The Industrial The Industrial RevolutionRevolution

Post Civil War Era

Major Events in the Industrial Revolution

Early 1700s – Industrial Revolution begins in Britain

1764 – James Hargreaves invents the spinning jenny

1764 – James Watt invents the steam engine

1793 – Samuel Slater opens first U.S. cotton mill

1793 – Eli Whitney invents the cotton gin

1814 – George Stephenson invents the first practical locomotive

1830s – First great railway “boom” begins in Europe & the U.S.

Major Events in the Industrial Revolution (cont.)

1856 – Henry Bessemer introduces the Bessemer process for steel production

1869 – Transcontinental Railroad completed

1870 – John D. Rockefeller starts the Standard Oil Company ($$$$$)

1876 – Alexander G. Bell invents the telephone

1882 – Thomas Edison constructs first central power station to electrify New York City

1892 – Andrew Carnegie forms the Carnegie Steel Corporation

RAILROADSRAILROADS

Words to copy are in RED

Transcontinental RR

Lincoln & Republicans promised Transcontinental RR in 1860

1862 – Congress passed Pacific RR act (provided 2 companies to build a transcontinental line)

Central Pacific built East from CA Union Pacific built West from Nebraska

Many workers were required to build the RR, including African Americans, American Indians, & immigrants

Central Pacific = Chinese immigrants Union Pacific = Irish immigrants

Neither group received much credit

for their work.

Biggest Challenge – crossing the Sierra Nevada mountains

Engineers (growing field) figured out how to make tunnels work.

May 10, 1869 – Transcontinental Railroad connected by a golden spike

Two ends connected at Promontory, Utah

Growth of Railroads

Railroads became more efficient after the Civil War

Began to make the rails the same size & network = connect railroad lines to another

Began to consolidate = combining smaller companies with larger ones

Examples: US Airways bought out America West

Time Warner bought AOL

Pixar & Disney

Huge railway companies were built Important RR businessmen:

Cornelius Vanderbuilt (New York & Harlem Railroad)

J.P. Morgan (consolidated RRs)

James J. Hill (Great Northern Railway)

Edward Harriman (Illinois Central &

Union Pacific RRs)

Railroads Change America

Helped end Indian control of the West Tied together the economies of the West &

East Caused the U.S. to grow into an industrial

giant (examples: lumber, steel, coal, aluminum industries)

Helped people settle and farm the plains & valleys of the West.

Changed the way people thought about the country & environment– Pre-railroads = travel was hazardous, weather

was difficult, needed water transport– With railroads = in cold & heat the trains kept

moving, railroads made straight paths to cities without water transport (ex. Denver, Cheyenne)

Railroad agreed to a system of standard time – creating 4 U.S. time zones

1884 – worldwide time zones created

Time Zones