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The Industrial Revolution
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Bessemer Process
The Bessemer Process was the single most important way to make steel in the 19th century. Bessemer found out after many experiments that he could introduce air from beneath the melting ore. This would allow the metal to bubble, and eventually little explosions that would decarburize the iron, producing the product he desired. He then built an apparatus to tame the explosions, and yield the same success. -
Edwin Drake
Edwin Drake was born in 1819, and was the man responsible for todays oil industry. Drake, with unbelievable persistence, found out how to drill oil from the ground. On August 28th, 1859, Drake hit oil almost 70 feet deep sparking the Pennsylvania oil rush. Because Drake never patented his oil drillling method, big buisness oil tycoons took over and fired Drake, making a fortune off of his persistence. -
Transcontinental Railroad
The transcontinental railroad was a railway that stretched across the entire country. Two companies were contracted to work on the railroad, one beginning in the west and one beginning in the east. The two companies were promised 12,800 acres of land and $48,000 in Federal bonds for each mile of track built. Because both companies wanted the most land and money, each company, the Central Pacific Railroad Company and the Union Pacific Company worked hard and fast to put down the most track. -
John D. Rockefeller
Rockefeller was a businessman during the Industrial Revolution who capitalized on the oil boom, and became a hugely successful oil tycoon. At the age of 24 Rockefeller completely bought out Andrews, Clark & Company and brought his brother into a partnership that would make them both very wealthy. They expanded their business significantly and eventually started The Standard Oil Company, which dominated the oil industry. -
Christopher Sholes
Christopher Sholes was the inventor of the first practical typewriter and the QWERTY keyboard layout we still use today. Sholes found that the levers in the type basket would jam when the letters of the alphabet were arranged in alphabetical order, so he rearranged the letters by common use, and came up with the QWERTY keyboard. Sholes tried to sell his typewriter, however his marketing techniques didn't work. So, he sold his rights to the Remmington Arms Company. -
Credit Mobilier Scandal
The Credit Mobilier Scandal was one of the largest business subsidy scandals of the 19th century. The construction of a transcontinental railway was underway, and Union Pacific Railroad Company was in charge. The directors of the company created another company, Credit Mobilier of America to sell contracts to private contractors for much less than they were worth. To make up for this loss, Union Pacific over charged to build the railroad. Essentially, the company was paying itself. -
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell was an inventor during the industrial revolution. Bell was responsible for numerous inventions and improvements to inventions during his time. However, in 1876, at the age of 29, Bell invented the telephone, and changed the world. After the telephone, Bell invented the Photophone, which had the ability to transfer sound on a beam of light. -
Mother Jones
Mary "Mother" Jones traveled the country during the industrial revolution after her husband and all of her children were killed by yellow fever, aiding in the construction and strikes of unions. She participated in a number of strikes, such as the Pullman strike, and was known to say, "I'm not a humanitarian. I'm a hell-raiser!" as she fought for human rights, and everything else she believed strongly in. -
Munn v. Illinois
Durring the depression of the 1870s, Illinois legislature set in place a law to limit how much grain storage companies can charge for their services, in an attempt to help out the farmers. Munn and Scott, a storage firm was found guilty of breaking this law. They appealed to the supreme court who ruled to uphold the state court's descisions because a state has a legitimate police power to regulate private enterprises that may adversely impact the public interest. -
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison was an inventor during the Industrial Revolution, and was responsible for the invention of the light bulb, phonograph, and telegraph. Of these inventions, the light bulb had the most impact and changed the world. In December of 1879, the Menlo Park laboratory complex was electrically lighted, introducing the light bulb for the first time. -
Haymarket Riot
The Haymarket riot was a strike protest by the workers of McCormick Harvesting Machine Co. The protest was for shorter working hours. Police were called to protect strikebreakers as they entered the factory. A fight broke out and one person was killed. The following day a protest of 2,000 people gathered in Haymarket Square to protest alleged police brutality from the day before. It was peaceful until police were ordered to break it up, and someone threw a pipe bomb at the police killing 7. -
Interstate Commerce Act
The Interstate Commerce Act was passed by Congress and created the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1887. This commission was the first true federal regulatory agency. The Interstate Commerce Act was created to address the issues of railroad abuse and discrimination. In addition, the ICA was created to require all shipping rates to be reasonable and just, as well as published. Secret rebates were also outlawed and price discrimination against small markets was made illegal. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act was the first measure passed by Congress to prohibit trusts. The Act was based on the ability of Congress to regulate interstate commerce. The Antitrust Act authorized the federal government to take steps to dissolve trusts, and all for the purpose of reinstating competition. However, the Sherman Antitrust Act was loosely worded and failed to define both trust and monopoly. -
Homestead Strike
The Homestead Strike was a strike of the workers who worked for Henry C. Frick. Frick, in an attempt to break apart the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, cut wages in his factory. This led to a strike by his own workers. The situation escaladed until Frick called in the Pinkerton Detective Agency's private army. The workers heard that the army was here to protect the factory, and attacked the army leading to a battle. Soon the state militia was called in to end the dispute. -
Pullman Strike
The Pullman Strike was a strike led by the American Railway Union to boycott George Pullmans’ wage cuts of his factory workers. The boycott, which was centered in Chicago, affected travel nation wide. The affect was so great that the federal government stepped in forbidding any boycott activity. The head of the ARU ignored this injunction, and was subsequently arrested. The failure of the strike was a huge setback for unionism, but reinforced the need for unions in the workplace. -
Eugene Debs
Eugene Debs was the first president of the American Railway Union, and led a strike against George Pullman, known as the Pullman strike. Because of this strike, Eugene Debs was imprisoned under the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. On May 27th, 1895, the case came before the Supreme Court who rejected the case. In prison, Eugene Debs read the works of Karl Marx and became a socialist. -
J.P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan began his career as an accountant, and worked his way up to be a partner at Drexel, Morgan and Company. By 1895 the company was known as J.P. Morgan and Company and Morgan had become immensely successful. He moved on to create U.S. Steel, the worlds first billion dollar corporation in 1901. He became the main force behind trusts and controlled virtually all-basic American industries. -
Wright Brothers
The Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, are responsible for inventing the first flying machine. On December 17th, 1903, the Wright Brothers had their first successful flight in Kitty Hawk, NC, beginning the aerial age. Two years later the Wright Brothers had created a plane that on its maiden voyage, flew for 39 minutes and traveled 24.5 miles. -
Lochner v. NY
Lochner v NY was a Supreme Court case in which the Supreme Court ruled a NY law limiting hours for bakers unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled this way because; a state cannot interfere with most employment contracts because the right to buy and sell labor is a fundamental freedom guaranteed by the 14th amendment. The state had done this by restricting the hours a baker can bake, thus interfering with the right to buy and sell labor. -
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was born July 30, 1863, and began his engineering career with the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit in 1891. After being promoted to chief engineer, in 1896, Ford developed his first self-propelled vehicle he named, the Quadricycle. Soon Henry Ford started his own company, the Ford Motor Company that was incorporated in 1903. It was here that in 1908 Ford created the Model T, the first car to be mass-produced by the Ford Motor Company.
