Inventions

1
Chapter 19-2

• Inventions

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Communication Changes

• Inventions in communication improved and
  transformed American life. They helped unify
  different regions and encouraged economic growth.
• Samuel Morse introduced the telegraph in 1844.
  By 1860 the Western Union Telegraph Company
  controlled the thousands of miles of lines.
  Telegrams offered instant communication. They
  were used by shopkeepers to place orders,
  reporters to send stories to their newspapers and
  people to send personal messages.
• Cyrus Field in 1866 laid a telegraph cable across
  the Atlantic Ocean , linking the United States
  and Europe with his new transatlantic telegraph.
• Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in
  1876. It changed communication more than the
  telegraph did. By the 1890s he sold hundreds of
  thousands of telephones first to businesses and
  then to homes.

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The Genius of Invention

• Between 1860 and 1890, the United States
  government granted more than 400,000 patents for
  new inventions. Among these were thee typewriter
  in 1868, the adding machine in 1888, and the
  vacuum cleaner in 1899.
• Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, the Motion
  Picture projector, the telephone transmitter, the
  storage battery, and the most important
  invention, the electric light bulb in 1879. he
  designed power plants that could produce electric
  power and distribute it to light bulbs. He built
  the first central electric power plant in 1882 in
  new York City that lit 85 buildings.
• In 1885 George Westinghouse built transformers
  that could send electric power more cheaply over
  longer distances. Electricity was used to power
  factories, trolleys, streetlights, and lamps all
  over America.
• Inventions by African Americans helped improve
  industry. Some of these inventions are Lewis
  Howard Latimer developed an improved filament for
  the light bulb and joined Edisons company,
  Granville Woods patented dozens of inventions
  such as the electric incubator, electromagnetic
  brake for the railroad, and an automatic circuit
  breaker. Elijah McCoy invented a mechanism for
  oiling machinery and Jan E. Matzeliger developed
  a shoe-making machine that revolutionized the
  shoe industry in America and overseas.

4
A Changing Society

• In 1903 Henry Ford established an auto-making
  company and began designing cars. He had
  experimented with an automobile engine powered by
  gasoline. He and his general superintendent,
  Charles Sorenson, worked on an idea for a new
  type of car, and in 1908 introduced the Model T.
• The Model T was a car that anyone could afford,
  that could be driven anywhere, and that was
  easily maintained. It became very popular. In
  the next 18 years, 15 million were sold.
• Ford also pioneered the assembly line as a less
  expensive way to manufacture cars. The assembly
  line revolutionized industry because the concept
  was used in manufacturing other goods, too. It
  enabled manufacturers to mass- produce large
  quantities of good more quickly.

5
Discussion Questions

• How did the Model T revolutionize transportation
  in the early 1900s?
• The Model T offered a new way for people to get
  from place to place. It was practical,
  affordable and sturdy.
• What do you think spurred people on to create new
  inventions?
• America was transforming into an industrial
  nation. Opportunity existed in America. These
  inventors probably liked to tinker and create
  ways to improve things or make things work more
  efficiently.
• How did the telegraph and telephone change
  America?
• They provided faster ways of communicating.
  People in different regions could communicate
  almost instantly. This improved communication
  promoted industrial and economic growth.
  Eventually they became commonplace in peoples
  everyday lives.