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First oil well is drilled
This took place for the first time in Titusville, Pennsylvania, and Edwin L. Drake was the one who drilled the well. This became known as the “Drake Well” method, a system essentially still used today. Drake's drill bit found oil at a depth of 69.5 feet. -
Transcontinental Railroad is completed
In Promontory, Utah a ceremonial last spike was driven into the railroad. This officially linked both sides of the country, allowing safe cross-country travel/goods transportation and connecting the civilized east with the wild west. -
Rockefeller founds Standard Oil
John D. Rockefeller and Henry Flager established the Standard Oil Company as a corporation in Ohio. Standard Oil was very important at the time because it was an American oil producing, transporting, refining, marketing company, and creating monopolies. -
Bell patents telephone
Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone which led to him creating the telephone. The telephone revolutionized the way people communicate with one another by allowing people to instantly and effectively talk to each other over long distances. -
First telephone in White House
President Rutherford B. Hayes has the first telephone installed into the white house. It was put into the telegraph room. This came a little over a year after Alexander Graham Bell transmitted the first message over the telephone. -
Edison perfects incandescent light bulb
Edison and his team of researchers in Edison's laboratory in Menlo Park, N.J., tested more than 3,000 designs for bulbs between 1878 and 1880. He got the perfect one by 1879. It worked by passing electricity through a thin platinum filament in the glass vacuum bulb, which delayed the filament from melting. -
Railroads set up standard time zones
With cross-country travel now in existence, there came confusion with the time from the destination to the starting point, so the country was divided into 4 time zones. This bold move came from the powerful railroad owners in order to create a more uniform and efficient way of railroad travel. -
First electric trolley line, Richmond, VA
Frank Julian Sprague invented a system on Streetcars for collecting electricity from overhead wires. His spring-loaded trolley pole used a wheel to travel along the wire. Regular service of the first electric trolley started with car No. 23 running along 17th Street, operated by R.L. Gordon. -
Sherman Antitrust Act is passed: July 2, 1890
This act approved by the Federal government was the first of its kind, outlawing monopolistic business practices. The law prohibits contracts, combinations, or conspiracies “in the restraint of trade or commerce.” -
Carnegie Steel Company is formed
Once in business, Carnegie’s innovative manufacturing techniques and strategies earned him high profits and made his mill one of the most productive and most efficient. -
J.P. Morgan forms U.S. Steel
J. P. Morgan and attorney Elbert H. Gary founded U.S. Steel by combining Andrew Carnegie's Carnegie Steel Company with Gary's Federal Steel Company and William Henry "Judge" Moore's National Steel Company for $492 million.
