Inventions, such as railroads and the incandescent light bulb, made expansion possible, modernized life, and allowed the national economy to reach for the sky. Electricity made mass production possible by increasing efficiency and speed, thus quickly increasing the size of industries. The steam-powered locomotive created a fast way to cross the country while carrying large amounts of supplies. Advances in communications affected the industry by providing faster and cheaper means of communication. The technological advances created by the inventors of the Guilded Age forever changed the United States.
The invention of the steam-powered locomotive dominated the Guilded Age, changing the United States drastically both economically and geographically (Hoogenboom, “Railroads…”). Inspired by success in Britain, railroads began to be built in the late 1820s. By the end of the 1850s railroad mileage reached thirty thousand miles. By 1860 one could get to anywhere east of the Mississippi River from New York in a week or less. During the Civil War, the large railroad system geared towards the North made it possible for the Union to win, because of the quick access to supplies (Gervase). The steam-powered locomotive was literally the force pulling the many changes.
Travel that at one time would have been hazardous and taken months, was shortened to a matter of days while sleeping all due to the invention of the steam-powered locomotive (Hoogenboom, “Railroads…”). The new faster and safer means of transportation made the travel to the West more attractive and practical. The federal government opened up the west by funding the building of railroads (Newton et al. 335). The increased access to supplies aloud towns in the West to form and cities to expand. The quickly developing cities moved economic and political power west. On May 10, 1869 the nation’s first transcontinental railroad was complete (Gervase). This achievement linked the United States together forming a national economy, by enabling farmers in the west to ship their products the North faster and cheaper (Hoogenboom, “Railroads…”). The invention of the steam-powered locomotive was one of the most important inventions during expansion.
Before the invention of electricity, America was dark and only lit by oil lamps (Josephson 33). Electricity was a newer, better, easier to transport, and more efficient source of energy that revolutionized life. One of the first Americans to adapt to arc lighting, an early 19th century technology that used an electric arc between carbon rods, was Charles F. Brush. Thomas Edison had then invented a better form of electrical lighting, the incandescent light bulb.
In stores and business places there was a strange glow last night. The dim flicker of gas, often subdued and debilitated by grim and uncleanly globes, was supplanted by a steady glare, bright and mellow, which illuminated interiors and shone through windows fixed an unwavering. It was the glowing incandescent lamps of Edison, used last evening for the first time in practical illumination of the first districts into which the city had been divided (“Edison’s …” 94).
Eventually Edison began testing for wider uses of electricity in 1882 in New York City when he laid wiring as part of a direct current (DC) system, creating a prototype of the modern power grid. The electric transformer was invented in 1885 to better control the new. Edison went on to establish one of the first power companies, giving him a monopoly on electrical energy, for the time being. In 1886 George Westinghouse developed an alternating current (AC). AC, capable of higher voltage, was better at carrying electricity over long distances efficiently that DC was (Sendrow). When Thomas Edison tried to make DC powered motors he was unsuccessful because they were so low power. When Frank J. Sprague began to develop better DC motors but were still less economical than steam power. Later on AC motors were be invented by Nikola Tesla. Edison realized that DC was limited and so he merged with Thomas Houstan, who also had patents on AC, in 1892.
The invention of electricity caused factories to increase production ten fold. When AC motors were perfected in 1910, it became possible to create electrically powered industrial machinery and home appliances.
Daily life in the home, in the streets, and in shops and factories was directly affected by the new inventions of urban transportation, lighting, heating, and mechanization, all fueled by electricity, a source of power that was largely more efficient, cheaper, safer, and more versatile than the technologies it replaced (Faue).
Manufacturers were the first to take advantage of electricity’s cheap cost, broad applicability and increased availability. Electrical machines helped to produce canned goods and meat products, cigarettes, wheat flour, and milk. Electric motors were able to link multiple machines together through belts and wires, which aloud multiple process to be powered by one motor, while monitoring the process through gauges and meters. For that reason, coal and oil
driven motors were replaced by electric motors and by doing so increased efficiency and lowered production costs (Faue). Electric motors were placed into assembly lines, raising industrial efficiency by about fifty percent (Josephson 33). The huge increases in efficiency aloud manufacturers to create more, do it faster, and for less thus greatly increasing the economic power of the industries and made mass production possible. “Between 1899 and 1919, the use of electric power increased from 1.8 percent of industrial production in 1899 to 31.7 percent” (Faue).
Within private households, domestic jobs were modernized through the wide uses of electrical power. The number of houses that were set to use electricity changed drastically during the first three decades of the 20th century, going from eight percent in 1907, to thirty four percent in 1920, to seventy percent in 1930. Electricity opened up the use of house appliances such as electric fans, refrigerators, sewing machines, washing
machines, toasters, mixers, and vacuums drastically changed the labor of women who worked within the home. The wide availability of electricity made it possible for more people to afford and be able to use radios for entertainment and news. The standardization of wiring made electricity easier to afford, which enabled a much larger group of people to use it (Faue).
Advances in communications that made it cheaper and faster, overwhelmingly changed the economy. By 1870 most American communities had instant touch with each other through telegraph (Hoogenboom, “Communications…”). “…rising electrical manufacturing businesses formed the context for the telephone” (Sterling). Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone demonstration at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 made a great impression, but its large impact waited (Hoogenboom, “Communications…”). At first the telephone had some technical and financial problems. Many businesses did not trust the new invention of voice-only
communication preferring to stick with the telegraph. Given that no company wanted to purchase Bell’s patents, and so Bell’s backers were forced to develop their own system. Telephone service developed slowly until Bell’s patents expired in 1893. The first telephone switchboard was placed in New Haven, Connecticut, in early 1878, and showed how it had greater efficiency over individual lines. Among businesses, newspapers were quick to utilize the telephone. When Bell’s patents finally expired in 1893 hundreds of other companies entered the market, though most of their prices were lower they were poorly capitalized (Sterling). Bell System, by then known as American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T), became the leading telephone company after 1900. By 1900 1.4 million (one for every 54 Americans) telephones had been sold (Hoogenboom, “Communications…”). Companies could now have conversations with buyers and take orders from around the country enabling the possibility of a nationally known
company, and AT&T had a monopoly on it. “The telephone was on its way to becoming the "nervous system" of the 20th-century metropolis—the conqueror of time, space, and solitude, and an instrument used to bring the human family into closer touch” (Hoogenboom, “Communications…”).
The inventions that advanced transportation, energy uses, and communication modernized the United States, each one depending on the advances of the other. The steam-powered locomotive made it possible to expand the United States’ boundaries and supply the nation with goods. Electricity had then taken advantage of the rapidly growing cities to give a central source of power to each. Finally the telephone took advantage of electric power and the newly wide spread United States to speak to others from around the nation. Without these inventions expansion and industrialization would not have ever occurred. Inventions of the Guilded Age revolutionized life in America and helped it to thrive.
please just write out the sentence or section that you made changes to, with the change hilighted or underlined or even just bolded… thank you
This is a great report. Good luck on it.
This is a great report. Good luck on it.
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