Second Industrial Revolution Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards based on lecture notes about the Second Industrial Revolution.

Edwin Drake

The first oil driller to use a drive pipe to prevent the hole from caving in on itself.

Horatio Alger

Author who created the myth: With a little good fortune and a lot of hard work, you too can be wealthy.

Bessemer process

The first method discovered for mass-producing steel.

Thomas Edison

Inventor known for the incandescent light bulb, the phonograph, and the motion picture camera.

J.P. Morgan

Leading financier of the era; helped transform American business and ushered in the era of finance capitalism.

Samuel Morse

Invented the telegraph and developed his system of short and long signals (dots and dashes) known as Morse Code.

Alexander Graham Bell

Best known for the telephone; also developed an early version of the metal detector and the graphophone.

George Westinghouse

Originally a railroad innovator, he later turned his attention to electricity and was an early supporter of Alternating Current (AC).

Guglielmo Marconi

Nobel Prize winning Italian inventor known as the “Father of the Radio.”

Elisha Otis

Best known for his elevator inventions, including safety systems that prevented the elevator from falling if the lift chain or rope broke.

Granville T. Woods

Invented the Synchronous Multiplex Railway System; developed braking systems, signal systems, and tracking systems for trains; also developed early versions of the “third rail” system.

Elias Howe

Invented the modern sewing machine and had a patent for it in 1846.

Gustavus Swift

Developed refrigerated train cars to transport meat; created the “meat trust.”

Orville and Wilbur Wright

Invented the airplane.

Elijah P. McCoy

Canadian born African-American machinist who held over fifty patents, most relate to lubricating systems for steam engines.

Eli H. Janey

Invented the knuckle coupler, which cut the number of railroad worker deaths dramatically.

Second Industrial Revolution

Refers to the time between 1870-1914 in the United States when there was an expansion in electricity, petroleum, steel, as well as railroads and manufacturing.

Capitalism

An economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state.

Entrepreneur

A person who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on greater than normal financial risks in order to do so.

Laissez-faire economics

Economic and political philosophy that advocates for a minimum interference in the economy from the government.

Protective Tariff

Tax imposed on foreign made goods to protect and encourage domestic production.

Patent

A government license conferring a right or title for a set period, especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention.

Suspension Bridge

One of the oldest bridge designs known, with cables suspended between towers and vertical “suspender cables” that hold the deck.

Industrialization

The process of change from an agrarian and handicraft economy to one dominated by industry and machine manufacturing.

Mass production

The production of large quantities of a standardized article by an automated mechanical process.

Mechanization

The introduction of machines or automatic devices into a process, activity, or place.

Urbanization

An increase in a population in cities and towns versus rural areas.

Finance Capitalism

A type of capitalism in which the economic and political structure is controlled by financial institutions or financiers rather than by industrial capitalist.

Industrial Capitalism

Economic system in which the means of production (factories, materials, etc) are privately held by industrialists.

Monopoly

The exclusive possession or control of the supply of or trade in a commodity or service.

Corporation

A company or group of people authorized to act as a single entity (legally a person) and recognized as such in law.

Shareholder

A person, company, or institution that owns at least one share of a company’s stock.

Stock

A type of security that signifies ownership in a corporation and represents a claim on part of the corporation's assets and earnings.

Free market economy

An economy where the government imposes few restriction or regulations on buyers and sellers.

Cartel

An association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition.

Horizontal Integration

The acquisition of businesses operating at the same level in the value/production chain.

Vertical Integration

When a company purchases different stages of production within the supply chain.

Trust

A form of business organization which is similar to a corporation, in which investors receive transferable certificates of beneficial interest.

Robber Baron

A person who has become rich through ruthless and unscrupulous business practices.

Social Darwinism

A refuted theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals; used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism.

Interstate Commerce Commission

The first federal business regulatory agency, originally meant to regulate railroads.

Sherman Antitrust Act

Authorized the Federal Government to dissolve trusts that were in restraint of trade or commerce.

Communist Manifesto

Social history is nothing other than a record of past struggles between distinct social classes.

Sweatshop

A factory or workshop where manual workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and under poor conditions.

Labor union

An organized association of workers formed to protect and further their rights and interests.

Company town

A community that is dependent on one firm for all or most of the necessary services or functions of town life.

Collective bargaining

Negotiation of wages and other conditions of employment by an organized body of employees.

National Trades Union

The first national federation of labor unions in the United States.

Socialism

A political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

Knights of Labor

Formed in 1869, they were different from most unions because they were vertically organized to include all workers within an industry regardless of trade.

Strike

A refusal to work organized by a body of employees as a form of protest.

Strikebreaker

A person who works or is employed in place of others who are on strike, thereby making the strike ineffectual.

Anarchist

A person who rebels against any authority, established order, or ruling power.

Immigrant

A person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country.

Push/Pull Factors

Factors which either push people into migration or attract them.

Refugee

A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.

Steerage

The cheapest accommodation on a passenger ship.

Angel Island

California immigration center built in 1905; referred to as the “Ellis Island of the West.”

Settlement houses

Reform movement that sought to help those in poor neighborhoods find ways out of poverty.

Fraternal associations

Groups that are formed based on a common bond, as with social or academic interests.

Nativism

The policy of protecting the interests of native-born or established inhabitants against those of immigrants.

Gilded Age

Term applied to the time period from 1870ish to 1917 that satirized the appearance of untarnished success and progress.

Consumerism

Protection or promotion of the interests of consumers.

Amusement Parks

Beginning from public parks that featured temporary zoos, band performances, and rides, modern ones began to open in the 1880s.

Chautauquas

People who wanted to better themselves and continue their education often went to these “retreats” to vacation and learn at the same time.

Vaudeville

Popular form of entertainment from the 1880-1930s that featured a variety of performers in a single venue over several hours.

Muckraker

Journalist who exposes corruption and highlights the struggles of the poor.

Yellow journalist

Style of writing that emphasizes sensationalism over accuracy.

Mark Twain

Satirist, novelist, and writer of 'The Gilded Age'.

Joseph Pulitzer

Known for exposing corruption to highlight the struggles of the poor, yet he also delved into yellow journalism at times.

William Randolph Hearst

Media giant who owned numerous newspapers, magazines, as well as radio stations; built his empire on sensationalist stories where fact and fiction were often blurred.

John Dewey

Psychologist, philosopher, political activist, and educator who believed that learning is a social process and interactive.

Stephen Crane

Novelist and poet known for his realistic depictions of war and human suffering.