HIST 1067/11/13- Industrial Society 1870s – 1900so The machine culture Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia 1876 Over 13 acres focusing on present with machines First taste of root beer and ate banana, saw first bicycle Key focus was machinery, Alexander Bell, Thomas Jefferson Corliss Engine- Allowed power without water and symbol of industrializationo Industrial development US becomes Global Player In 1800’s lagged behind other industrial nations By 1900 well exceeds output of combined industrialized nations Mining, Communications, Technology Growth- Abundant resources: coal, iron, timber, petroleum- Abundant labor: immigrants and US familieso 8 million 1870-1880, 15 million 1890-1914 immigrants- Expanded Markets- US had largest free trade market in world- Tariff barriers protect US market from outside resources Investors provide large capital for production and businesses Technology will improve productivity Government give money to businessmen to open business and buy land- Reluctant to regulate industrialization- Gives stability to economy Entrepreneurs Captain of Industry or Robber Barons- Organize and start new businesses- Dealt with quantities unheard of in America before Growth was concentrated in north and east- West supplied raw materials- South was destroyed by Civil Waro An empire on rails Revolution of transportation and communication- Steel ship that halves time to cross ocean- Railroad was truly important plus Bessemer steel Advantages of Railroad- Allow access to new places waterways do not- Greater speed, safety and comfort- Large traffic, year-round service- Links cities and end isolation of small towns- Foster greater interdependence Connecting supply and Demand Island Communities Two hallmarks of 20th century are mass production and consumption Ripple Effects- Point toward a new kind of business development, first big business- Will require scale of organization unheard of prior Middle management, Time Zones- Introduction of middle managers for daily affairs- Needed time table for trains and passengers, created time zones- England created the time zones- US and Canada adopted for railways in November 1883- Standard Time Act of 1918 adopted as US law Walt Whitman- Wrote poems about trains- Children waved at trains and thought of adventures along railway Tangled Mess- Localized tracks prior to civil war, only cared about local market- After war railroads start to become integrated Trunk Lines- In north east: Baltimore and Ohio, Erie, New York Central and Pennsylvania, linking major cities- Later south had 5 systems Improvements- Automatic couplers 1868, Airbrakes 1869, Refrigerated Cars 1875- Passenger miles went from 5 billion in 1870 to 16 billion in 1900 Transcontinental was dream- Leland Stanford, Thomas Durant – Union Pacific, Central Pacific- Hammered in golden spike where railways joined- Helped “knit the whole world together”- Met in Promontory, Utah in 1889 Enormous Symbolism- Seemed like anything was possiblem Overgrowth- Overbuilding, lines would parallel each other- Jay Gould would force others to buy his lines out- Fights over passage and business along rails- Rate wars developed, tried sharing: no cooperation- Larger companies began taking over small competitors- Panic of 1893: many railways collapse JP Morgan - banker- Becomes most powerful figure in American Finance- 1885 Rate War New York Central and Pennsylvaniao Acted as moderator and made $1 million fee for lunch- “Morganization” post 1893o Fixed costs in debt ruthlessly cuto Rates stabilizedo Hand-picked trustees to control businesseso 7 giant systems and national transportation networko An industrial empire Steel- Harder and more durable than iron- Brought about changes in architecture, manufacturing and agriculture- Better plow, machinery, ships Sir Henry Bessemer- Experiment with new metals- Created spinning bullets- Hailed new Bessemer steel as miracle, it was cheap Andrew Carnegie 1872- From Scotland, came to US at 13 in 1848- Met Bessemer and was expert on promotion and sales- Invests in steel mill in pitsburg- Created vertical integrationo Company owns resources and all parts of productiono Carnegie Steel owned steel from the mine to factory- Didn’t recruit outside, but promoted current workers- Instituted university to teach steel methods to younger generations- Becomes richest man in US John D. Rockefeller- Son of conman who deserts family and single mother- Requires precision and order, he brings it to business deals- Oil is discovered in Pennsylvania and refineries are popping up- He invest in oil in 1862, by 1870 merges interests in Standard Oil- Competitive, sets to stamp out all oil companies- Creates Horizontal integrationo Buy out companies in like industries, consolidates companieso This leads to a monopoly of Oilo 1872 less than 6 weeks buys out 22/26 rival companieso By 1879 Standard Oil controls 90-95% of Oil in US- Controls companies using “Trusts”o 9 trustees are given all stock- Philanthropist - $500 milliono Gave much to universities, medical researcho Believed money was public trust given by godo The business of invention Some inventions give rise to new industry and improvements to quality of life Patents- Huge surge of patents issued in 1890s- Kodak camera leads to film and motion picture industryo Everyone could buy a camerao Fairly heavy, costs $25 and photos developed at factory- Transatlantic Cableo Cyrus W. Field used to link communications from US to Europeo Transformed communications- Desktops – 1867 typewriter, 1879 cash register, 1888 adding machine- Refrigerated train car - First “fast” food, transport food and meatso Has disassembly line for meat, later copied by Fordo Lead to Era of cheap Beef, Gustavus Swift- Telephoneo Alexander Bell, transmit speech electronicallyo By 1905 10 million phones operated in country- Thomas Edisono 1877 Phonograph, allowed something to be repeated verballyo 1879 Light bulb, allowed people to work longer JP Morgan funded him for power stationo The sellers New Science of Marketing- Some businesses would keep advertising in house, others used shopkeepers- 1867 $50 million, 1900 $500 million on advertising- Brand name such as
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