Chapter 6

An Industrial Society

Petroleum

an oily, flammable liquid

transcontinental railroad

• a railroad that spanned an entire continent.

corporation

• a business owned by investors who buy part of the company through shares of stock.

Patent

• a government document giving an inventor the exclusive right to make or sell his or her invention for a specific number of years

standard time

• a system adopted in 1918 that divided the United States into four time zones

monopoly

• a company that eliminates its competitors and controls an industry

What caused the steel industry to boom and why?

• The development of the Bessemer steel process caused the steel industry to boom because it substantially cut the cost of making steel

Alexander Graham Bell

• a teacher for deaf students who invented the telephone.

Business cycle

• a pattern of good times and bad times in the economy.

philanthropist

• a person who gives large sums of money to charities

How did the government encourage the building of the railroad?

• The government encouraged the building of railroads by giving railroad companies 20 miles of land for every mile of track built.

sweat shop

• a place where workers labored long hard hours under poor conditions for low wages

Gilded Age

• an era during the late 1800s of fabulous wealth. This meant that the extreme wealth of a few people could overshadow some problems in our society like corrupt politics and widespread poverty

Bessemer Steel Process

• a new (cheaper) way of making steel that was developed in the 1850s and caused steel production to soar

robber baron

• business leader who became wealthy through dishonest methods.

Why was this time period called the Gilded Age?

• This was called the Gilded Age because the few people who were really wealthy (this represented the thin layer of gold) covered up the problems with the rest of our society like poverty, corrupt officials, etc. (this represents the ugly metal of the fake jewelry)

Thomas Edison

• an inventor who invented the electric light bulb, phonograph, moving picture viewer, and over 1000 other inventions in his Menlo Park, New Jersey lab.

socialism

• an economic system in which all members of a society are equal owners of all businesses; members share the work and the profits

John D. Rockefeller

• a leader in the oil industry who was able to control much of the oil refining in the United States through methods that were unethical. He later became a philanthropist and donate over $500 million to help the public

scabs

• strikebreakers

What hardships did workers face in the late 1800s?

• The hardships faced by workers in the late 1800s were low wages, long hours, and unsafe conditions.

union

• An organization that tried to help workers gain more rights, better wages, shorter hours and safer working conditions.

Andrew Carnegie

• A leader in the steel industry who was successful because he was able to gain control of all the processes related to making steel. He later became a philanthropist and donate over $350 million to help the public