Scientific and Technological Achievements at the Turn of the Century

Scientific and Technological Advancements

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, advances in science and technology led to dramatic changes in daily life

• Medical discoveries• Better sanitation• Scientific discoveries

Advances in Medicine

A series of discoveries revolutionized the field of medicine at the turn of the twentieth century• The Germ Theory and

Disease– In 1870 Louis Pasteur

discovered a link between germs and disease

– Proved that killing certain germs stops the spread of certain diseases

Advances in Medicine

• The Germ Theory and Disease– German physician Robert

Koch discovered the bacteria that causes tuberculosis

– Koch and Pasteur’s work led to germ theory• Diseases are caused by the

action of microorganisms

– People start washing more!

Advances in Medicine• Joseph Lister and Antiseptics– Before the mid 1800s, even a minor surgery might

be followed by infection and death– Surgeon Joseph Lister believed there was a

connection between infection and germs• Lister insisted that his doctors use antiseptics at all

stages of operations

Advances in Medicine

• Antibiotics– Alexander Fleming discovers the mold penicillin– This mold killed bacteria!– This antibiotic was not widely distributed and used

until the 1940s

Improved Standard of Living

• Better Wages and Working Conditions– Industrialization led to horrible working conditions

for most people in Industrialized Europe– Legalized labor unions, reformers, and working-

class voters pushed for better working conditions

Improved Standard of Living

• Better Housing– Urban conditions were improving in the late 1800s

and early 1900s– City governments paved their streets– Housing improved– Architects began to use steel to construct

stronger, taller buildings

Improved Standard of Living

• Improved Sanitation– Underground sewage systems!– Death rates were dramatically cut…• Why?

Population Explosion

New Inventions!

Technology of the Industrial AgeInventor or Developer Nation Invention or Development Year

Henry Bessemer Great Britain Process to turn iron ore into steel

1856

Alexander Graham Bell United States Telephone 1876

Thomas Edison United States Electric light bulb 1879

Gottlieb Daimler Germany Automobile 1887

Henry Ford United States Mass-produced automobile 1903

Orville & Wilbur Wright United States Airplane 1903

New Scientific Theories• The Curies and Radioactivity– Conducted extensive experiments with

radioactivity– Discoveries such as radium and polonium had an

enormous effect on fields such as energy production, medicine, and military technology

New Scientific Theories

• Einstein and Relativity– Theory of Relativity

New Scientific Theories

• Freud and the Human Mind– The unconscious drives

human behavior– Freud felt that the

tension between the drives of the unconscious mind and the demands of civilized society caused psychological and physical illness