Chapter 17 Flashcards
Alexander Graham Bell
discovered that if a person were to speak into a vibrating set of reeds, it created
a fuctuating current that could, at the other end of an electronic wire, be turned back
into the same sound through another set of tuned reeds, organized the Bell Telephone Company and the telephone became essential to everyday life
Before the telephone was invented, what did Edison invent?
produced both a diplex and a
quadruplex that could send two messages simultaneously each way on a single wire,
greatly increasing the value of every telegraph line in the nation and securing Edison’s
fame and fortune
What else did Edison invent?
electric light bulb, established an independent research laboratory at Menlo Park,
New Jersey, he tinkered with ways to record a human voice and music.
George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla
found that alternating current was a much more efficient way to transmit electricity than
the direct current that Edison used.
Frank J. Sprague
introduced the first electric streetcar
General Electric
Founded in 1892, General Edison Electric Company merged with a rival to create it, helped create electric things like moving screens
Independent manufacturers began toying with what?
gasoline-powered vehicles, putting a gasoline engine on bicycles or carriages, which
led to automobiles
Henry Ford
Revolutionized production of vehicles, his invention of the assembly line that made possible the
mass-production of cars at reasonable cost.
Gilded Age
Term applied to America in the late 1800s
that refers to the shallow display and worship
of wealth characteristic of the period
Jay Cooke
Most powerful banker in the US but almost destroyed the nations economy
How did Cooke hurt the economy?
Cooke financed the Northern Pacific Railroad, telling European investors that a rail line from Duluth, Minnesota, to the Pacific coast would connect the world’s breadbasket to shipping across the Pacific and across the Atlantic. The end of the seemingly faraway Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871) caused world grain
prices to drop precipitously as European countries produced more of their own wheat.
The result was further reduced profit on the rail lines that hauled American wheat. This hurt the Railroad and caused Cookes Company to go bankrupt
What did Cookes situation lead to?
Panic of 1873- A major economic downturn, launched when the country’s leading financier, Jay Cooke, went bankrupt during which thousands lost their jobs and from which thecountry took years to recover
Cornelius Vanderbuilt
created a steamboat empire, first in New York Harbor, and then around the world. He controlled the transit to California, which was more profitable than finding gold there.
What did Vanderbuilt do to railroads?
He bought them and created new way to manage them like trains that ran on schedule
were less likely to collide, and trains that ran on well-laid tracks were less likely to
derail.
Vanderbuilt and the New York & Harlem Railroad
Improved its tracks, carts, service and purchased the connecting Hudson River Railroad. He became the richest man in American due o controlling this
Daniel Drew, along with Jay Gould and Jim Fisk
known as corporate pirates who extracted wealth from companies
How did Gould and Fisk corner the nations gold supply?
they convinced President Grant to appoint Daniel Butterfield to the key treasury post overseeing the nation’s gold supply. They then bribed Butterfield to join in their conspiracy. As they kept buying and hoarding gold, the price kept going up and up because of the demand they were creating
How was this stopped?
Grant ordered the government
to sell up to $4 million in gold, bringing the price back down. Many peoples investments in gold were ruined, but the pirates were ok.
John Rockefeller
Found new ways to make money from oil. He focused on refining the oils that others produced from the ground instead of digging himself. Rockefeller built a refinery in Cleveland where he could take advantage of nearby supplies of crude oil and get his products to market by using Great Lakes shipping
How did Rockefeller dominate Cleveland refining market?
Kept his products nice and low price, and brought in a partner Henry M.
Flagler that helped him sell oil quicker
How did Rockefeller-Flagle dominate the oil business?
Bought out competition becoming the Standard Oil Company, went into direct
competition, cutting prices, until the competitor either sold to Standard Oil or went out of business.
Standard Oil Trust
Rockefeller-Flagle corporation, to buy up virtually every other refinery in the nation.
Horizontal Integration
All oil companies merged to the Standard Oil Company
Who paid someone to serve as his substitute in the Union army?
Rockefeller and Carnegie
How did Carnegie get his start on steel?
Didnt join the army, invested in steel, and persuaded several investors to join him in opening a new state-of-the-art steel mill just outside Pittsburgh.
Why did Carnegie benefit from starting a mill in Pennsylvania?
Pittsburgh was near the coal fields, and steel mills used a lot of coal. Also near rivers and competing railroad lines, so no one rail line could squeeze Carnegie’s profit
How did Carnegie set out to dominate steel business?
He found ways to track and cut costs,
replaced wood buildings with iron ones, he developed an assembly line approach to steel production, he constantly updated and replaced equipment, bought everything needed for the steel business, from the coal
mines to the coke ovens that prepared fuel to the iron mines that produced iron ore.
He purchased railroads and steamships to transport the coal and ore to Pittsburgh.
In addition, he did whatever was needed to keep workers’ salaries as low as possible.
vertical integration
The consolidation of numerous production
functions, from the extraction of the raw
materials to the distribution and marketing
of the finished products, under the direction
of one firm. Carnegie Steel was under this which made Carnegie rich
Rich men who dominated companies then did what?
Pursued in politician roles and established trusts as they replaced competition with easier and more profitable coordination
John Pierpont Morgan
the banker that everyone else, including the richest industrialists and often the U.S. government, looked to.
Morgans company J.P. Morgan & Company. did what?
sold reconditioned army rifles
back to the federal government at a considerable profit, worked with European bank and Morgan helped finance the transcontinental railroad in the United States and the Suez Canal in the Middle East, using his skill and formidable resources, Morgan helped pick up the pieces of the American economy
How did Morgan settle the competitors New York Central and the
Pennsylvania Railroad owners?
Invited both directors on his yacht until they settled for an agreement
What was their agreement?
better organization and higher prof ts for both lines, especially for stockholders and
directors like Morgan himself
As depression was happening in 1893, what were investors doing?
Withdrawing gold held in US banks which almost bankrupted the US government
What solution did Morgan have for President Cleveland about the gold issue?
He then offered $65 million in gold in return for 30-year government bonds.
did this solution work?
Yes, European bankers who had lost faith in the United States had faith in Morgan. They bought the bonds and stopped demanding payments in gold
