How Technological Advancements Changed American Society and Culture 1865-1929 (VCM)
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The Civil War and Reconstruction
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First Patented Refrigerated Railcar
J.B. Sutherland from Detroit, Michigan was the given the first patent for a refrigerated rail car in 1967. While investment into these expensive rail cars was apprehensive they would completely change the way produce was moved across the country. The demand for these first refrigerated rail cars were slow because they were expensive and railroad companies had already heavily invested into cattle cars, stock yards, and feed lots to move cattle because of the perish-ability of raw meat. -
Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
The Golden Spike was driven at Promontory, Utah signaling the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. The American East and West was finally connected, this development would completely change the way produce and people would move across America. The completion of this railroad would create new opportunities by making the American West easily accessible.
Corbett, U.S. History, Chapter 17 -
Alexander Graham Bell Receives First Patent for the Telephone
1876 Alexander Bell makes the first telephone in Boston. The telephone is one of the defining improvements in communications technology. The invention of the telephone revolutionized communications It allowed people to communicate with efficiency and in real time across large distances. The telephone established a foundation for further improvements in the field and the following year The Bell Telephone Company would be founded.
Corbett, U.S. History, Chapter 18 -
First Recoil Operated Machine Gun
In 1883 Hiram Maxim created a Recoil Operated Machine Gun in London, while the Gatlin Gun is largely considered the first automatic machine it was really manually operated by a hand crank. The Maxim Gun was truly an automatic machine gun that utilized the recoil of the previous shot making continuous firing possible without manual operation. This machine gun was mainly used in the colonial wars but created a lasting relationship between America and Maxim. -
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The Progressive Movement
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First Motor Driven Airplane
In 1903 near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina the Wright brothers, Orville and Wilbur, made the first successful flight in a gasoline-powered biplane. While the flight was in no way lengthy, lasting only 12 seconds, it would help develop a new theater for transportation: the skies. This flight set the foundation to completely change the way civilians would transport goods and themselves and it would completely change the way warfare was conducted with aerial capabilities. -
1904 Model Maxim Machine Gun
While this was not the first Machine Gun that Maxim developed, the 1904 model would be the first rifle caliber heavy machine gun adopted for regular use by the United States Army. While this gun was not widely used it would lead The United States, Mostly because it was produced in England, it would lead the United States to look inward requisitioning Colt Firearms to develop an American made machine gun to be used by the United States Army. -
Henry Ford's Assembly Line
At this time cars were too expensive for the masses to own, they were usually custom made and very expensive. Henry Ford's goal was to make an automobile that the multitude could afford, but this goal was more than just producing a single car. Ford realized that he had to decrease the cost namely by making interchangeable parts, parts that would be produced the same each time, and in the process he created the first moving assembly line in Detroit Michigan. -
First Long Distance Call
On January 25, 1915 the first Transcontinental Telephone call between Alexander Bell in New York,Thomas Watson in San Francisco, Theodore Vail in Jekyll Island, Georgia, and President Woodrow Wilson from the White House. This was another huge leap for communications technology allowing people from all over the United States to more efficiently communicate with each other in real time. -
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The Jazz Age
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The First Trans-Atlantic Radio-Telephone Conversation
On January 7, 1927 The First Transatlantic Telephone Call was completed between The President of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, W.S. Gifford, completed a call to Sir Evelyn P. Murray, Secretary of the General Post Office of Great Britain. This is another monumental step in Communications Technology connected people around the world in real time which would more efficiently allow civilians and military members communicate.
