Social studies 8-10

Samuel Gompers

President of the American Federation of Labor for 37 years.

George Westinghouse

Invented air brakes and safety signals for the railroads.

Mary Harris Jones

Co-founder of the Wobblies, strike organizer, and speaker.

Matthias Baldwin

Built the first practical steam engine locomotive.

Eli Janney

Invented a safer mechanism for locking together railroad cars.

Theodore Roosevelt

Took corporations to court to break up their monopolies.

Henry Bessemer

Invented a more efficient way to make steel.

Terence Powderly

The leader of the Knights of Labor in the 1880s.

Edwin Drake

Drilled the first successful oil well in 1859.

Samuel Kier

Built the first successful oil refinery and made kerosene.

Cornelius Vanderbilt

Made a fortune from shipping and railroads in New York.

Clara Barton

Red Cross leader who helped the victims of the Johnstown Flood.

J.P. Morgan

Financier who invested in railroads, electricity, and steel.

Eugene Debs

Union leader of the Industrial Workers of the World, or Wobblies.

John D. Rockefeller

King of oil refining and leader of Standard Oil Company.

Elias Howe

Inventor of the sewing machine.

Andrew Carnegie

Made a fortune from his steel factories.

James J Hill

Railroad tycoon of the Great Northern Railway.

George Pullman

Designed more comfortable sleeper cars and hired Black porters.

Henry Clay Frick

Owned 80% of the coke factories used to make steel.

Duryea Bros

Invented the first practical gasoline-driven car in Massachusetts.

John Pitcairn & Ford

Established the glass industry in Pittsburgh.

Alexander Graham Bell

Made a fortune from the invention of the telephone.

Nikola Tesla

Electrical genius who received 10 patents for his work in radio.

Charles Hall

Invented a practical way to make aluminum in Pittsburgh.

Samuel Morse

Co-developed the telegraph, which evolved into Western Union.

Cyrus Field

Installed the first transatlantic telegraph cable.

Gustavus Swift

Invented the first refrigerated railroad car.

Karl Benz

First to apply a gasoline engine to a wheeled vehicle.

Ford & Olds

Developed the idea of the assembly line and mass-producing cars.

Wright Bros

Developed and invented the airplane.

Guglielmo Marconi

Invented the wireless radio, which saved hundreds in the Titanic.

John Roebling

The inventor of the wire rope (cable).

Mack Bros

Started the truck industry in Brooklyn, New York.

Thomas Edison

Invented the first practical light bulb.

Coal

The most important freight carried by the railroads.

Eliminate competition

The overall purpose of using vertical and horizontal integration.

Bessemer Steel Process

The new process Andrew Carnegie learned about for making steel.

U.S. Steel Corporation

The largest steel company established by J. P. Morgan.

Corporate monopolies

Result of the U.S. government’s laissez-faire policy toward industry.

Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890

Aimed to break up businesses that were monopolies.

Molly Maguire

A secret organization of Irish coal miners in the 1870s.

Centennial Exhibition

Showcased the Hall of Machinery at the nation’s 100th anniversary.

Assembly line

Production innovation that made Henry Ford's cars affordable.

Menlo Park

A facility for conducting research on inventions.

Kinetoscope

A device used to show early motion pictures.

Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

An event that did not show strife between workers and business owners.

Johnstown Flood

One of the country’s greatest natural disasters.

Swift’s Meat Packing Company

A business not ruled by the courts to be a monopoly.