Week 2 Industrial Revolution AMH 2020 Technology o In 1900 technology revolutionized the world o Held a lot of faith o The idea of progress o Technology linked the idea the America was moving into a new age Technology Trifecta o Automobile and airplanes were some of the most influential to development o Gasoline and internal combustion engines o Automobile forever changed the landscape of the united states o They started roads motels fast food restaurants highways road signs streetlights o impacted society and every aspect of American life Thomas Edison o Invented the light bulb o Started the first utility company o Had a huge impact on society because the light bulb brought electricity to whole towns Alexander bell o He had an invention and a corporation o First telephone o And invented the first telephone company o Which eventually turned into Att Cash register 1872 o Necessary because of the green back movement o More consumer revolution o Unified currency Sewing machine Shirt waste o Readymade clothes o The zipper made it easier for people to dress and undress themselves o Signified freedom o Women could look professional in a shirt waste and skirt instead of a dress o Women got more job opportunities o Much more fitting than hoop skirts Science of management and production o Fredrick Taylor was the person who made this up o He used his work experience to lead him to discover that by optimizing products led to more profits Henry ford o Made the model t car o Applied science management and production to introduce the assembly line o It was efficient and made mass production become quicker and cheaper o He was devoted to science management and production o Led to a rise in production which made these cars cheaper and easier to purchase Railroads o Expanded at a fast rate o The key to railroads success was because they received government subsidies from local state and federal levels o Shrunk the nation and made it much more assessable o Brought good tools parts and people all over our country o Increased markets and production Modern corporation o Start of stocks o Could afford to buy stock in railroad companies o So many people were buying stocks in railroads that it forced railroad companies to become organized Andrew Carnegie o Was known for the steel mill o Richest man in the world o Had the first billion dollar corporation o Became the first billionaire o Gave all his fortune away Rockefeller o Known for oil o Was an industry giant o Created a whole new business model called monopolies o Horizontal and vertical monopolies o Horizontal is you own all the businesses on one level i e all gas stations o Vertical is when you own every level i e oil rig to everything in between to gas stations Capitalism Critics o Standard oil monopolized oil companies o The practice of these monopolies created millions of dollars o Proved Rockefeller was powerful o So much wealth was concentrated in one small group of white men o Politics and industry was a big concern o Big businesses and big leaders o Middle class poor people couldn t grasp the concepts of mixing politics and business Social Darwinism o Herbert spencer o The theories of evolution first published by Charles Darwin o Spencer believed that this theory could be applied to social situations o If you wanted to survive and succeed you need to be more superior than everyone else o Was a flawed theory but became very popular o Only the fittest social systems and entrepreneurs would survive o Argued that great success and wealth was possible for anyone who was willing to Gospel of wealth work for it o Enormously popular o This concept was seen at every level in society Working experience average Americans o Women got jobs like retail sewing department stores telephone typist jobs that didn t require much skill o Women were lower middle class or lower class o Child labor grew as well as for the need of skilled labor declined children were o Children could be paid a fraction of what an adult would get paid o Many parents put their children to work because they need another source of capable of working income o Over a million children were employed under the age of 16 o States eventually started creating laws about school attendance and labor laws o The number of factory accidents started to increase o So many people worked under terrible working conditions o 1000s of accidents happened in the industrial industry o All were unregulated working conditions Wages and Working conditions o Booming industrial growth made their to be a lack of working conditions o Workers began to organize labor unions which provided political and financial aid o The unions began to clash with the big buisnesses o Radical anarchists biggest labor movement to date felt violence was important to get their points across o After second protest when a bomb went off mass amounts of people were arrested and 4 were executed o Labor violence grew tremendously after this protest o Cities began to organize police forces to keep protests under control o Pollman city pollman owned every aspect of the city i e bank factory houses everything o All his workers protested their labor and wages which led to a lot of firing o Many unions faced growing hostility with the middle class o Generally unions were not successful the companies were to big and were supported by the government The triangle shirt waist company fire o Near closing time a fall afternoon in 1911 o Fire broke out on the top floors of the ache building o By the time the fire was over 141 were dead of the 00 workers on those floors o 1000s watched workers leap from the building o Many workers were women and immigrants o It was a non union shop some were members of other unions but there wasn t a particular one for this particular company o Unions were very discouraged o As the fire spread tried to get open the 9th floor stair way which was locked o The fire escape did not lead to safety and was irrelevant o Fire rescuers couldn t even reach the top floors with their ladders o Fire fighters were stuck and horrified by not being able to help these helpless people o The general opinion was the justice was not done o The owner paid 75 per life lost