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Bessemer Process
The Bessemer process was discovered. This is the process that makes steel from molten iron by adding oxygen and increasing the temperature dramatically. Today steel is used in buildings,ships,airplanes, and many more. -
Edwin Lauren Drake
Edwin Lauren Drake discovered a new way to easily get oil out of the ground by putting pipes into the ground until it hit the bedrock, then to continue drilling and the oil came out. This new technique was very efficient and many companies used this technique to get oil faster and it lead them to wealth. Unfortuneitly Edwin did not get a patent on this technique so other companies stole it and Edwin lived in poverty for years however his idea changed and evolved the oil industry forever. -
Credt Mobilier Scandel
The Credit Mobilier Scandal was associated with the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, and it is a illegal manipulation of contracts. It was believed widely among the people that the scandal was post Civil War corruption. -
Christopher Sholes
Christopher Sholes made the first typewriter and he continued to improve upon his design making the typewriter keyboard with more options. Sholes originally abandoned his idea but then later sold his patents for money. This invention changed the way we take we take down information and is the stepping stone for the first computer. -
Transcontinental Railroad
The Transcontinental railroad was completed. The Pacific Railroad Act to pass the building of this railroad was passed seven years earlier. Half of the railroad was built by Central Pacific and the other half by Union Pacific. -
John Rockefeller
John D. Rockefeller established the Standard Oil Company which developed into almost a monopoly by 1882. He put the stock in a trust which was considered the first United States trust and became a standard for other companies. His monopoly upset people and led to the antimonopoly law and the U.S. Congress of the Sherman Antitrust Act (1890). Over time Standard Oil was considered illegal due to violating the antitrust laws. Rockefeller became a philanthropist and was key in founding the Univers -
Telephone
This date marks the first time that communication through the telephone had worked, when inventor, Alexander, called for his assistant ,who was on a completely different floor, heard his call through the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in the 1870s, and it is still a primary use of communication almost 150 years later. -
Interstate Commerce Act
The Interstate Commerce Act attempted to slow down the rapidly increasing United states railroad industry. Its purpose was to stop unfair and discriminatory railroad pricing. This is the first of many United States federal regulatory commissions. (Interstate). -
Munn v. Illinois
Munn and Scott was found to violate rate control established by farmers. Munn V. Illinois was a case that disputed inappropriate government involvement. The Supreme Court determined the state was allowed to regulate private industries that affected the public. Therefore, the government was determined to be allowed to regulate private industries in the Munn v. Illinois case. -
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison made the world renown electric light bulb. Although at the time not many people saw a use for it, today it is located everyone around the world. Along with the lightbulb he also founded the first electric power plant. This plant was located in New York and it brought electrical light to the nearby places for the first time ever. -
Haymarket Riot
The Haymarket Riot occurred in Chicago, when a bomb was thrown that injured 70 people. Eight people were found guilty trying to encourage the man who throw the bomb into the crowd. This case is important because it is one of the first times bombs were used in rioting and it started an era that we are currently in of using bombs more often in public places. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
Congress passed the Sherman Antitrust Act, the first act that regulated large companies trusts and it completely eliminated any monopolies. The act outlawed any sort of contract or conspiracy of monopolies. This act also was the stepping stone for Theodore Roosevelt’s trust-busting campaigns. -
Mother Jones
Mother Jones, the widow of an iron molder became an active participant in the American labor movement. She was a public advocate for the United Mine Workers. Additionally, she opposed child labor and was a founder of the Social Democratic Party in 1898 and the Industrial Workers of the World in 1905. -
Homestead Strike
Homestead Strike also known as the Homestead riot was a severe conflict between management of the Carnegie Steel Company and the workers. The union contract was up for renewal and the management cut wages which were not accepted by the union. 3,800 workers were fired and replaced with non-union workers. This battle had a racial impact as blacks were not allowed to be union workers and therefore took the non-union jobs. Ultimately, the union lost and some of them applied for their old jobs with -
Eugene Debs
Eugene Debs the President of the American Railway Union organized a strike against the Great Northern Railway. He was sentenced to prison for his involvement in the Chicago Pullman Car Company strike. While in prison he converted to socialism and was instrumental in the development of the Socialist Party of America of which he became party's presidential candidate several times unsuccessfully. -
Pullman Strike
A famous strike occurred that has never been forgotten. The Pullman Palace Car Company had 125,000 workers join a boycott against the company and they aligned with the American Railway Union, because the workers had lived in company owned houses and had to buy things from the company store, but the markup on the products was extremely high which causes the workers to boycott. How ever the boycott failed when 30 striking members were killed by the government who sided with the Pullmans. -
John Peirpont Morgan
John Peirpont Morgan, known as J.P. Morgan was a world renown financier and industrial organizer in the decades preceding World War 1. His career as an accountant developed into being partner in J.P. Morgan and Company which was one of the largest banking institutions in the world. He collaborated with British bankers to reorganize the railroad industry. His involvement in the railroad industry provided stability and resulted in him controlling 5,000 miles of railroad. Additionally, he helped t -
Henry Ford
Henry Ford constructed the first automotive with a gasoline engine motor. This new design completely changed the worlds forms of transportation from using a horse or a gasoline engine. He also started the car brand Ford Motors and this company still exists today. -
Wright Brothers
The Wright brothers, Wilbur and Orville, succsesfully had the first airplane flight that was controlled and sustained. Constructing the airplanes to fly was a hard and long process but it came to an end when they figured out the last part that they needed, a wind tunnel. When the wind tunnel was put in the airplane was able to fly, and society has evolved off of the original design to use airplanes for transport and war. -
Lochner vs. New York
Lochner was caught guilty having one of his employees working for him more than sixty hours a week. The ruling of the case is that Lochner can not require any of his employees to work a 10 hour day. This case was an example of the era where the United states Supreme Court made their decisions based on the content written in the Constitution.
