Expansion of Industry

Factor 1: Abundant Natural Resources

A. Which resources played crucial roles in industrialization?

   

Oil, coal, iron and steel played a crucial role in industrialization.

B. How did Edwin L. Drake help industry to acquire larger quantities of oil?

 

In 1859, Edwin L. Drake used a steam engine to drill for oil in Pennsylvanian and with that success, removing oil from beneath the earth became practical and available.

C. How did the Bessemer process allow better use of iron ore?

 

The Bessemer process injected air into molten iron to remove the carbon and other impurities. This technique was a cheap and efficient way to produce steal and by 1880, American manufacturers used this method to produce more than 90 percent of the nations steel.

D. What new uses for steel were developed at this time?
 

Although the railroads were the biggest consumers of steel there were other uses including barbed wire, and farm machines. It also made new construction methods possible including steel cables for the Brooklyn bridge and steel frames for the first skyscrapers.

Factor 2: Increasing number of Inventions

A. How did Thomas Alva Edison contribute to this development? 

 

Thomas Alva Edison established the world's first research lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey. There he perfected the incandescent light bulb. Later, he invented a complete system for producing and distributing electing power. The harnessing of electrical power completely changed business in America. Electric power ran machines from fans to printing presses. It was a convenient inexperience source of energy which when it became available in homes, spurred the invention of appliances which saved time and energy. Electric street cars made travel cheap and helped with the outward spread of cities. Even more important, electricity gave manufactures the freedom to locate their plants wherever they wanted not just near power sources such as rivers. Because of this, industry was able to grow as never before.

B. How did George Westinghouse contribute to it? 

 

Westinghouse was an inventor who with Edison helped to add new developments that made electricity saver and less expensive.

C. How did Christopher Sholes contribute? 

 

Sholes invented the typewriter in 1867, effectively revolutionizing the world of work. It created new jobs for women.

 

D. How did Alexander Graham Bell contribute? 

 

Alexander Graham Bell invented perhaps the most important invention next to electricity by creating the phone in 1876. The phone opened the doors to a worldwide communications network.