1. Aim: How did new inventions and technologies aid in the Industrial Revolution and the development of BIG BUSINESS?

2. America’s industrial revolution began as a wave of inventions
Cash registers, typewriters adding machines, made businesses more efficient
Guess the Gilded Age invention
Marconi’s wireless transmitter and Bell’s telephone revolutionized communication
U.S. Patents Issued ( )
The Bessemer process created a cheap way to transform iron into stronger, lighter steel
New inventions allowed for improved industrialization

3. His most influential invention was the 1st electric light bulb
Thomas Edison (the “Wizard of Menlo Park”) was the greatest inventor of the 1800s
In his New York research lab, he invented the 1st phonograph, audio recorder, and battery
Thomas Edison ? ? ?
His most influential invention was the 1st electric light bulb

4. The Assembly Line Changes Factories
Optimized by Henry Ford
Used for creating automobiles (Model T)
WHILE YOU WATCH: EFFECTS of the assembly line on factory work?
Benefits to factory work?
Speeds up production
Lowers cost of production and the final product!

5. The Gilded Age “All that glitters is not gold…”
Gilded Age – term coined by Mark Twain
Growing gap between the rich and the poor
Wealthy industrialists vs. the poor working classes

6. Economic Vocabulary What is a monopoly? What is a trust?
Complete control over an entire supply of goods.
What is a trust?
A large business with significant market power.

7. Capitalism in America What are TWO characteristics of CAPITALISM?
Read the definition that you were just given..
What are TWO characteristics of CAPITALISM?
What are some economic systems that are different from capitalism? What are the differences? Explain.
Why would capitalism be a beneficial economic system to use for industrial growth? Explain.

8. The Growth of Big Business
Laissez – faire capitalism
Gov’t stays out of business
Monopolies and trusts formed
They control all aspects of
an industry.
Positives?
Big profits for the business!
Negatives?
Destroys competition and small businesses

9. “Robber Barons” or “Captains of Industry”
Captain of Industry
Successful business leader,
helps the economy and
country to grow
Robber Baron
Business leader who uses
ruthless tactics (practices) to destroy competition
Are there Robber Barons today? Captains of Industry, today? Who?

10. Lives of Industrialists
With business success came great wealth
Industrialists lived extravagant lives
But, they worked hard to build their companies!
Philanthropy = Giving to charity or those in need
Gave 90% of his fortune away:
Carnegie Music Hall
Public Libraries
Carnegie Mellon University (PA)

11. Social Darwinism and The Gospel of Wealth
Survival of the fittest in business and industry
Who is the most fit to lead?
Industrialists think they are!
The Gospel of Wealth
Industrialists felt they were responsible to keep the wealth for the benefits of others.
“The millionaire will be but a trustee for the poor… administering [the wealth] for the community far better than it could or would have done itself.”
– Andrew Carnegie

12. What did Andrew Carnegie believe was the
“There remains, then, only one mode of using great fortunes; but in this we have the true antidote for the temporary unequal distribution of wealth…It is founded upon the present most intense individualism…Under its sway we shall have an ideal state, in which the surplus wealth of the few will become, in the best sense the property of the many, because administered for the common good, and this wealth, passing through the hands of the few, can be made a much more potent force for the elevation of our race than if it had been distributed in small sums to the people themselves.” –
Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth.
What did Andrew Carnegie believe was the
antidote to the unequal distribution of
wealth in society?