Unit 1: The New Industrial Age Section 1: The Expansion of Industry

Natural Resources Fuel Industrialization  After Civil War, US still largely agricultural nation  60 years later, US becomes leading industrial nation in world  Wealth of natural resources  Explosion of invention  Growing markets for new products (urban population)

Black Gold  In 1840, Abraham Gesner discovered how to distill kerosene for lamps from oil or coal.  In 1859, Edwin Drake used a steam engine to drill for oil in Pennsylvania starting an oil boom.

Bessemer Steel Process  Iron is strong, but heavy, easily breakable, and rusts.  Removing carbon produces a lighter, more flexible, rust- resistant metal – steel.

Cont.  In 1850, a process was developed to remove carbon.  Technique injects air into molten iron to remove carbon. In the basic-oxygen process, oxygen is blown at high pressure through molten iron and scrap steel in a converter lined with basic refractory materials. The impurities, principally carbon, quickly burn out, producing steel.

New uses for steel  Railroad tracks  Barbed wire  Farm machines  Bridges – Brooklyn Bridge built in 1883  Skyscrapers – Home Insurance Bldg in Chicago

Inventions Promote Change  Electricity  Light bulbs – Edison  Current-Tesla  Safer and less expensive electricity – Westinghouse  Electric street cars  Fans  Printing presses  Allowed manufacturers to locate plants wherever they wanted.

Cont.  Typewriter-Sholes – 1867  Telephone-Bell – 1876  Sewing machine  In 1870, 5% of office workers were women. In 1910, 40% were women.

Inventions Continued  Orville And Wilbur Wright  Henry Ford

Cont.  Industrialization improved standard of living.  Work week was decreased by 10 hrs.  New opportunities for recreation – phonographs, bicycles, cameras