1. Inventors and Inventions

2. Recap
This time period begins just at the end of the Civil War and is called the Industrial Revolution
The country is continuing to expand Westward
Why it matters
Innovations in technology and new business combinations help the United States grow into a great industrial power
Main Idea
Inventions improved the transportation and communication networks that were vital to the nation’s industrial growth

3. Communication Changes
Inventions in communication improved and transformed American life
They helped unify different regions and encouraged economic growth
Laying the transatlantic cable

4. Inventions in Communication
Telegraph - Samuel Morse
System of dots and dashes called Morse Code
Used to communicate around the world
Telephone – Alexander Graham Bell – 1885
Used mostly to speed up business
1900 – homeowners began to find it a timesaver
Wireless Telegraph (Radio) – Guglielmo Marconi – 1895
First used for entertainment in 1906

5. The Genius of Invention
Between 1860 and 1890, the United States government granted more than 400,000 patents for new inventions.
Famous inventions:
The Kodak Camera – George Eastman
Vacuum Cleaner – John Thurman – 1868
Typewriter – Christopher Sholes
Adding Machine – William Burroughs – 1868
What might we be without today if these inventions were never created?
Think about what all these inventions may have lead to and list everything you can think of on the paper below

6. Thomas Edison Most famous inventor of all time
Many of his inventions made life easier for Americans.
Light bulb quite possibly his most important invention
Phonograph (record player), motion picture projector, battery and hundreds of others.
The Electric Power Plant
Edison built the first one in New York City in 1882
Soon after, more were built to power homes and businesses

7. African American Inventors
Because of racial segregation many had trouble getting patents
Lewis Howard Latimer – developed an improved filament for the light bulb and joined Edison’s company.
Elijah McCoy – created device that oiled engines automatically
Granville T. Woods – created an electromagnetic brake for trains
Jan Matzeliger – created a shoe-making machine that performed many steps previously done by hand.

8. A Changing Society
In the 1900s, improvements ushered in a new era of transportation
The Automobile
No single person invented the automobile
People started building cars in the 1860’s
Only the elite or rich could afford
Henry Ford changed the industry
Ford introduced the assembly line
Allowed for mass production
Cars were made more efficiently which made them more affordable

9. The Automobile The automobile changed American culture
People no longer needed to live close to work
The suburbs were born
People could go out and do more fun things
Socializing was revolutionized (dating changed)
What other ways did the automobile change the world?

10. The Airplane Invented by the Wright brothers in 1903
Did not attract much attention at the time
Eventually airplane pioneers used their idea to adapt to make better planes
Changed the world because exotic and remote places became accessible.