Bessemer Process
developed by Henry Bessemer, a process used to turn iron to steel
Thomas Alva Edison
established the world's 1st research lab, invented the light bulb, established power plants to generate electricity
Edwin L. Drake
1st person to use the steam engine to drill oil
Christopher Sholes
invented the typewriter
Alexander Graham Bell
invented the telephone
transcontinental railroad
completed in 1869, railroad that crossed the entire country
George M. Pullman
invented the sleeping cars for trains and built a town to house his workers
Credit Mobilier
construction company involved in a well-known case of corruption in the railroad industry
Munn v. Illinois
(1877) United States Supreme Court Case that ended up allowing states to regulate business within their borders, including railroads
Interstate Commerce Act
passed by Congress, gave the federal govt. authority to regulate railroad activities
Andrew Carnegie
Scottish immigrant became a giant in the steel industry using vertical & horizontal integration
vertical integration
buying out companies that supplied raw materials (iron &steel)
horizontal integration
buying out or merging with other steel companies
Social Darwinism
supported the ideas of competition, hard work, and responsibility
John D. Rockefeller
robber baron who was the head of the Standard Oil Company, he had
Sherman Antitrust Act
law that made it illegal to form a trust
Samuel Gompers
formed the AFL, he used strikes and collective bargaining to win higher wages and shorter workweeks for workers
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
union started by Samuel Gompers
Eugene V. Debs
leader of the American Railway Union ARU, he believed in industrial unionism
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
a union of radicals and socialists
Mary Harris Jones (Mother Jones)
organized the United Mine Workers for better working conditions
George Westinghouse
developed ways to make electricity safer and less expensive
Haymarket Affair
In Chicago in 1886, a union protest resulted in about 100 dead after an unknown person threw a bomb, and police opened fire on the crowd. Union disruption.