Ch 14 Notes
Bessemer process: blast of
hot air to purify molten iron and convert it to steel
Oil:
Railroads: steel made cheaper by Bessemer process ($12
instead of $50)
Transcontinental: Union Pacific started in
Central Pacific started in
Finished in 1869 at Promontory
1) promoted trade
2) provided jobs
3) boost to steel and
train manufacturers
4) sped up settlement
5) created standard time
which Congress adopted in 1918
Era of self-reliant
individualism helped lead to the business boom and entrepreneurs
Laissez-faire: “to let do” or hands off government towards
business
Capitalism
Social Darwinism: natural
selection or “survival of the fittest”
Proprietorship: individual
Partnership: two or more
Corporation: owned by
stockholders but run by a board of directors
Trust: companies merge
Monopoly: no competition
Rockefeller: Standard Oil
Vertical integration: buy companies that supply your
business
Horizontal
integration: taking over companies that produce the same thing
Donated
$80 million to
Carnegie: Steel Rags
to riches
Used vertical integration
Sold steel company to JP Morgan
Known for philanthropy, gave $ to education,
libraries, and music
Gospel of Wealth- make all you can but give all
you can too
Vanderbilt: Railroads and shipping
Did not give away much of his $
Pullman: designing and building railroad cars but
best known for sleeper cars
Built town for his workers to live in but there
was no self rule
“Robber Barons”: exploited
the poor to make their money
or
Captains of Industry: rich
who gave back to the community and helped the economy
Hershey: chocolate
Dupont: chemical company
Development of the Department
store: one stop shopping that was cheaper b/c the owner bought in bulk
Mail order catalog: rural
communities benefited most (example: Sears, Roebuck and Co)
1890: 10% of population
controlled 75% of the wealth
Workers
Most were white but many were also children
10 hour work day 6 days a week
no vacation or sick days
no compensation for injury
Knights of Labor
Allowed unskilled workers, women and African Americans to
join
Worked for: 8 hour work day, end of child labor, and equal
pay for equal work
Railroad strike: workers
walked off jobs and blocked railways
Put down by the US Army and about 100 were killed
1886 Haymarket Riot
protest and bomb went off, 11 dead
and 100 injured
blamed on foreigners
helped to flame xenophobia: the
fear of foreigners
Blacklists
American Federation of Labor:
Samuel Gompers
Used strikes and won higher wages and shorter work week
Tried to lock out workers but they seized the plant
Hired guards and workers had a 14 hr shootout/standoff
State militia called in to end the strike
Pullman Strike
1/3 of employees fired and other workers’ wages were cut
American Railway Union refused to work on trains with
Pullman Cars
This interfered with the
Pres Grover Cleveland called in federal troops to end the
strike
Transportation: mass transit
or public transportation
Street cars:
Subways: 1897
Automobiles: 1867 internal combustion engine led to
“horseless carriage”
Airplanes: Wright Brothers in
Communication: telegraph by Samuel Morse led to Morse Code (1837)
Telephone by Alexander Bell (1876)
Typewriter: 1867 provided job
opportunities for women
Edison: inventor of many
things including phonograph, telephone transmitter, incandescent light bulb and
the power plant (over 1,000 patents in his lifetime