Chapter 18 and 19: Industrial Age
Workplace and Office Innovations
Industrial and Factory Inventions
Corrugated rollers improved wheat grinding.
Refrigerated railroad cars allowed transport of meat and produce.
Garment-sewing machines enabled mass clothing production.
These inventions lowered prices and increased availability of goods.
Office Technology
Typewriter, 1867, improved speed and legibility of communication.
Cash register, 1879, reduced theft and improved accuracy.
Adding machine, 1885, simplified accounting.
Cause and Effect
Growing businesses required better record-keeping and management tools.
These inventions created modern office work.
Changes to Home Life and Women’s Roles
Household Innovations
Vacuum cleaner reduced physical labor.
Flush toilet and indoor plumbing improved sanitation and health.
Tin cans and preserved foods expanded food choices.
Clarence Birdseye later experimented with frozen foods.
Cause and Effect
Household efficiency freed time for middle-class women.
Some women pursued education or paid work.
Expectations for cleanliness also increased, slowing major social change.
The Steel Industry and Industrial Power
Importance of Steel
Steel replaced iron because it was stronger and more flexible.
Essential for railroads, bridges, skyscrapers, and automobiles.
Steel Production Methods
Bessemer process, Henry Bessemer, allowed mass production.
Open-hearth process improved quality and scale.
Production Growth
1860: 13,000 tons.
1879: 1 million tons.
1900: 10 million tons.
1910: 24 million tons.
Steel prices dropped by about 80 percent.
Cause and Effect
Cheap steel fueled construction, transportation, and industry.
Steel became the backbone of the American economy through World War II.
Communication Revolution
Telegraph and Transatlantic Cables
1858: first transatlantic cable briefly connected the U.S. and Europe.
By the 1870s–1880s, over 100,000 miles of underwater cable existed.
Western Union controlled 80 percent of U.S. telegraph lines.
Impact
Information traveled in minutes instead of weeks.
Transformed business, journalism, and diplomacy.
Alexander Graham Bell and the Telephone
1876: Bell patented the telephone.
Founded the National Bell Telephone Company.
Western Union rejected the phone, then hired Thomas Edison to compete.
Western Union sold Edison’s design to Bell to avoid legal defeat.
Bell’s company became AT&T with federal approval.
Growth
1880: 50,000 telephones.
1900: 1.35 million telephones.
Installed in the White House.
Cause and Effect
Reduced rural isolation.
Encouraged corporate consolidation and monopoly power.
Thomas Edison and Electric Power
Edison’s Background
Born 1847 in Ohio.
Former telegraph operator.
Established Menlo Park laboratory.
Held 1,093 patents.
Major Inventions
Phonograph.
Motion picture projector.
Dictaphone.
Storage battery.
Mimeograph.
Electric Light
1879: practical incandescent light bulb.
Tested over 6,000 filaments.
Used carbonized cotton thread.
Business Expansion
1882: Edison Electric Illuminating Company powered New York City.
1889: Edison General Electric formed with backing from J. P. Morgan.
AC vs. DC Power War
Edison promoted direct current, which traveled only two miles.
George Westinghouse promoted alternating current, which traveled long distances.
Edison tried to portray AC as dangerous, even linking it to the electric chair.
AC became dominant.
Impact
Enabled nationwide electrification.
Transformed homes, factories, and farms.
Railroads and Robber Barons
Railroad Expansion
First true big business.
Track mileage:
End of Civil War: 35,000 miles.
1900: over 200,000 miles.
Stimulated steel, coal, and timber industries.
Financing
Private investors.
Federal and state governments.
$150 million in loans.
185 million acres of land.
Stocks and bonds sold domestically and abroad.
Public Backlash
Farmers paid higher shipping rates than large corporations.
Railroads favored big business, fueling anger.
Key Railroad Tycoons
Jay Gould
Bought failing railroads and made few improvements.
Controlled over 10,000 miles of track.
Owned Union Pacific Railroad.
Died in 1892 worth over $100 million.
Widely disliked.
Cornelius Vanderbilt
Consolidated rail lines into New York Central Railroad.
Created efficient transport from Midwest to East Coast.
Died in 1877 worth over $100 million.
Seen as both a robber baron and economic builder.
Giants of Industry
Andrew Carnegie
Scottish immigrant.
Built steel empire using efficiency and vertical integration.
Controlled mines, mills, and transport.
Promoted the Gospel of Wealth.
Believed the rich should fund libraries, schools, and hospitals.
John D. Rockefeller
Founded Standard Oil in 1870.
Used horizontal integration.
Controlled 95 percent of U.S. oil refining by 1879.
Created trusts and later holding companies.
Lowered kerosene prices by 80 percent.
J. P. Morgan
Powerful banker and financier.
Created U.S. Steel in 1901.
Controlled hundreds of corporations.
Accused of creating a “money trust.”
Working-Class Life (1865–1900)
Wages and Hours
Average wage: 20 cents per hour.
Annual income: about $600.
Workweek: 60 hours.
Steel workers often worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
Conditions
Unsafe factories.
By 1913:
25,000 deaths.
700,000 serious injuries annually.
Work was repetitive and isolating.
Women and Child Labor
Women workers tripled between 1870 and 1900.
Five million women worked by 1900.
Paid less than men.
Child labor tripled.
Children worked long hours in dangerous conditions.
Labor Unions and Worker Protest
Major Events
Molly Maguires, 1870s, violent coal miner group.
Great Railroad Strike of 1877 began in West Virginia.
Federal troops ended strikes with no gains.
Labor Organizations
National Labor Union, 1866, pushed for reforms.
Knights of Labor included unskilled workers.
Haymarket Affair, 1886, destroyed public trust in unions.
AFL focused on skilled workers and economic goals.
Major Strikes
Homestead Strike, 1892, crushed by state militia.
Pullman Strike, 1894, ended by federal troops.
Growth and Specialization of American Cities
Industrial Expansion
Steam engines allowed factories to move away from rivers and into cities.
Population Growth, 1860 to 1920
The U.S. shifted from a rural to an urban society.
Urban areas were defined as populations over 2,500.
Industrial Specialization
Pittsburgh specialized in steel.
Chicago became known for meatpacking.
New York focused on garment manufacturing and finance.
Detroit became the center of automobile manufacturing.
Despite specialization, cities shared similar problems.
Urban Problems and Infrastructure Challenges
Common Urban Issues
Severe housing shortages.
Overcrowded and unsanitary tenements.
Poor transportation and communication.
Lack of clean water and sewage systems.
Problems worsened by class inequality and ethnic divisions.
Four Key Innovations That Helped Cities Grow
Electric lighting.
Improved communication.
Intracity transportation.
Skyscrapers.
Electric Lighting and Communication
Electric Power
1880, Thomas Edison patented the incandescent light bulb.
1882, first commercial power plants opened in New York City.
Nikola Tesla developed alternating current for Westinghouse.
AC power allowed electricity to travel long distances.
Factories increased production and expanded urban growth.
Transportation and Skyscrapers
Intracity Transportation
Early transportation included horse drawn omnibuses and horse cars.
Problems included congestion and sanitation issues.
1887, Frank Sprague introduced electric trolleys in Richmond, Virginia.
1873, San Francisco introduced cable cars.
Elevated trains began in New York City in 1868.
1897, Boston opened the first U.S. subway.
Skyscrapers
Cities expanded upward due to limited land.
1885, Home Insurance Building built in Chicago, first skyscraper.
Steel construction made tall buildings possible.
1889, Elisha Otis installed the first electric elevator.
Skyscrapers transformed city skylines and business districts.
Living Conditions and Public Health
Tenement Life
Overcrowded apartments with poor ventilation.
Unsafe plumbing and contaminated water.
High rates of diseases like cholera and typhoid.
Public Health Crises
1873, cholera outbreak in Memphis, Tennessee.
1878 to 1879, yellow fever epidemic killed over 10,000 in Memphis.
Cities like New York, Chicago, and New Orleans installed sewage systems by the late 1880s.
Urban Reform and Social Responses
Jacob Riis
Danish immigrant and police reporter in New York City.
Published How the Other Half Lives in 1890.
Used photographs to expose slum conditions in Five Points and Mulberry Street.
Inspired housing reforms and new tenement laws.
Social Gospel Movement
Led by Reverend Washington Gladden.
Believed Christianity should address social problems.
Churches provided gyms, libraries, and health programs.
Settlement House Movement
1889, Jane Addams opened Hull House in Chicago.
Lillian Wald founded Henry Street Settlement in New York City.
Offered childcare, education, healthcare, and job training.
Led to child labor laws and worker compensation.
Florence Kelley helped create the National Child Labor Committee.
Julia Lathrop became the first woman to lead a federal agency in 1912.
Urban Population Changes
New Urban Groups
African Americans leaving the rural South.
Southern and eastern European immigrants.
Earlier northern and western European immigrants often moved west.
The Great Migration
Overview
1865 to around 1930.
Nearly two million African Americans moved north.
Known as the Great Migration.
Major Destinations
New York City.
Chicago.
Detroit.
Philadelphia.
Pittsburgh.
Cleveland.
St. Louis.
Indianapolis.
Push Factors
Continued racial violence despite the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments.
Ku Klux Klan violence and lynchings.
Tuskegee Institute reported 3,500 lynchings between 1865 and 1900.
Pull Factors
Factory jobs and steady wages.
Greater political participation.
Less fear of daily racial violence.
African Americans in Northern Cities
Employment
Men worked in steel mills, construction, railroads, and meatpacking.
Women worked mainly as domestic servants or in garment factories.
Wages were higher than in the South but costs of living were high.
Discrimination
Housing discrimination and restrictive covenants.
Banks denied mortgages, later called redlining.
African Americans concentrated in overcrowded neighborhoods.
Despite hardship, social and psychological freedom encouraged migration.
Changing Immigration Patterns
Ellis Island
Opened in 1892 in New York Harbor.
Processed immigrants through medical and legal inspections.
About 2 percent were denied entry.
Nearly half of Americans today have ancestors who passed through Ellis Island.
Nativism and Restriction
1885, Josiah Strong published Our Country.
Claimed immigrants threatened American values.
Dillingham Commission, 1907, reinforced stereotypes.
Chinese Exclusion Act restricted Chinese immigration.
Literacy test passed in 1917.
Emergency Quota Act of 1921 and Immigration Act of 1924 limited immigration.
Class Responses to Urban Life
Working Class
Relied on political machines for support.
Tammany Hall in New York City led by Boss Tweed.
Provided services in exchange for votes.
Corrupt but effective short term.
Popular Entertainment
Coney Island opened in Brooklyn in 1895.
Vaudeville shows and dime novels provided escape.
Nickelodeons opened in Pittsburgh in 1905.
Professional baseball began with Cincinnati Red Stockings in 1869.
Upper Class
Preferred elite culture like classical music and fine art.
Carnegie Hall opened in New York City in 1891.
Metropolitan Museum of Art opened in 1872.
Social Register published in 1886.
Middle Class
Included professionals and managers.
Moved to suburbs using railways and trolleys.
Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, was an early suburb.
Women managed households and pursued limited education.
Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 created land grant colleges.
City Beautiful Movement
Goals and Leaders
Led by Frederick Law Olmsted and Daniel Burnham.
Aimed to improve urban life through beauty and order.
Columbian Exposition
Held in Chicago in 1893.
Featured the White City.
Influenced modern urban planning.
Impact
Expanded parks and boulevards.
Inspired city planning in Washington, DC beginning in 1901.