. Their inven-
- - ~ - - - --~ ~ - ~ t10ns affected the very way people lived and worked.
THE POWER OF ELECTRICITY In 1876, Thomas Alva Edison b .
h . d t . 1 fr . h h ecame a p10-
neer on t new m us na ontler w en e established the world's first research
laboratory m Menlo Park, New Jersey. There Edison perfected th . nd
VocabulatY
light bulb-patented in 1880-and later invented an entire syst e fmca esc~nt Incandescent:
d giving off visible
and distributing electrical power. Another inventor, George W e~ or pra ucmg
light as a result of
with Edison, added innovations that made electricity safer andetmghouse,_ along being heated
The harnessing of electricity completely changed the tuess expensive.
· • na re of busine ·
Amenca. By 1890, electnc power ran numerous machines fr ss m
presses. This inexpensive, convenient source of energy so~n ~m fans to ?tinting
homes and spurred the invention of time-saving appliances. Elec:ame available in
str
urban travel cheap and efficient and also promoted the outw c eetcars made
rd
More important, electricity allowed manufacture a spread of cities.
rs to locate their plants

232 CHAPTER 6
I MAINIDEA wherever they wanted n .
enabled ind t - ot JUS t near sources of power, such as rivers. This
Analyzing
Effects
1!J How did
electricity change
the models f~:
and Swift mus /Y t~. grow as never before. Huge operations, such as the Armour
pac mg plants, _a nd th_e efficient processes that they used became
new consumer mdustnes. ,!)
American life? l~VENTIONS CHANGE LIFESTYLES Edison's
light buibw I
. . as on Y one of several revolutionary
inventions Chr" t h
· •s op er Sholes invented the
typewriter in 1867 and changed the world of
work. Next to the light bulb, however, perhaps
the most dramatic invention was the telephone
unveiled by Alexander Graham Bell and
Thomas "."atson in 1876. It opened the way for
a wo rldwide communications network.
The typewriter and the telephone particu-
larly affected office work and created new jobs
for women. Although women made up Jess
than 5 percent of all office workers in 1870, by
1910 they accounted for nearly 40 percent of
the clerical work force. New inventions also had
a tremendous impact on factory work, as well as
on jobs that traditionally had been done at
home. For example, women had previously
sewn clothing by hand for their families. With
industrialization, clothing could be mass-pro-
duced in factories, creating a need for garment
workers, many of whom were women.
Industrialization freed some factory work-
ers from backbreaking labor and helped
improve workers' standard of living. By 1890, the average workweek had been
.
The typewriter
shown here dates
reduced by about ten hours. However, many laborers felt that the mechanization
from around
of so many tasks reduced human workers' worth. As consumers, though, workers
1890.
regained some of their lost power in the marketplace. The country's expanding
urban population provided a vast potential market for the new inventions and
products of the late 1800s.

1. TERMS & NAMES For each term or name, write a sentence explaining its significance .
• Edwin L. Drake • Thomas Alva Edison • Alexander Graham Bell
• Bessemer process • Christopher Sholes

MAIN IDEA CRITICAL THINKING

2. TAKING NOTES
In a chart like the one below, liSt
resources, ideas, and markets th at
affected the industrial boom of th e
19th century. In the seco nd column,
note how each item contributed to
industrialization.
Resources, Impact
Ideas, Markets
3. MAKING INFERENCES
Do you think that consumers gained
power as industry expanded in the
late 19th century? Why or why not?
4. HYPOTHESIZING
If the U.S. had been poor in
natural resources, how would
industrialization have been
affected?
5. ANALYZING EFFECTS
Which invention or development
described in this section had the
greatest impact on society? Justify
your choice. Think About:
• the applications of inventions
• the impact of inventions on
people's daily lives
• the effect of inventions on
the workplace

A New Industrial Age 233

Effect 1:Environmental
 Effect 1:
Environmental
 Effect 1: Environmental
Air and Water Pollution
Effect 2: Child Labor
The Industrial Revolution saw the rise
of factories in need of workers.
Children were ideal employees because
they could be paid less, were often of
smaller stature so could attend to more
minute tasks and were less likely to
organize and strike against their
pitiable working conditions. U.S.
Mandatory/Compulsory Education
laws and Child Labor Laws helped
solve some of these issues later/.
• 1880 (Compulsory Education under age 10)
Varied by state – not full time requirement.
• 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act prohibited full
time employment under age 16.
• 1996: (Compulsory full time education 5-16)
Varied by state.
 Effect 2: Child Labor
Everyone in the family had to work.
Effect 2: Child Labor
Effect 2: Child Labor
Effect 2: Child Labor
Effect 2: Child Labor
Effect 3: Working Condi;ons
During the late 19th and early 20th
century there were very few safety
regulations required in industry (i.e.
required protective gear and
required safe working conditions).
During the Gilded Age, a growing
number of Americans worked in
urban areas in manufacturing
factories. They worked 10-hour
shifts, six days a week.
The wages they earned were barely
enough to support their families.
Adults worked long and hard and
sometimes they were injured as a
result of their jobs.
Effect 3: Working Condi;ons
Effect 3: Working Condi;ons
Effect 3: Working Condi;ons
Effect 3: Working Condi;ons
Effect 4: Distribu;on of Wealth

By the time of that

1897 ball, the richest
4,000 families in the
U.S. (representing
less than 1% of the
population) had about
as much wealth as
other 11.6 million
families all together.
 Effect 4: Distribu;on of Wealth
How did industrial leaders spend their money? Industrial
leaders amassed personal fortunes that led to extravagant
living. They bought lavish homes, threw expensive par;es,
etc.Some also spent much of their earnings on philanthropy
and charity work.

Vanderbilt Mansion Carnegie Mansion

Astor
Mansion
Effect 4: Distribu;on of Wealth
 Effect 4: Distribu;on of Wealth
As time went on, the income inequality between wealthy and
poor became more and more glaring during the Gilded Age.
There were little to no government funded welfare programs to
provide for the poor.
Effect 4: Distribu;on of Wealth
 Effect 5: Rise of Consumerism &
Adver7sing
During the American
Gilded Age, which offered
unprecedented access to
consumer goods, what one
owned or had the ability
to buy became an
important way to assert
one's identity. The
American Gilded Age
(1870–1900) was a time
of rapid modernization
and great expansion of the
country's middle class
 Effect 5: Rise of Consumerism &
Adver7sing
Sears Watch Company published
Richard Sears' first mail-order
catalog, offering watches, diamonds,
and jewelry. In 1889 Sears sold his
business for US$100,000 ($2.8
million today) and relocated to Iowa,
intending to be a rural banker. The
transcontinental railroad allowed for
the shipment of goods all over the
U.S. People could order almost
anything with the Sears Catalog
(Gilded Age Amazon.com). The
pages were even used as toilet paper
after ;)
Effect 5: Rise of
Consumerism
& Adver7sing

Comfortable?!
The U.S. Pure Food & Drug Act was not
introduced until 1906 (FDA)
Can you guess
the one of the
original Gilded
Age
ingredients in
Coca-Cola?
Effect 6: New Forms of Entertainment
Entertainment
Vaudeville was one of the most
prevalent types of theater that
existed during the First Gilded
Age. A vaudeville performance
was typically made up of a series
of unrelated mini acts. Vaudeville
in the First Gilded Age was
primarily catered to the new
influx of European immigrants
that had just come to America.
Effect 6: New Forms of Entertainment
Entertainment
 Effect 6: New Forms of Entertainment
Entertainment
Thomas Edison created many inventions, but his favorite was the
phonograph. While working on improvements to the telegraph and
the telephone, Edison figured out a way to record sound on tinfoil-
coated cylinders. In 1877, he created a machine with two needles:
one for recording and one for playback. People could now listen to
the music from the symphony in the comfort of their own homes.
During the Gilded Age, in contrast, the range of popular music was
far wider, reflecting a society in which class, ethnic, and regional
differences were much more pronounced than they are today. There
were parlor songs for the genteel middle class, but also labor songs,
cowboy songs, and many political songs. Ragtime – also spelled rag-
time or rag time – is a musical style that enjoyed its peak popularity
between 1895 and 1919. Its cardinal trait is its syncopated or
"ragged" rhythm.
 Effect 6: New Forms of Entertainment
Entertainment
The advent of the safety bicycle during the
Gilded Age led to a nationwide cycling
craze. cycles seized the public’s imagination
for several reasons, as they still do, which
included exercise, the ability to move about
on one’s own schedule, and the ability to
travel longer distances in shorter time. One
of the greatest impact the bicycle had on the
role of women occurred in the 1890s during
the bicycle craze that swept American and
European society. During this time, the
primary achievement the bicycle gained for
the women's movement is that it gave
women a greater amount of social mobility.