An Industrial Society

1
Chapter 6

• An Industrial Society

2
Petroleum

• an oily, flammable liquid

3
transcontinental railroad

• a railroad that spanned an entire continent.

4
corporation

• a business owned by investors who buy part of the
  company through shares of stock.

5
Patent

• a government document giving an inventor the
  exclusive right to make or sell his or her
  invention for a specific number of years

6
standard time

• a system adopted in 1918 that divided the United
  States into four time zones

7
monopoly

• a company that eliminates its competitors and
  controls an industry

8
What caused the steel industry to boom and why?

• The development of the Bessemer steel process
  caused the steel industry to boom because it
  substantially cut the cost of making steel

9
Alexander Graham Bell

• a teacher for deaf students who invented the
  telephone.

10
Business cycle

• a pattern of good times and bad times in the
  economy.

11
philanthropist

• a person who gives large sums of money to
  charities

12
How did the government encourage the building of
the railroad?

• The government encouraged the building of
  railroads by giving railroad companies 20 miles
  of land for every mile of track built.

13
sweat shop

• a place where workers labored long hard hours
  under poor conditions for low wages

14
Gilded Age

• an era during the late 1800s of fabulous wealth.
  This meant that the extreme wealth of a few
  people could overshadow some problems in our
  society like corrupt politics and widespread
  poverty

15
Bessemer Steel Process

• a new (cheaper) way of making steel that was
  developed in the 1850s and caused steel
  production to soar

16
robber baron

• business leader who became wealthy through
  dishonest methods.

17
Why was this time period called the Gilded Age?

• This was called the Gilded Age because the few
  people who were really wealthy (this represented
  the thin layer of gold) covered up the problems
  with the rest of our society like poverty,
  corrupt officials, etc. (this represents the ugly
  metal of the fake jewelry)

18
Thomas Edison

• an inventor who invented the electric light bulb,
  phonograph, moving picture viewer, and over 1000
  other inventions in his Menlo Park, New Jersey
  lab.

19
socialism

• an economic system in which all members of a
  society are equal owners of all businesses
  members share the work and the profits

20
John D. Rockefeller

• a leader in the oil industry who was able to
  control much of the oil refining in the United
  States through methods that were unethical. He
  later became a philanthropist and donate over
  500 million to help the public

21
scabs

• strikebreakers

22
What hardships did workers face in the late 1800s?

• The hardships faced by workers in the late 1800s
  were low wages, long hours, and unsafe conditions.

23
union

• An organization that tried to help workers gain
  more rights, better wages, shorter hours and
  safer working conditions.

24
Andrew Carnegie

• A leader in the steel industry who was successful
  because he was able to gain control of all the
  processes related to making steel. He later
  became a philanthropist and donate over 350
  million to help the public