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456 • Chapter 13 Section 1

Section 1A Technological

Revolution

A Technological Revolution1

MAIN IDEA

In the years after the Civil War, new technology revolutionized American life.

READING FOCUS

• Why did people’s daily lives change inthe decades following the Civil War?

• How did advances in electric power andcommunication affect life for people andbusinesses?

• What effects did the development of rail-roads have on industrial growth?

• What was the impact of the Bessemerprocess on American culture?

KEY TERMS

patentproductivity transcontinentalrailroad

Bessemerprocess

mass production

TARGET READING SKILL

Understand Effects As you read, complete thistable listing some of the major technological innova-tions of the decades following the Civil War and theirimpact on American life.

Setting the Scene Samuel Morse had worked for years on improvingthe telegraph and finally began to run out of money. Nearly broke, he anxiouslyawaited a bill to pass through Congress, which would provide him with funds tocomplete his work. The bill narrowly passed, to the surprise of many. Morse wasgreatly relieved. The next year he reached the climax of his success.

“ And now at last the supreme moment had arrived. The line fromWashington to Baltimore was completed, and on the 24th dayof May, 1844, the company invited by the inventor . . . assem-bled to witness his triumph. True to his promise to Miss AnnieEllsworth, he had asked her to indite the first public messagewhich should be flashed over the completed line, and she . . .

chose the now historic words . . . ‘What hath God wrought!’. . . Calmly he seated himself at the instrument and tickedoff the inspired words in the dots and dashes of the Morsealphabet . . . the electromagnetic telegraph was no longerthe wild dream of a visionary, but an accomplished fact.”

—Samuel F. B. Morse

Little did Americans know as they entered the second half of thenineteenth century what other “wild dreams” would becomereality. Samuel Morse’s first successful telegraph message sent in1844 marked the beginning of a second industrial revolution.The United States was on the verge of a major transformation.In the years after the Civil War, the United States developed intoan industrial powerhouse. Inventors and scientists, backed bybusiness leaders, created an explosion of inventions andimprovements. Their efforts brought about a technological rev-olution that energized American industry and forever changedpeople’s daily lives.

456 Chapter 13 • The Expansion of American Industry

A Technological Revolution

Technology

Electric power

Examples

Refrigerator

Impact on Daily Life and Business

Reduced food spoilage

Below, Samuel Morse sends thefirst successful telegraph message, using Morse code, fromthe Supreme Court in Washington,D.C. Morse code (inset) is stillused today in amateur radio.

SECTION OBJECTIVES

1. Learn how daily lives changed in thedecades following the Civil War.

2. Find out how advances in electricpower and communication affectedpeople and businesses in this era.

3. Discover the effects the developmentof railroads had on industrial growth.

4. Think about the impact of theBessemer process on Americanculture.

BELLRINGER

Warm-Up Activity Write the follow-ing list of inventions on the chalkboard:typewriter, phonograph, telegraph, tele-phone. Ask students to decide whichthey consider the most important.

Activating Prior Knowledge Askstudents to imagine how many timesduring the day they use a telephone.Have them list the number and types ofcalls they make on a given day. If theylived before the telephone wasinvented, how do they imagine theywould have communicated the sametypes of information? How would theirlives be different without telephones?

TARGET READING SKILL

Ask students to complete the graphicorganizer on this page as they read thesection. See the Section ReadingSupport Transparencies for a com-pleted version of this graphic organizer.

ACTIVITY

Connecting withScience and Technology

Share this quotation from the philoso-pher Alfred North Whitehead with stu-dents: “The greatest invention of thenineteenth century was the inventionof the method of invention.” Ask stu-dents to write paragraphs explainingwhat Whitehead meant, speculatingon what “the method of invention”might be. (Verbal/Linguistic)

RESOURCE DIRECTORYTeaching ResourcesLearning Styles Lesson Plans booklet, p. 28Guided Reading and Review booklet, p. 54

TechnologySection Reading Support TransparenciesGuided Reading Audiotapes (English/Spanish),

Ch. 13Student Edition on Audio CD, Ch. 13Prentice Hall United States History Video

Collection™ Volume 11, Industrialization andUrbanization

Prentice Hall Presentation Pro CD-ROM, Ch. 13

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Chapter 13 Section 1 • 457

Changes in Daily LifeMost Americans today can flip a switch for light, turn a faucet for water,and talk to a friend a thousand miles away just by pressing a few buttons.It is hard for us to imagine life without these conveniences. In 1865,however, daily life was vastly different.

Daily Life in 1865 Indoor electric lighting did not exist in 1865.Instead, the rising and setting of the sun dictated the rhythm of a day’swork. After dark, people lit candles or oil lamps if they could affordthem. If they could not, they simply went to sleep, to rise at the first lightof dawn.

Think about summers without the benefits of refrigeration! Ice wasavailable in 1865, but only at great cost. People sawed blocks of ice outof frozen ponds during the winter, packed them in sawdust, and storedthem in icehouses for later use.

By modern standards, long-distance communication was agoniz-ingly slow. In 1860, most mail from the East Coast took ten days toreach the Midwest and three weeks to get to the West. An immigrantliving on the frontier would have to wait several months for news fromrelatives in Europe.

Investing in Technology By 1900, this picture of daily life hadchanged dramatically for millions of Americans. The post–Civil War yearssaw tremendous growth in new ideas and inventions. Between 1790and 1860, the Patent and Trademark Office of the federal gov-ernment issued just 36,000 patents—licenses that give aninventor the exclusive right to make, use, or sell an inventionfor a set period of time. In contrast, 500,000 patents wereissued between 1860 and 1890 for inventions such as thetypewriter, telephone, and phonograph.

European and American business leaders began to investheavily in these new inventions. The combination of financial backingand American ingenuity helped create new industries and expand oldones. By 1900, Americans’ standard of living was among the highest inthe world. This achievement was a result of the nation’s growing indus-trial productivity—the amount of goods and services created in agiven period of time.

New Forms of Energy The blossoming of American inventive genius in the late 1800s had a profoundeffect on millions of people’s lives. For example, scientists began developingnew uses for petroleum, including fuels that would help power new machines.Electricity proved to be another productive energy source. It led to manyimportant advances in the nation’s industrial development and changedpeople’s eating, working, and even sleeping habits.

Drake Strikes Oil In 1858, the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company sentEdwin L. Drake to Titusville, Pennsylvania, to drill for oil. The idea to drillfor oil was new and many were skeptical of the project. Previously, oil hadbeen obtained by either melting the fat from a whale or by digging large pitsand waiting for oil to seep above ground—both of which were time-consuming and expensive. If the new method worked, it would be cheaperand more efficient.

Buying Stock The surge in inven-tions and patents could not have beenpossible without the money to financethem. How did inventors and entrepre-neurs get the money they needed todevelop their products and start theirbusinesses? This country’s free enter-prise system provided the economicframework that could support theseprojects. The hopes of gaining sub-stantial profits made business leadersmore willing to take financial risks.They began to invest heavily in newinventions and businesses that theythought would be successful.

One way they did this was to buystock in a company. A stock is a sharerepresenting a portion of ownership in a corporation. If a company sells 1,000shares of stock, and an investor buys100 of them, he or she owns 10 per-cent of the company. By purchasing a

company’s stock, an investor buys the right toreceive a fractionof the company’sprofits.

F o c u s o nE C O N O M I C S

F o c u s o nE C O N O M I C S

READING CHECKWhat were the benefits ofDrake’s new method of oilextraction?

Chapter 13 • Section 1 457

CUSTOMIZE FOR …ESL

Have students find or draw images of a refrigera-tor, an electric light, and an oil well. Have themlabel each image and add a sentence explainingthe function of each. READING CHECK

Drake’s method was more efficientand less expensive.

LESSON PLAN

Focus Explain that the transformationof the United States in the late nine-teenth century was due in large part toinventions that changed the wayAmericans lived and worked. Askabout the impact of the electric light.

Instruct Explain that conditions wereideal for a great surge in technology.Business leaders had capital to invest,and human and natural resources wereabundant. Discuss how one inventionoften leads to others. Have studentsexplain the effects of the technologicalinnovations of electric power, the telegraph and telephone, and petro-leum-based products on the develop-ment of the United States. Ask studentsto analyze the impact of technologicalinnovations on the nature of work, the American labor movement, andbusiness.

Assess/Reteach Ask students to listsome of the ways in which new tech-nology revolutionized American life inthe years following the Civil War.

BACKGROUND

Connections to TodayTitusville, Pennsylvania, earned itsplace in history as the site of theworld’s first successful oil well, and,later, the site of the country’s first oilrefinery. But its oil-glory days are longpast: Titusville’s last refinery closed ahalf century ago. Today, Titusville is asleepy little lumber and steel town ofabout 6,500 people. Still, civic pride inthe town’s oil heritage remains. Townslogans include “Where history meetstechnology” and “The birthplace ofoil—in the valley that changed theworld!” Titusville is home to the DrakeWell Museum, where visitors tourreplicas of Drake’s oil derrick andengine house. From May throughOctober, reproductions of the oil pio-neer’s steam engine and boiler oper-ate, giving visitors a first-hand view ofhow oil was pumped from the nearly70-foot-deep well. About 50,000 peoplevisit the museum each year.




After spending nearly a year raising money and building the equipmentneeded for the project, Drake finally set up an oil well and began drilling using asteam-powered engine. In 1859, just as nervous investors had decided to call offthe project, Drake struck oil. Oil quickly became a major industry.

As new uses for oil began to appear, the oil business grew rapidly. Titusvillesoon became one of several boom towns in northwestern Pennsylvania. Oilrefineries, which transformed crude oil into kerosene, sprang up around the coun-try. A byproduct of this process, gasoline, would eventually make oil even more

valuable. Until the invention of the automobile in the late 1880s, however,gasoline was seen as a waste product and simply thrown away.

Edison, a Master of Invention Thomas A. Edison helped makeanother new source of energy, electric power, widely available. Born in

1847, Edison grew up tinkering with electricity. Whileworking for a New York company, he improved the

stock tickers that sent stock and gold prices toother offices. When his boss awarded him a$40,000 bonus, the 23-year-old Edison left hisjob and set himself up as an inventor.In 1876, Edison moved into his “invention fac-

tory” in Menlo Park, New Jersey. The young genius, whohad never received any formal science training, claimed that

he could turn out “a minor invention every ten days and a bigthing every six months or so.”

Edison then began experimenting with electric lighting. Hisgoal was to develop affordable, in-home lighting to replace oil

lamps and gaslights. Starting around 1879, Edison and hisfellow inventors tried different ways to produce lightwithin a sealed glass bulb. They needed to find a material

that would glow without quickly burning up when heatedwith an electric current.

The team experimented with various threadlike filamentswith little success. In 1880, they finally found a workable fil-

ament made of bamboo fiber. This filament glowed, Edison said, with“the most beautiful light ever seen.”

Until the early 1880s, people who wanted electricity had to produce it withtheir own generator. Hoping to provide affordable lighting to many customers,Edison developed the idea of a central power station. In 1882, to attractinvestors, Edison built a power plant that lit dozens of buildings in New YorkCity. Investors were impressed, and Edison’s idea spread. By 1890, power sta-tions across the country provided electricity for lamps, fans, printing presses, andmany other newly invented appliances.

Electricity Is Improved Other inventors later improved upon Edison’swork. Lewis Latimer, the son of an escaped slave, patented an improved methodfor producing the filament in light bulbs. He worked in Edison’s laboratories,where he helped develop new advances in electricity. Latimer later wrote a land-mark book about electric lighting.

Another major advance for electric lighting came from inventor GeorgeWestinghouse. In 1885, Westinghouse began to experiment with a form of elec-tricity called alternating current. Edison had used direct current, which wasexpensive to produce and could only travel a mile or two. Alternating currentcould be generated more cheaply and travel longer distances.

Edison’s favorite invention,the phonograph, shown above,recorded sounds on metal foilwrapped around a rotating cylinder.The first words Edison recorded andthen replayed on his phonographwere “Mary had a little lamb.” Thiswondrous machine, introduced in1877, gained Edison the nicknamethe “Wizard of Menlo Park.”

ACTIVITY

Connecting with Science and Technology

Have small groups of students makepresentations to the class that explainthe differences between alternatingcurrent (AC) and direct current (DC).Their presentation should thendescribe the great “AC versus DCdebate” of the 1880s and 1890s, inwhich Westinghouse eventuallyprevailed. (Verbal/Linguistic)

BACKGROUND

Art HistoryThe earliest existing photographs datefrom the 1820s. Technologicaladvances in the mid-1800s allowedphotographers to produce pictures onpaper rather than glass. In the 1880s,George Eastman developed a hand-held camera that could be used byprofessionals and amateurs alike.

RESOURCE DIRECTORYTechnologyColor Transparencies The Way It Works, H11Sounds of an Era Audio CD Thomas Edison on

the Electric Age, 1908 recording (time: oneminute)




Westinghouse also used a device called a transformer toboost power levels at a station so that electricity could besent over long distances. Another transformer at a distantsubstation could reduce power levels as needed. Theseaspects of Westinghouse’s system made home use of electric-ity practical.

By the early 1890s, investors had used Edison’s andWestinghouse’s ideas and inventions to create two compa-nies, General Electric and Westinghouse Electric. These com-panies’ products encouraged the spread of the use ofelectricity. By 1898, nearly 3,000 power stations were light-ing some 2 million light bulbs across the land.

Electricity’s Impact on Business and Daily Life Elec-tricity helped to improve the productivity of the businessworld and transform the nature of the workplace. Electricpower was cheaper and more efficient than some previouslyexisting power sources. For example, the electric sewingmachine, first made in 1889, led to the rapid growth of theready-made clothing industry. Before the electric sewingmachine, workers had to physically push on a foot pedal togenerate power. With electricity, a worker could producemore clothing in less time. As a result, the costs of producingeach item of clothing decreased.

Rapidly growing industries, such as the ready-madeclothing industry, opened up thousands of jobs for Americanslooking for employment. Many of the country’s new immi-grants, especially women and children, found work makingclothing in factories powered by electricity.

Household use of electric current revolutionized many aspects of daily life.To take but one example, electricity made the refrigerator possible. This inven-tion reduced food spoilage and relieved the need to preserve foods by time-consuming means, such as smoking or salting.

Yet all Americans did not receive the benefits of electricity equally. Ruralareas, especially, went without electricity for many decades. Even where electricpower was available, many people could not afford the home appliances orother conveniences that ran on electricity.

Advances in CommunicationsIn the late 1800s, thousands of people left their homes in Europe and the east-ern United States to seek a new life in the West. One of the greatest hardshipsfor these immigrants was leaving their loved ones behind. Would they ever hearfrom family and friends again? By 1900, thanks to many advances in communi-cations, such fears of isolation had diminished.

The Telegraph The idea of sending messages over wires had occurred toinventors in the early 1700s. Several inventors actually set up working tele-graph systems well before an American, Samuel F. B. Morse, took out a patenton telegraphy.

Morse may not have invented the telegraph, but he perfected it. Hedevised a code of short and long electrical impulses to represent the letters ofthe alphabet. Using this system, later called Morse code, he sent his first mes-sage in 1844. His success signaled the start of a communications revolution.

VIEWING HISTORY Here, visitors marvel at the electricitybuilding, on display at the 1893World’s Columbian Exposition inChicago. The building boastedmore than 18,000 electric lightbulbs and hosted other exhibitsthat showed the practical andentertainment value of electricity.Drawing Conclusions Why do youthink expositions such as this onewere important? Who attendedthem?

Viewing History It was important tocelebrate the growing success ofAmerican technology in order to bothencourage the continued developmentof new products and boost nationalmorale. Most likely to attend these eventswere those who had more leisure timeand education, those who had money to invest in technology, or those in thescientific community who wished to seewhere technology was heading.

CAPTION ANSWERSTEST PREPARATIONHave students read the passages under “Edison,a Master of Invention” on the previous page andthen complete the sentence below.The main idea of this section is that—

A Edison’s inventions led to the availability ofcheap power, revolutionizing American life.

B Edison was a genius who received no formal education.

C later inventors improved on Edison’s work.D Edison invented the light bulb and the

phonograph.

ACTIVITY

Connecting withCulture

Instruct students to keep an “electricityuse log” for a 48-hour period. Studentsshould note every time they use elec-tricity, both directly (e.g., turning on alight) and indirectly (e.g., eating cafete-ria food that has been cooked withelectric power). After they have com-pleted their logs, students shouldorganize log entries into categories.(Categories might include illumination,food preservation, entertainment, andso on.) For each category, studentsshould write a brief paragraph describ-ing how that aspect of American cul-ture would be different withoutelectricity. (Visual/Spatial)

BACKGROUND

Connections to TodayDistress messages sent using Morsecode have saved countless ships andthousands of lives. For a century, theMorse signal “SOS” (dit dit dit, dah dahdah, dit dit dit) has been universallyrecognized as a call for help. This mayall soon be changing, however. Thedevelopment of new, more advancedcommunications technologies hasbrought telegraphy and Morse code tothe verge of obsolescence. Amateurradio operators are no longer requiredto learn Morse code to earn a license.And, in 1999, international regulationschanged so that ships at sea were nolonger required to carry equipment thatenabled them to send an SOS usingMorse code.

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After the Civil War, several telegraph companies joined together to form theWestern Union Telegraph Company. In 1870, Western Union had more than100,000 miles of wire, over which some 9 million telegraph messages weretransmitted. By 1900, the company owned more than 900,000 miles of wireand was sending roughly 63 million telegraph messages a year.

The Telephone In 1871, Alexander Graham Bell of Scotland immigrated toBoston, Massachusetts, to teach people with hearing difficulties. After experi-menting for several years with an electric current to transmit sounds, Bellpatented the “talking telegraph” on March 7, 1876. He had just turned 29. In 1885, Bell and a group of partners set up the American Telephone and Tele-graph Company to build long-distance telephone lines.

The earliest local phone lines could connect only two places, such as a homeand a business. Soon central switchboards with operators could link an entire city.The first commercial telephone exchange began serving 21 customers on January28, 1878, in New Haven, Connecticut. The next year President Rutherford B.Hayes had a telephone installed at the White House. By 1900, 1.5 million tele-phones were in use.

Railroads Create a National NetworkIn 1850, steam-powered ships still provided much of the nation’s transporta-tion. Over the following decades, however, improvements in train and trackdesign, plus the construction of new rail lines, gave railroads a big boost.

Before the Civil War, most of the nation’s railroad trackswere in short lines that connected neighboring cities, mainlyin the East. Since there was no standard track width, orgauge, each train could only travel on certain tracks. As aresult, goods and passengers often had to be moved to differ-ent trains, which caused costly delays. To make matters worse,train travel was dangerous. No system of standard signalsexisted, and train brakes were unreliable.

The Transcontinental Railroad The rail businessexpanded greatly after the Civil War. The key event was thecompletion of the transcontinental railroad, a railwayextending from coast to coast. When the project began in1862, rail lines already reached from the East Coast to theMississippi River. Now new rails were laid between Omaha,Nebraska, and Sacramento, California.

Because private investors did not see any likelihood ofprofit in building railroads beyond the line of settlement,the federal government stepped in to fund the completionof the transcontinental railroad. Members of Congressbelieved that the completion of a coast-to-coast railwaywould strengthen the country’s economic infrastructure.Thus the federal government awarded huge loans andland grants to two private companies. The Central PacificRailroad began laying track eastward out of Sacramento.The Union Pacific Railroad began work toward the westin Omaha.

Scholars disagree as to whether it was a good idea forthe government to provide funds for this project. Manybelieve that the government gave a much needed boost to

The World Wide WebThe growth and influence of the Internet in the

second half of the 1990s was a turning point in thenation’s economy, similar in scope to the vast eco-nomic changes brought about by the telegraph andrailroads in the late 1800s. Estimates show thatfrom 1996 to 2001, the number of people using theInternet worldwide skyrocketed from 45 million toover 400 million. Also during that time, the amountof revenue generated by the Internet jumped from$2.9 billion to over $700 billion.

Just as in the late 1800s, the world of businessand daily life at the end of the twentieth centurychanged drastically with the advent of new technolo-gies resulting from the Internet. The Internet becamethe next step in a process that began with the tele-graph and the railroads to connect people and ideasin faster, more efficient ways. Moving beyond tele-graph wires and railroad tracks, the United States,and indeed the world, is now connected through aninfinite and invisible World Wide Web.

What other recent technological innovationshave changed the world of communications?

What do you think will be the next step in thisprocess? Explain.

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ACTIVITY

Student PortfolioYou may wish to have students add thefollowing to their portfolios: Many pop-ular American folk songs concern thebuilding of the railroads. Ask studentsto research the history of railroadsongs and to prepare a written reportor an oral presentation using an audio-tape of the songs they researched.Suggest that students begin theirresearch with books of American folk songs, such as Carl Sandburg’sThe American Songbag. (Musical/Rhythmic)

BACKGROUND

A Diverse NationNot everyone greeted the improve-ments in railroad transportation andtravel with enthusiasm. The BostonCourier printed the following assertionas part of an editorial in 1827: “Theproject of a railroad from Boston toAlbany is impracticable, as every oneknows who knows the simplest rule ofarithmetic, and the expense would belittle less than the market value of thewhole of Massachusetts; and which, ifpracticable, every person of commonsense knows would be as useless as arailroad from Boston to the moon.”

RESOURCE DIRECTORYTeaching ResourcesGreat Debates booklet (Decision-Making

Activities) Using Chinese Laborers to Buildthe Transcontinental Railroad, p. 30

Other Print ResourcesAmerican History Block SchedulingSupport Linking the Nation: The

Railroads, found in the Expansion,Reconstruction, and Immigration folder,includes interdisciplinary lesson suggestionsand activities for Geography and History,Primary Sources, Biography, and Literature.

Nystrom Atlas of Our Country Settling theWest, pp. 28–29

Historical Outline Map Book Political UnitedStates, p. 82

TechnologyColor Transparencies The Way it Works, H9

Primary Source ActivityWorking on the Railroad, found onTeacherExpress™, introduces students to afolk song by Thomas Casey about the hard lifeof an 1880s worker.

Fast Forward to Today Possibleanswer: Faxes, cell phones, pagers,camcorders, digital cameras, high-speed passenger trains. Such innova-tions will continue to speed up thepace of everyday life. People are likelyto become less reliant on traditionalhard-wired telephones as they turnmore and more to e-mail and cellphones.

CAPTION ANSWERS



the railroad industry when the private sectorwas hesitant to invest. However, others argue that the gov-ernment should not have gotten involved. One reason is that railroadsbuilt with federal aid did not operate as efficiently and profitably as some builtwith little government assistance. For example, James J. Hill’s Great NorthernRailroad in the 1880s and 1890s had both lower rates and higher profits thanrailroads built with federal aid.

Most of the workers on the transcontinental railroad were immigrants.Irish workers on the Union Pacific line used pickaxes to dig and level rail bedsacross the Great Plains at the rate of up to 6 miles a day. Chinese workersbrought to the United States by the Central Pacific chiseled, plowed, and dyna-mited their way through the Sierra Nevada. Workers took pride in their labor.One work crew set a record for putting down track—an amazing ten miles inone day.

Finally, after seven years of grueling physical labor, the two crewsapproached each other in what is now Utah. On May 10, 1869, at a placecalled Promontory Summit, Central Pacific president Leland Stanford raised hishammer to drive the final golden spike into position. A telegraph operatorbeside the track tapped out a message to crowds throughout the country:“Almost ready now. Hats off. Prayer is being offered. . . . Done!” The nationhad its first transcontinental railroad.

Railroad Developments By 1870, railroads could carry goods and pas-sengers from coast to coast, but they still had problems. Trains were oftennoisy, dirty, and uncomfortable for travelers. The huge engines, spewingsmoke and cinders as they thundered through the countryside, sometimesaroused fear and distrust.

In spite of the problems, train travel continued to expand and improve.The various new technologies emerging at this time all aided in the develop-ment of the national railroad system. Steel rails replaced iron rails, and trackgauges and signals became standardized. Railroad companies also took steps toimprove safety. In 1869, George Westinghouse developed more effective air

VIEWING HISTORY Workersfrom the Union and Central PacificRailroads met at PromontorySummit, Utah, in 1869. The drivingof the golden spike (inset) markedthe completion of the transcontinen-tal railroad. Synthesizing InformationSome have called this the greatesthistorical event in transportation inthis country. Why was it such ajoyous and momentous occasion?

READING CHECKWhat types of problems didrailroads have in the late1800s?


CUSTOMIZE FOR …Less Proficient Readers

Ask students to construct a cause-and-effectchart showing the effects of the growth of railroads, improved communications, and the availability of electric power.

ACTIVITY

Connecting withGeography

Have students work in groups to createan illustrated and annotated map of thefirst transcontinental railroad. Theirmap should be illustrated with themajor geographical barriers thebuilders faced, and annotated withnotes that explain how each obstaclewas overcome. (Visual/Spatial)

BACKGROUND

BiographyAfrican American engineer ElijahMcCoy (1843–1929) was born inCanada to escaped slaves. He studiedin Edinburgh, Scotland, before settlingin the United States. In 1872, whileworking for the Michigan CentralRailroad, McCoy invented the lubricat-ing cup—a device that continuouslyoiled the moving parts of factorymachinery. Over the years he inventedand sold nearly 60 kinds of devices andmachine parts. It is sometimes saidthat the expression “the real McCoy,”meaning the genuine article, cameabout because people insisted that themachinery they bought be equippedwith McCoy’s invention.

Viewing History Joyous for workersbecause they spent seven years work-ing on it; joyous for railroad ownersbecause their profits and businesseswould expand; momentous in historybecause it revolutionized transporta-tion, businesses, and daily life.

CAPTION ANSWERS

READING CHECKThe trains sometimes aroused fearbecause of their enormity, andpassengers found the trains to beloud, unclean, and uncomfortable.


Unit 5 • 462462 • Chapter 13 Section 1


brakes. In 1887, Granville Woods patented a telegraph system for communicat-ing with moving trains, thus reducing the risk of collision.

The growth of railroads also led to the development of many townsthroughout the western part of the United States. Railroad owners, looking toexpand their businesses and increase profits, began building towns near theirrailroads on land granted to them by the government.

Railroads and Time Zones Scheduling proved to be another problem forrailroads. Throughout much of the 1800s, most towns set their clocks inde-pendently, according to solar time. But when trains started regular passengerservice, time differences from town to town created confusion. So, in 1883, therailroads adopted a national system of time zones to improve scheduling. As aresult, clocks in broad regions of the country showed the same time, a systemwe still use today.

Rail improvements such as this made life easier not only for passengers butalso for businesses that shipped goods. By the end of the century, some190,000 miles of rails linked businesses and their customers. Shipping costsdropped enormously. In 1865, shipping a barrel of flour from Chicago to NewYork cost $3.45. In 1895, it cost just 68 cents.

Railroads and Industry Although the development of canals, turnpikes, andsteam-powered ships in the first half of the century had improved transportation,the transport of goods over long distances was still costly and inefficient. Rail-roads played a key role in revolutionizing business and industry in the UnitedStates in several ways.

A faster and more practical means of transporting goods Railroads were less lim-ited by geographic and natural factors, such as poor weather conditions, thanwater transport was. Trains could travel at higher speeds and transport largeritems in much greater quantities.

Lower costs of production Railroads were a cheaper way to transport goods. Asshipping costs dropped, more goods could be sent at lower prices. As a result,businesses were able to receive the raw materials and resources needed to pro-duce their products at much lower costs and in much less time.

Creation of national markets Higher speeds and lower costs now allowed a busi-ness to market and sell its finished products to locations nationwide, rather than

VIEWING HISTORY CitadelRock looms over the constructionof the Union Pacific Railroadthrough Wyoming Territory in 1868. Identifying Central Issues In whatways did the nation’s growingtransportation system help promote industrial growth?

RESOURCE DIRECTORYTechnology

Biography WashingtonA. Roebling, found on TeacherExpress™, pro-files the engineer who supervised the buildingof the Brooklyn Bridge.

Viewing History Made shipping fasterand cheaper, leading to lower costs ofproduction; opened up national marketsfor selling and obtaining resources;stimulated the growth of other indus-tries; provided a new model for themanagement of large businesses.

CAPTION ANSWERS

ACTIVITY

Connecting withEconomics

Remind students of the economic con-cept of the “factors of production”—the four factors that must be in placefor economic production to occur(land, labor, capital, and management).Then have students review the fiveways that railroads helped revolution-ize business and industry. Have stu-dents identify how each factor ofproduction played a role in thechanges the railroads brought to busi-ness and industry. Students shouldpresent their analysis in the form of achart. (Logical/ Mathematical)

BACKGROUND

Geography in HistoryDuring the United States’ first century(and for centuries before), peoplerelied on “solar time” to set theirclocks. As its name implies, solar timeis determined by the sun. Under solartime, noon is when the sun is highest in the sky. Typically, a small townwould set its town clock at noon, andthe other clocks in town would be setaccording to the town clock. Butbecause the earth rotates on its axis,solar noon is at different times in differ-ent locations. Even towns just a fewmiles to the east or west experiencesolar noon at a different time.Therefore, their clocks were never thesame. (On average, solar time changedabout five minutes for every 60 milestraveled east or west.) This neverproved a problem until high-speed rail-road travel and complex railroadschedules came along. The solutionwas “standard time,” implementedthrough time zones. Because the rail-road industry established standardtime, it was for years known as “rail-road time.”



Chapter 13 • Section 1 463463 Chapter 13 • The Expansion of American Industry

just in a local region. Also, the resources needed to produce these goods couldbe obtained from anywhere in the country. These advances in commerce helpedto link distant regions of the United States, furthering the national network ofbusiness, transportation, and communication.

A model for big business Because of the complexity and size of the railroad com-panies, with railroads came new administrative techniques for handling largenumbers of workers and large quantities of materials and money. New methodsof management also arose. The professional manager and the specialized depart-ment grew out of the railroad business.

Stimulation of other industries The growth of the railroad industry encouragedinnovation in other industries. The replacement of iron rails with steel rails, forexample, promoted the growth of the steel industry.

The Bessemer ProcessThrough the mid-1800s, the nation depended on iron for railroad rails and theframes of large buildings. But in the 1850s, Henry Bessemer in England andWilliam Kelly in Kentucky independently developed a new process for makingsteel. In 1856, Bessemer received the first patent for the Bessemer process.Steel had long been produced by melting iron, addingcarbon, and removing impurities. The Bessemer processmade it much easier and cheaper to remove the impurities.

Locomotives, such as this Erie Locomotive from 1903, werean impressive sight to many Americans at the turn of the century.

463

ACTIVITY

Connecting withScience and Technology

Have students conduct research toidentify the major steps in both theBessemer process of producing steeland in the traditional method of pro-ducing steel. Have students createillustrated flowcharts that depict eachprocess, and compare and contrastthem. (Visual/Spatial)

BACKGROUND

BiographyJohn Roebling, the engineer whobegan to build the Brooklyn Bridge,died six months after constructionbegan, in 1869, of injuries resultingfrom a construction accident. His sonColonel Washington Roebling tookover, but he contracted the “bends,” or caisson disease, in 1872 and wasconfined to his bed. His wife, Emily,acted as his messenger through thefinal phases of construction, whichended in 1883.

TEST PREPARATIONHave students read the section “Railroads and Industry” on these pages and then answerthe question below.Which of the following was NOT true of railroads in the 1800s?

A They could transport larger quantities than ships.

B They helped create nationwide markets.C They made shipping by water obsolete.D They promoted the growth of other

industries.



Viewing History The Bessemerprocess made possible the massproduction of steel, which made steel cheap and easy to use for theconstruction of new buildings andbridges. Electricity aided the develop-ment of elevators.

CAPTION ANSWERS

ACTIVITY

Connecting withEconomics

Present the following facts to students:the Brooklyn Bridge cost $18 million tobuild. On the day it opened, 150,300pedestrians crossed the bridge. Eachpaid a penny ($.01) for the privilege.Also on the first day, 1,800 vehiclescrossed the bridge. Vehicles had to paya nickel ($.05) to cross. Have studentscalculate the revenue earned on theBrooklyn Bridge’s first day of operation.Then have them determine the per-centage of the construction cost thisamount represents. (Logical/Mathematical)

BACKGROUND

Geography in HistoryThe distance people could travel towork, as well as natural boundariessuch as rivers and seashores, deter-mined early city boundaries. In the late 1800s, bridges and streetcar lineseliminated these barriers and openedup an era of urban expansion in theeast. Between 1855 and 1873, Bostonabsorbed several towns to the westand south and expanded north acrossits harbor. Fifteen years after theBrooklyn Bridge opened, New York City annexed the independent cities of Brooklyn and Queens.

Steel is lighter, stronger, and more flexible than iron. The Bessemer processmade possible the mass production, or production in great amounts, of steel.As a result, a new age of building began. A majestic symbol of this new age thatendures is the Brooklyn Bridge.

The Brooklyn Bridge After the Civil War, New York City grew in size aswell as population. Many people who worked on the island of Manhattan livedin nearby Brooklyn. The only way to travel between Brooklyn andManhattan was by ferry across the East River. In winter, ice or winds oftenshut down the ferry service. Could a bridge high enough to clear river trafficbe built across such a large distance? Engineer John A. Roebling, a Germanimmigrant, thought it could.

Roebling designed a suspension bridge with thick steel cables suspended fromhigh towers to hold up the main span. That span, arching 1,595 feet above the

READING CHECKHow did the Bessemer processmake steel more affordable?


RESOURCE DIRECTORYTeaching ResourcesUnits 5/6 booklet

• Section 1 Quiz, p. 4Guide to the Essentials

• Section 1 Summary, p. 68

TechnologyColor Transparencies The Way It Works, H10;

American Photo, F5Exploring Primary Sources in U.S. History

CD-ROM The Tall Office Building ArtisticallyConsidered, Louis H. Sullivan

READING CHECKIt allowed impurities to be removedcheaply and easily, enabling steelto be produced in mass quantities.


1Section Assessment

river, would be the longest in the world.Roebling died shortly after construction ofthe Brooklyn Bridge began in 1869, so his son Washington took over the project. In1872, after inspecting a foundation deepbeneath the river, Washington became dis-abled by a severe attack of decompressionsickness (“the bends”). Other disasters fol-lowed, from explosions and fires, to dishon-est dealings by a steel-cable contractor.

A Symbol of American SuccessDespite these problems, the BrooklynBridge was completed and opened with aceremony on May 24, 1883. In the keynoteaddress, congressman and future New YorkCity mayor Abram Hewitt remarked on thisgreat triumph:

“ It is not the work of any one man or any one age. It is the result ofstudy, of the experience, and of the knowledge of many men in manyages. It is not merely a creation; it is a growth. It stands before us to-day as the sum and epitome of human knowledge; as the very heir ofthe ages; as the latest glory of centuries of patient observation, pro-found study and accumulated skill. . . . ”

—Abram Stevens Hewitt

At nightfall, crowds gasped as electric light bulbs, which had been strungalong the bridge, lit up the darkness and shimmered on the river below. Thecity celebrated with a magnificent fireworks display. Indeed, the entire UnitedStates celebrated, its inventive genius and hard work plainly visible for all theworld to see.

READINGCOMPREHENSION

1. Why did the nation’s industrial productivity rise in the late 1800s?

2. Why did the oil business change afterDrake found oil in Pennsylvania?

3. How did inventions such as the lightbulb and the telegraph change dailylife in the late 1800s?

4. What were the advantages of build-ing the transcontinental railroad?

5. What innovations did the Bessemerprocess encourage?

CRITICAL THINKINGAND WRITING

6. Determining Relevance How didthe system of patents encourageinnovation and investment?

7. Making Comparisons Think of amodern convenience that you rely on.What benefits does this item bring toyour life? Are there any drawbacksassociated with this item?

8. Writing a List Create a list thatcompares the changes in businessand daily life resulting from the tele-graph and the railroad in the late1800s with the changes resultingfrom the Internet in the late 1900s.

1 Assessment

VIEWING HISTORY This 1883lithograph by Currier and Ivesreveals the atmosphere of triumphand celebration that accompaniedthe opening of the Brooklyn Bridge.Demonstrating Reasoned JudgmentHow do you think images such asthis influenced people’s percep-tions of the changes taking placein society?

For: An activity on the Central Pacific

Railroad

Visit: PHSchool.com

Web Code: mrd-5131

PHSchool.com


Reading Comprehension

1. Due to new technology, the greatincrease in inventions, and theinvestments to fund them.

2. Using Drake’s type of well made itmuch less expensive and easier toobtain large amounts of oil. The new process allowed an increase in demand to be satisfied.

3. They extended the usable hours ofthe day, allowed for efficient long-distance communication, and madepossible the creation of entirely new industries.

4. Answers may include: reduce costand increase efficiency of trans-portation; facilitate commerce; create national markets; stimulateother industries, like the steel industry.

5. Mass production of steel; large suspension bridges; steel frameconstruction in buildings.

Critical Thinking and Writing

6. By giving inventors and investorsownership of their ideas and cre-ations, and the resulting profits.

7. Sample answers: personal com-puters or contact lenses.

8. Sample answers: A nationwide railsystem made for a reduction in ship-ping prices. The Internet allows oneto obtain news updates at any timethroughout the day.

Viewing History They glorified andcelebrated the new technologies andachievements of the time. The celebra-tory atmosphere depicted the public’sview of American technological/business success and suggested that the United States was on the brink of something greater.

CAPTION ANSWERS

Typing the Web Code when promptedwill bring students directly to detailedinstructions for this activity.

PHSchool.com



http://www.phschool.com/webcodes10/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.gotoWebCode&wcprefix=mrd&wcsuffix=5131

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