Unit 1The World in 1900

Urban Life

Essential Questions

1. What was urban life like in 1900 in America?

2. What is mass culture and what affect did it have on the lives of Americans?

Technology and City LifeSkyscrapers- made possible by 2 factors:

1) invention of elevators2) development of steel skeletons to bear the weight of tall buildings

- Examples – Wainwright Building in St. Louis

Flatiron Building in NYC- Allowed cities to expand upward as well as

outward

Flatiron Building

New York City, NY

285 ft

Daniel Burnham

Wainwright Building

St. Louis, MO

10 stories

Louis Sullivan

Transportation1. Electric street cars

• Driven by electric motors powered by an overhead wire

2. Railroads• “El trains” (elevated trains) and subways

emerged to ease congestion on crowded city streets

• 70,000 commuted to Chicago from suburbs and 100,000 commuted to NYC every day

3. Steel cable suspension bridges• Example: Brooklyn Bridge

Communication1. Airplanes and mail delivery

• Orville and Wilbur Wright designed a biplane with a 40 foot wingspan, propeller, and 4 cylinder internal combustion engine

• 1st successful flight on December 17, 1903 – Distance: 120 feetFlight time: 12 seconds

• Within 2 years, they increased their flight distance to 24 miles, which attracted the interest of US gov’t

Established 1st transcontinental airmail service in 1920

Took 1 ½ days for mail to go from NYC to San Francisco by 1925

What impact did the advances made in transportation have on American culture? How did these things change American life?

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Printing1. Web-Perfecting Press

• High speed electronic press that printed both sides of a continuous roll of paper and then cut and fold it

• Invented by William Bullock

2. Linotype Machine• Streamlined the process of typesetting

**Factors: Improved public education raised literacy rate to

90% by 1890 Cheaper more durable paper made out of wood

pulp

Photography1. George Eastman

• Kodak camera – eliminated need for heavy glass plates (film) and immediate development

• Made photography possible for the masses • Cost $25 and came with 100 picture roll of

film• For $10 the camera was sent to Kodak, the

pictures were developed and sent back with the camera reloaded with film

• Helped create the field of photojournalism – events could be recorded as they happened

Which development is science/technology that we covered had the greatest impact on American culture? Explain why.

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