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Petroleum Industry
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)New distilling methods transformed a thick, smelly liquid called petroleum into kerosene for lighting lamps, oil for lubricating machinery, and paraffin for making candles. New drilling techniques began to tap vast pools of petroleum belowground. Frenchman Etienne Lenior constructed the first practical internal combustion engine. After 1900 new vehicles turned the oil business into a major industry (p. 503). -
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The Boom-and-Bust Cycle
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)The practices of big business subjected the economy to enormous disruptions. The banking system couldn't keep up with demand for capital. The supply of goods periodically got the best of them. The three severe depressions set in: 1873-1879, 1882-1885, and 1893-1897. With three hard times came fierce competition as managers searched frantically for ways to cut costs (p. 516). -
Knights of Labor
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)Uriah Stephens and nine Philadelphia garment cutters founded the Noble and Holy Order of the Knights of Labor. They draped themselves in ritual and regalia to deepen their sense of solidarity and met in secret to evade hostile owners. The radical Knights of Labor looked to abolish the wage system. In its place they wanted to construct a cooperative economy of worker-owned mines, factories, and railroads. by 1890, the Knights of Labor veered towards extinction (p. 522). -
Alexander Graham Bell: Invention of telephone
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)The second invention in communication, the telephone, was vastly improved. Bell came upon his ways of teaching the deaf when he began experimenting with ways to transmit speech electrically. President Hayes was the first to install a telephone in the White House in 1878. The telephone patent was said to be the most valuable ever granted (p. 505). -
Great Railroad Strike
The country's first nationwide strike opened an era of confrontation between labor and management. When the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad cut wages by 20 percent, a crew in Martinsburg, West Virginia, seized the local depot and blocked the line. President Hayes sent federal troops to enforce a court oder ending the strike, but instead two-thirds of the nation's tracks shut down in sympathy (p. 523). -
Standard Oil Company: nation's first trust
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)Under the trust, the stockholders of corporations surrendered their shares "in trust" to a central board of directors with the power to control all property. In exchange, stockholders received certificates of trust that paid hefty dividends. Because it did not literally own other companies, the trust violated no state law. The Standard Oil Company of Ohio formed the country's first great trust. It brought Rockefeller what he desired so freely--centralized management of the oil industry (p. 513). -
Haymarket Square Riot
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)A group of anarchists were protesting the recent killing of workers by police at the McCormick Harvester Company. As rain soaked the small crowd, policed armed with billy clubs and pistols ordered everyone out of the square. Suddenly a bomb was thrown into the procession of police. One officer was killed; 5 others were mortally wounded. The police opened fire, the crowd fired back. Before the scuffle ended, nearly 70 policemen were injured, and at least 4 civilians died (p. 525). -
Sherman Antitrust Act
[Experience History: Interpreting America's Past](Davidson, DeLay, Heyrman, Lytle, & Stoff)The Sherman Antitrust Act relied on the only constitutional authority the federal government had over business: its right to regulate interstate commerce. The act outlawed "every contract, combination in the form of trust or otherwise, or conspiracy, in restraint of trade or commerce." The act did give the government the power to break up trusts and other big businesses (p.515).
