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125 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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World War I
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World War I – The World War I era was responsible for many innovations. The automatic machine gun and Subchasers are just a couple. WWI was also noted to be “The War to End All Wars”.
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Crisco
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Crisco – It was created by Proctor and Gamble in 1911. It Is recognized as the first shortening product made completely from vegetable oil.
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Hollerith machines
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Hollerith machines – This was a record keeping device in which there were 2 machines. The first machine punched hole in the cards and the second machine was responsible for reading the cards and tabulating the results. Census results were way behind and the 1880 census was not properly tabulated until 1893. Hollerith’s machine solved this problem and after starting his own business he eventually sold his machine to CTR co.
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Ford Sociological Dept.
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Ford Sociological Department – This dept. within Ford Motor Company was put into effect in 1913.It provided financial assistance for many of Ford’s employees. It was also responsible in the creation of the Five Dollar Day in 1914. Five Dollar Day provided workers with a wage of $5 a day if they met certain requirements. They earned $2.34 for working and $2.66 a day for “living right”. The Sociological dept. was used in determining if the worker was “living right”.
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Total War
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Total War – A Total war is a conflict in which a country dispenses all of its available resources to help its cause. These resources can include people, weapons, food, and other equipment. WWII was considered by many a total war.
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Sulfa Drugs
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Sulfa Drugs – Sulfa drugs were used in WWII by soldiers. They prevented infections and soldiers were told to use sulfa powder on new, open wounds. This greatly reduced the death toll in WWII.
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Henry Ford
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Henry Ford – He was responsible for many innovation s in factories. Two which are widely recognized are the assembly line and standardized parts. The assembly line brought the work to the workers and the standardized parts allowed workers to easily manufacture the vehicles.
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Frederick Winslow Taylor
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Fredrick Winslow Taylor – Developed a theory of “Scientific Management” which referred to the one, right way to perform. It called for the scientific selection of employees and rewarding them for participating in the system. Ford utilized this system into Ford Motor Company.
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Wright Brothers
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Wright Brothers - Developed the airplane and it immediately became a military item.
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Washing Machines
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Washing Machines – The Maytag Company was founded in 1893 and developed its first washing machine in 1907. They released their first electric washer in 1911.
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Upton Sinclair
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Upton Sinclair –He was a muckraking journalist who wrote the novel “The Jungle” in 1905. The novel was written to show the corruption of the meat packing industry in the early 20th century. This led to the creation of the meat inspection act and the pure food and drug act by President Roosevelt.
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International Business Machine
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International Business Machine (IBM) – Herman Hollerith sold his tabulating machine to Computer Tabulating Recording Co. which eventually became IBM. IBM was a consulting company that would lease their equipment to you. They didn’t sell you a product but they sold you a “solution”. IBM also made it necessary to use their paper with punch card machines.
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Intelligence Quotient
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Intelligence Quotient (IQ) - They said that anyone could volunteer for the war effort. The educated people volunteered and the working class did not volunteer and 6 months later they were all dead. They ran some tests to find out if smart soldiers were better than dumb soldiers and found that smart soldiers were exceptionally better. The IQ test tested them. The test merely measured education and not intelligence which was unbeknown to them at the time.
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Hawthorne Effect
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Hawthorne Effect – Described that people may not “work” rationally or study rationally. The Hawthorne effect was the opposite of the Taylorist ideas. Hawthorne vacuum cleaner Company. Their job was to see if some new process designed for the factory floor would work. The experimental team could make these ideas but the ideas would NOT work on the floor. They then decided to find something that could not possibly work. The experimental team made it work. They then sat down the team and asked what was going on. The team said… We are the experimental team… It is our job to make these things work. We are the best employees our company has to offer. IF workers feel good about their job, they will do better at it. Hawthorne Company created the company counselor. If there are any complaints they could see the counselor. They found out that the mere fact that someone listened to them, their productivity went up. Morale was essential to productivity.
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Thorstein Veblen
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Thorstein Veblen – Intellectual that wrote the Theory of the Leisure Class in 1899. People began to think about how to view business. Developed the idea of Conspicuous consumption. People did not consume products rationally so that is also not how the market works. He says that there should be engineers to manage the economy. Experts making decisions for people. Inspiration for the new deal.
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Tennessee Valley Authority
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Tennessee Valley Authority – May 18, 1933. During WWI there was a large need for gun powder. The Gov’t built a gun powder factory on the Tennessee River. They made a hydroelectric dam to make sure there was enough power. The war ended before the factory was live. The factory sat there. Ford then wanted to buy the dam and the plant to make fertilizer. They both have nitrates. The Gov’t wanted the dam to be used to sell electricity to the public and the deal to ford was denied. This sparked the TVA which provided electric power to the rural parts of TN. The power companies didn’t want to electrify the rural areas and also did not want competition. The fed Gov’t started to go into competition with the electric companies and sold on a high use low cost policy. Farmers then began buying electric devices which stimulated the economy. GREEeeeat Success.
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Greenbelt Cities
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Greenbelt Cities – Resettlement Administration…. Planned towns that were built with a shopping center in the middle and then the housing around that. There were then circular roads around the outside to discourage people from driving through them. There were then trees around that. Thorstein Veblen was a firm believer in this type of planning.
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Clarence Birdseye
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Clarence Birdseye – A naturalist that enjoyed fishing. He discovered that if you froze the fish it was able to maintain its flavor. He decided to make a company selling frozen fish. It was capital intensive because he needed a way to deliver the frozen food. The company needed to buy and supply freezers to the grocery stores. He also had to supply railroad cars that were essentially rolling freezers.
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Purebreds
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Purebreds – Take advantage of Darwin’s ideas on evolution. Rather than trying to breed the best cow, they thought about the traits they wanted out of a cow… maybe a cow with big shoulders or a cow that could survive a northern environment. They were able to get specific traits of the cow and get higher yields of the desired trait. You used the same amount of feed and other expenses but you could sell your cows for more because they were bigger.
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Hybrids
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Hybrids – Hybrid corn was invented in the 1920s. People take advantage of Darwin’s ideas of evolution and develop corn that produces a higher yield. They found out that if you took the corn and breed it and used it in the next generation, it did not work. This is something that Francis Galton predicted… That the extreme would come back to the average. For a specific generation the seeds would have a higher yield and then next year you had to raise the seeds up again. To get the great yield you had to buy the super-seed corn that was more expensive and you had to use fertilizer and machinery making farming capital intensive. This worked for farmers if you had economies of scale.
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Plastics
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Plastics – plastic allowed you to take petroleum, heat it, mold it and get a light weight durable thing that was shaped any way you wanted it. It was a substitute for steel and other metals.
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Nylon
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Nylon – Wallace Cruthers invented Nylon with DuPont. He was the head of organic chemistry at Harvard. DuPont hired him to do research. This led to the innovation of the nylon stocking. Valuable commodity because most of the silk production was in Japanese hands. This allowed for a substitute.
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KDKA
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KDKA – The call letters of the first modern commercial Radio station. Was in Pittsburg PA. If you bought a radio you bought a license. These licenses were used by BBC for content. BBC quotes “Quality would find an audience.”
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United Airlines
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United Airlines – Started commercial service in 1926. WWI popularized the airplane. After WWI there was a surplus of both pilots and planes. William Boeing started Boeing and United airlines.
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Charles Lindbergh
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Charles Lindbergh – in 1927 he flew across the Atlantic ocean. In the same month they started transcontinental air service. The 1920’s people were really big into individuals who did things w/o the help of the govt. He became an international celebrity. This is why the kidnapping and murder of his child was such big news. He was instantaneously a superstar.
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ENIAC
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ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer.) – developed in 1946 from the University of PA. Weighed 30 tons and had 18000 vacuum tubes. Dimmed lighting and could only operate 1 hr at a time because of heat. Henry Kilgore was senator for the CIO. The first WW was seen as an exercise in profiteering. People argued that WWI was caused by rich Americans were lent money from GB. Harley Kilgore said we should be able to draft patents. He argued that and in the process his plan got changed. Instead we got the office of scientific research and development.
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OSRD
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OSRD - It was led by Van debar Bush. They decided they would do a ‘best science’ approach. Kilgore wanted research money spread across the country. Instead of drafting patents or spreading money the US would take their massive financial resources and then it would be funneled to 6 Universities. Harvard, MIT, UC Berkeley, U of Chicago. They integrated interdisciplinary teams. Now there are so many problems of an interdisciplinary nature. People need to be trained as interdisciplinary nature. The office of scientific research and development was successful in innovation. Sonar was created by this office.
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Atomic Bomb
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Atomic Bomb – Theory was described in 1939 in a physics article. Most nations wanted to build it. Even Japan. IT depended on how much time and people and money you wanted to devote to this. Germany tried the only nonworking version. There were 3 possible devices. The US funded all 3. Way 1 uses U-235 for nuclear fission. U-235 is only .7% of naturally occurring uranium. You need to refine it in order to get it correct. The next method used Plutonium which was manmade. The 3rd method does not work. The A Bomb was tested on June of 1944 It was dropped because there was no reason not to drop it. It was a weapon. There was a general sense of revenge for Pearl Harbor. Racism was also a factor. There is social Darwinism and people saw the Japanese as a lower people. On a smaller note, it was also done to intimidate the Soviet Union. It was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6 1945 and Nagasaki on August 9.
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Sonar
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Sonar – Similar to radar. 75% of all German subs killed in action. The office of scientific research and development was successful in innovation. Sonar was created by this office.
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Proximity Fuse
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Proximity fuse – Proximity fuse sends out waves like sonar and then when it gets a reflection it explodes allowing it to be used as anti plane devices?
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Norden Bombsight
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Norden Bombsight – Used on planes to calculate all the necessary calculations. It was a targeting device that allowed you to aim better. It allowed the people aiming their bombs to actually hit what they are aiming at. This led to the US having a different philosophy of bombing. Britain uses area bombing which would dehouse the German workers. Dehouse meant to kill. The American philosophy was precision bombing. Americans tried to actually hit what they were aiming at and Germans just went and tried to hit anything.
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Hydrogen Bomb
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Hydrogen Bomb – Used Fusion or pushing atoms together. The nuclei are positively charged and they would repel. Under high temps you could push them together by detonating an atomic bomb and then surrounding it with hydrogen. It was very powerful.
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National Science Foundation
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National Science Foundation – est. 1950. It focused on the best sciences approach. With the hard sciences. It deemphasized social sciences.
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Cyberpunk
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Cyberpunk – In cyberpunk there is a dystopia which is a down and dreary future. There are also unconventional heroes suck as outcasts to society. In cyberpunk there is no benefit in trying for a better future.
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Philip K. Dick
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Philip K. Dick – A science fiction author accredited with writing ‘Do Androids Dream of electric Sheep’. In DADOES, Dick does not write cyberpunk. He does pave the road for other works to be written in cyberpunk.
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Bladerunner
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Bladerunner – A science fiction movie based on DADOES written by Philip K. Dick. It takes place in a dystopian Los Angeles. Harrison Ford was cast as the main character and is instructed to eliminate all of the ‘replicas’, or robots.
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Harvard University
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The first institution of learning in the New World; Harvard was a seminary that practiced puritanical thought
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Iron Manufacturing
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The most demanding colonial expertise. Required a lot of skilled labor. Iron was used to make ships as well as many other items.
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The Enlightenment
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The age or period of time where society started to rely on scientific principles and mathematics to describe the world around them rather than attributing it to God alone. It allowed them to develop mathematics and lead to the invention of better technologies.
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The Constitution
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Signed in 1787, The Constitution gave the federal government the right to collect duties as long as the taxes were uniform throughout. It also granted the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations.
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Mills
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The New World had plenty of resources and land but it did not have people to build or work in the mills. Mills were both capitol and labor intensive.
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Ship Manufacturing
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Centered in New England, ship manufacturing was used to make ships for international trading. New England would trade turpentine in England. They also traded rum to Africa for slaves and then would trad the slaves to the West Indies for molasses. They produced more rum with the molasses they now had.
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Benjamin Franklin
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He was responsible for funding many journeyman printers and the creation of their print shops.This allowed the US to do away with the assumption that they did not have the ability to communicate with each other.
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Patents
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Suggested by George Washington, the patent board allowed for competition in inventions. Patents usually came with monopolies on the invention they were for.
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Agriculture
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The US was mainly driven by agriculture as a means of production and economy.
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Leather Making
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Was a skilled practice. Private citizens would purchase leather directly from tanyards and bring it to the leather makers. From there, the leather makers usually made shoes and boots with the leather.
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Oliver Evans
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He is credited with the invention of the grain mill. His monopoly was ended by Bushrod Washington, a federal judge at the time. Washington declared that the patent violated public rights.
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Alexander Hamilton
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George Washington's treasury secretary. Hamilton had a lot to say about how the gov't should be involved with its citizen. He believed large-scale, direct government intervention was the best approach to a solid gov't.
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Turnpikes
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Roads that required a toll be paid prior to using them. These roads led to the production of bridges and allowed people to travel the land more freely.
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Gibbons v. Ogden
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The state of NY offered a monopoly which made it difficult for interstate commerce via steamboat to be possible. The courts ruled that interstate commerce was only to be regulated by congress and not by states.
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Lowell, MA
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A planned textile manufacturing city. Lowell, MA was mostly employed with women who were paid scrip. Scrip was only good at certain places such as the company store or the many shopping centers surrounding Lowell. This led to a rise in the sales of clothing.
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Eli Whitney
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In 1793 Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin as a way to ease the process of separating cotton from its seeds. He was given a patent and a reward for his invention.
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Army Corp of Engineers
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Was a group of engineers put together by congress. They were put together in order to have a supply of military engineers on hand. The corp is credited with the design of most of the nation's initial infrastructure.
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Robert Fulton
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Invented the steamboat. Robert Livingston gave Fulton a monopoly on steamboat travel in the NY area.
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Cotton Gin
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An invention by Eli Whitney to ease in the removal of cotton seeds. It made the production of cotton containing products less labor intensive.
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Samuel Slater
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An English man who came to America with knowledge about textile mills. Neither he nor the Schofield brothers were successful in mass construction of textile mills. Not until the US realized their dependence on European cloth did they construct these mills in bulk. In the US, 243 cotton spinning mills we created by 1814
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Erie Canal
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Built by the state of New York, The Erie Canal was funded by a loan from England. This was a very successful operation and paid itself off within the first few years. The canal bypassed the Niagara Falls and allowed Chicago to become a trade center.
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Steamboats
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Early steamboats were designed by Robert Fulton. They lacked enough power to travel upstream efficiently and after Fulton's death in 1815 the atmospheric engines in Fulton's design were superseded by high-pressure steamboats.
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Baby Boom
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(1945-1958) median family size went from 2.4 to 3.2. This was an international phenomenon. There was a burst of optimism that fascism was defeated and that there would be peace. This coming after a depression and a deadly war there was just peace.
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DDT
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Agricultural pesticide used in WWII in the pacific theatre. It was decided that it be used in American life. DDT was used to kill mesquitos. Once you start killing mesquitoes it lead to a loss in natural food supply because DDT gets into the natural food supply. It is also a carcinogen.
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Processed Foods
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Kraft was a main innovator of processed foods. Coffee can be made artificially and it was included in the soldiers sea rations in WWII. Instant coffee was invented in 1946.
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High-fidelity stereo
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Business people ALWAYS thought that people would not spend the money to get hardware to play music. People began to have a disposable income and would purchase stereos now.
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Television
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It started as a luxury device and was quickly a mass item. The most successful show in the beginning (Sid Caeser) was written by neil simon, woody allen, carl reiner. There were a lot of opera parodies. The shows were live on Saturday nights. Television’s popularity was due to family dramas or situation comedies in the 1950s.
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Videotape Recording
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(1951) This led to pre-recording television shows to air. Before this, if you wanted to have someone famous on the show it it had to be shot live. Now, it allowed you to produce the show over days and you did not have to produce it live.
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Oral Contraceptives
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Theorized in 1946. They were seen as obscene.
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National Defense Education Act
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The US said that it would subsidize the college study of math physics chemistry and foreign languages and as a national security issue this needed to be done. The US said they didn’t even care if the school was religiously affiliated. This would pay off in the future by having more scientists around.
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Xerox
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Photographic paper founded in 1906. Xerox’s first machine in 1949. First plain paper copier in 1959.
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Fortran
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1954… Financed by IBM. A computer language. It allowed you to make portable computer programs.
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Semiconductor
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You would put imperfections in silicon chips like aluminum and when you ran a current through the chip you would dictate where an electron moves and it would give you a yes or a no answer. It also gave you miniaturization. Improved lasers. Since you know the wavelength and the speed of light, if you measure the time you shoot it and the time it takes to bounce back, you are able to make very finite calculations.
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Atomic Energy Commission
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(est. 1946) People understood that nuclear power was coming. It was harder to create explosion than it was to create a sustained reaction. All you had to do is moderate the flux reaction. To slow down the reaction you just added zinc which absorbed all the neutrons. “Atoms for peace”… US Govt allowed nuclear power generation in 1954. The vision was that the us would produce electricity that was too cheap to meter. The main issue was safety and the other issue was waste. The use of nuclear power was abolished in 1974.
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Lasers
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Since you know the wavelength and the speed of light, if you measure the time you shoot it and the time it takes to bounce back, you are able to make very finite calculations. This gave you the CD.
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Rachel Carson
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One of the founders of the environmental movement. Added the third reason why people are environmentalists. It is not a coherent group but they have diverse motives and mostly can all agree that something needs to be done. Carson argues from a scientific perspective. She was arguing against DDT. Argued that the chemicals harmed people. It was mainly a public health issue. Arguing nature and its asthetic benefits.
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Three Mile Island
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In 1979 a gauge malfunction happened. They thought the reactor had too much water but really it had too little.They stopped sending water and the reactor gave off steam with radioactive material. It was almost a nuclear meltdown. After this incident the idea was that the American public was turned against nuclear power.
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Cuba Missile Crisis
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US tried to invade cuba. The Cuban govt wanted nuclear missles and the soviet president thought that JFK was an immature child privelage. The US then found out that the soviets have nuclear missles in cuba. It was not a threat to the US but would be perceived as a military threat. The US stopped any ship going in or out of cuba and searched it for nuclear material between October 11-22 1962. This would possibly start a war. The soviets issued a “launch on attack” order. This was negotiated out in a Washington restaurant. A KGB agent stood in and did negotiations.
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Atmospheric Test Ban
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The Paris Summit was where there was going to be a treaty signed. This came from the Cuban Missle Crisis. There was direct communication etween the US and soviets. The us agreed to take away their missles from turkey and not invade cuba. Soviets took their missiles out of cuba. They then started a treaty that banned the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere.
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Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty
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says GB US and SU wouldn’t share nuclear intelligence with anyone. Other countries were signing saying they would not build nuclear technologies.
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SALT I/ABM Treaty
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Signed 5/20/72 - Nixon went to Moscow. Arms control treaties. SALT 1 and the ABM treaty were signed on the same day. SALT 1 Strategic Arms Launcher Treaty. You can have as many bombs as you want but you can only have a certain number of launchers. The idea was to regulate nuclear weapons. The SU and US also agreed to only have 2 AnitBallistic Missle Sites with the ABM treaty
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SALT II
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(1978)– was to create subcategories that said each side could only have so many subs, planes. The categories were assymetrical. Mayn people argued SALTII gave the SU too many land based missles. The carter doctrine did away with salt II when it was enacted in 1980
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START
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Soviets remove intermediate nuclear forces. Reagan wanted them to remove them. GB and France was not included. Gorbachev endorsed START in 1987 and was hailed as a hero.
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NASA
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Civilian run space program. A cold war tool. The us would use the space race as a cold war tool to advocate its peaceful uses. The program is civilian run even though they may have used test pilots. IT was very successful in creating a propaganda advantage in the Cold War times.
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Environmental Protection Agency
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12/2/70 Congress wanted to regulate. Nixon wanted to extend the powers of the presidency. Nixon wanted more power even to regulate the environement.
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OSHA
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Regulates the workplace. Says how many chems can be used and standards for a healthy workplace. Legal reason for a health inspector.
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CAD(1960s)/CAM(1971 and on)
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A computer predicted that the front landing gear on a plane would collapse. They built a prototype and found out it would collapse. CAM allows a computer to do the same design over and over again exactly the same every time.
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Mosaic
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Netscape 1993. Software program helping you navigate around the internet and allows you to look at everything. The way it was is that you could download it for free and they would ask that you pay for it is you are going to use it commercially.
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Al Gore
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Political entrepreneur in technology. High Performance Computing and Communication Act or the Gore Bill. It opened up the internet to the public.
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Nolan Bushnell
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tried to make an arcade version on space wars. He thought it failed because of its complexity. He then invented pong in 1972 and a home version in 1975
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Bill Gates
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Created M$ in 1975 nad eventually MS-DOS in 1981.He dropped out of Harvard to create M$ and what he did was modify the OS. He eventually caught up with Apple and created Windows 3.1. Gates focused on selling software whereas Jobs focused on selling hardware. Gates would have his software preinstalled on PCs. He made money by selling the software to computer companies.
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Steve Jobs
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Cofounded apple computers (1976) in his garage. Bought the parts from places like radio shack and then designed a better computer. Jobs said he wanted something that was user friendly. Jobs took away the need to type in code to get the computer to work and created a GUI.
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The PC
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Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. IBM joined and created their version of the PC in 1981. Netcscape bridged the gap from personal computer to the network computer.
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Internet
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The military wanted a way to communicate around the world. Internet had 7 computers in 1970. It was opened to the public in 1990-91.
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William Gibson
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Neuromancer
Groundbreaking novel written by Gibson. Preceeds the internet with his book. |
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Ronald Reagan
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Opposed SALT II watnted a military build up a tax cut and a balanced budget. Reagan won the presidency and what he did was anounce that he would want to eliminate nuclear weapons.
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Samuel F. B. Morse
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adapted the telegraph for American use. The older telegraphs were very cumbersome. Morse created a single-circuit device that was able to provide cheap means of communication over a long distance. The telegraph used a composing stick to send electric pulses throughout the circuit. The incoming dots and dashes would be written by a pen triggered by an electromagnet. The recorded dots and dashes were then decoded. Telegraphs ultimately led to the successful expansion and consolidation of railroads.
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I.M. Singer
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Claimed to have perfected the sewing machine. His marketing strategy allowed the Singer Company to become one of the most known companies in the business. Other companies created sewing machines with interchangeable parts and innovate their products; Isaac Singer focused on getting his name out there.
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John Deere
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Offered a plow that required half of the draft that the Prairie Breaker required. The downside to Deere’s product was that it was twice the price of the already expensive Prairie Breaker. When the price dropped Western framers began to purchase the plow in higher numbers.
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Civil War
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The Civil War did not have long term effects on northern industry and agriculture. The South did continue to build up their territory but did not become industrialized until after the war. The aftermath of the war led to industrialization of the South.
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Cyrus McCormick
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McCormick was the leading producer of the nation’s reapers. His reapers were not created through a uniform process and they were never the same or of the best quality. Up until 1850 the reapers were manufactured in McCormick’s Virginia blacksmith shop. He then built a steam-powered factory in Chicago to assemble the reapers but outside contractors were relied on for parts. This eventually led to McCormick having salesman all over the country who were being paid sales commission and had contracts.
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Western Union
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In 1857, the six surviving telegraphy companies split off into six sections. Three of the companies failed because of competition and they were absorbed by the remaining three. These last three formed a company called Western Union.
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Springfield Armory
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Utilized interchangeability on a grand scale in 1847 with its Model 1842 percussion rifle and Model 1841 percussion musket.
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Matthew Brady
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Photographed the Civil War allowing the greatest technological effect of the war. His photographs allowed the country to see the commonalities between the two sides.
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Union Pacific Railroad
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Along with Central Pacific Railroad, Union Pacific Railroad formed the first transcontinental railway. This allowed New York to be commercially connected to its counterpart, San Francisco.
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Bessemer Process
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The Bessemer process was the first industrial method of purifying steel by blowing air through the molten iron. Henry Bessemer used a pear-shaped converter to control the reaction and received a patent form the process and converter in 1856.
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Land Grant College Act
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It was introduced in 1862 by Morrill. It gave each state 30,000 acres to put an institution of higher education on.
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Henry David Thoreau
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He was one of the first supporters of Darwin’s theory of evolution. He was also noted as a naturalist.
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J.W.Gibbs
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Got the 1st Engineering PH.D in America at Yale University. He went to Germany for his research.
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Thomas Edison
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In the decades following the 1840’s many Americans and Europeans tried to invent an incandescent lighting system. Edison announced he was going to do it and everybody else stopped trying. Edison is credited with devising and manufacturing the first incandescent lighting system. In 1878 the Edison Electric Light Company was formed which held the patent rights to Edison’s lighting inventions. Edison competed unfairly with George Westinghouse by saying that AC is only able to be used as an electric chair.
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Alexander Graham Bell
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Invented the first telephonic devices. These devices led to the eventual fall of the telegraph business.
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American Society of Civil Engineers
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The first society established for engineers. The ASCE formed numerous committees to investigate the national standards of practice and standardized methods. They sought to create a nationwide standard but rarely were they able to make a nationwide change.
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John D. Rockefeller
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President/ CEO of Standard Oil gradually gained almost complete control of oil refining and marketing in the United States. At that time, many legislatures had made it difficult to incorporate in one state and operate in another. As a result, Rockefeller and his associates owned separate corporations across dozens of states, making their management of the whole enterprise rather unwieldy. In 1882, Rockefeller's lawyers created an innovative form of corporation to centralize their holdings, giving birth to the Standard Oil Trust. The "trust" was a corporation of corporations, and the entity's size and wealth drew much attention. Despite improving the quality and availability of kerosene products while greatly reducing their cost to the public (the price of kerosene dropped by nearly 80% over the life of the company) Standard Oil's business practices created intense controversy.
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George Westinghouse
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Developed an AC incandescent lighting system to rival Edison’s DC system. By 1892 more than 1000 AC central stations were in operation. Westinghouse also invented the air brake, and a mechanism to allow derailed cars to get back on the tracks.
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Radio
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In its early stages, radio was meant to rival the success of the telephone. Lee De Forest created a three element vacuum system also known as a triode. This system took the place of the diode because it was able to amplify the radio waves better.
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John Hopkins University
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Used the German format of schooling and was setup in the mid-1870s as an experiment in higher education. The faculty was encouraged to spend more time doing original research than they were teaching.
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General Electric
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Sold its first polyphase system in 1894. It had 3 phases. One of them was at a higher voltage to circumvent the Tesla patent. GE and Westinghouse pooled their patents for 15 years. This allowed GE access to Tesla’s patents.
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RCA
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British Marconi’s American subsidiary. After WWI it was sold to GE and the name was changed to Radio Corporation of America. RCA sold GE radio products.
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Industrial Research
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Industries employed engineers to conduct research. The researchers were encouraged to investigate natural phenomena and not to only improve production.
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Skyscrapers
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A municipal building for built from reinforced concrete. The first skyscrapers were built in the mid-1880s.
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Spectator Sports
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Spectator sports rose in the 1880s to 1890s and required special stadia or fields be built. These were paid for mostly by the spectators. The rationale was that the athletes were worth watching because they were so good.
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Barbed Wire
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Barbed wire was invented in 1874. People bought cattle to sell them to a railhead where there were usually people willing to buy cows Barbed wire was very cheap and allowed fence building in areas without trees.
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City Planning
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Chicago had first comprehensive city plan- Burnham Plan: laid out streets, sewers, and everything
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Automobiles
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They were a European invention and came in three flavors; Steam, Electric, and Internal combustion. Steam accelerated smoothly but stated slowly and required a lot of water. Electric were simple and quiet but their batteries were large and didn’t allow them a long range. ICE had a long range and started immediately but were tough to repair and noisy.
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Thomas Eakins
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A realist artist.
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John Muir
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An American naturalist supporter of conservation of U.S. wilderness. He directly helped to save the Yosemite Valley. He founded The Sierra Club. He strongly influenced the formation of the modern environmental movement. Muir wanted to preserve things forever.
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Gifford Pinchot
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Pinchot is known for reforming the management and development of forests in the United States and for advocating the conservation of the nation's reserves by planned use and renewal. Pinchot coined the term conservation ethic as applied to natural resources. Pinchot was a heavy influence on Roosevelt.
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Motion Pictures
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Edison Film Viewer created a new niche for income and profit. It allowed people to make money from producing films.
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Sierra Club
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The Sierra Club was formed in 1892 as the nation’s first environmentalist group. Its first president was John Muir. Muir is also accredited with its creation.
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