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Eugene Victor Debs
Debs was born in 1855 in Indiana. He was one of the founding members of the Industrial Workers of the World. In 1895 he created a utopian community then in 1901 helped form the Socialist Party of America. Debs ran for president under the SPA twice getting 6% of common vote the first time in 1912 then a million votes in 1920 because he of his veiws against involvment in WW!. He died on October 20, 1926 http://dig.lib.niu.edu/gildedage/pullman/events4.html -
Period: to
Industrial Revolution from 1855-1914
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Mary "Mother Jones" Harris
An Irish immigant born in the 1830s, who became involved in the union movement after her shop was destroyed in the Chicago fire in 1871. Mother Jones was involved in the rail strike of 1877, helping organize the coal strikes in Pennsylvania in 1899 at the Industrial Workers of the World founding convention, visiting Mexico in 1911, getting arrested in Homestead in 1919, and working with dressmakers in 1924. http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/jones/MotherJones.html -
Bessemer Process
In 1856 Bessemer patened the process of refinery. He made it so one could produce 30 tons of high grade steel in half an hour using a large container with an open top that refined the substance into very strong steel. http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Bessemer_process.html
http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/bessemer.html -
Edwin Drake strikes oil!
After drilling only 69.5 feet into the ground Drake struck oil. By the time he hit oil the company Seneca Oil had given up hope on him finding oil so they stopped funding him and he was paying for his search for oil out of his own pocket and help from friends. Once he struck oil he would fill 20-40 barrels of oil a day. http://www.pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/DrakeOilWell.html -
Christopher Sholes and CO invent the Typewriter
Working closely with Carlos Glidden and Samual W. Souls, Christopher Sholes invented the typewriter. On the typewriter the third row of keys was now the still used QWERTY order. Late in Sholes life he added shift keys to the typewriter before he retired. http://pabook.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/bios/Sholes__Christopher.html -
Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
On May 10th, 1869 a golden spike was hit into the ground connecting the Union Pacific Railroad and the Central Pacific Railroad. The unification of the two railroads ment there now was a continuous railroad crossing the nation. http://www.calisphere.universityofcalifornia.edu/themed_collections/subtopic2b.html -
Credit Mobilier Scandle
Credit Mobilier was a company in charge of building the Union Pacific Railroad and was backed by the President and members of congress. The companies job of building the railroad was essencial to the country by expanding to the west. Credit Mobilier took advantage of the investors and charged double the price of laying down the rails and would repeat "building" sections of the railroad just in order to bilk the investors.
http://lawlibraryblog.seattleu.edu/2010/02/18/legalhistory-2/ -
Alex Graham Bell and his "Electrical Spreech Machine"
Alexander Graham Bell worked with the education deaf people leading to his invention of the Microphone the in 1876 the invention of the "Electrrical Speech Machine" or more commonly known as the Telephone. In 1878 Bell set up in New Haven, CT the first telephone exchange and in 1884 a long distance connection between Boston, MA and New York City. http://fi.edu/franklin/inventor/bell.html -
Munn v. Illinois
The case was about whether the government should be able to regulate grain elevator rates when, for business intrests, used for public goods. The Supreme Court ruled it did not violate the 14th Amendment so the government could if the private company could be seen as working in public intrest. http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Munn_v._Illinois.html -
Thomas Edison invents the Lightbulb!
In the year 1878 the great inventor Thomas Alva Edison sometimes known as the "The Wizard of Menlo Park" invented the light bulb. The first light bulb was made from a thin strip of paper attached to wires inside a vacum sealed glass bulb. When an electrical current is sent to the paper the paper ignites and elluminates the light bulb, It took Edison until 1897 to figure out to use a carbonized cotton thread instead of the paper for a longer period of light. http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/edison -
Haymarket Riot
Riots in Chicago's Haymarket Square broke out in reaction to police brutality during a strike for eight-hour workdays at the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company. The strike became a violent riot when a bomb was tossed into the crowd. The results of the riot were the deaths of seven policemen and an unknown number of protesters. Eventually in 1938 workdays in the United States were made eight hours long. http://dwardmac.pitzer.edu/Anarchist_Archives/haymarket/haymarkethistory.html -
Interstate Commerce Act
The public demanded to congress to regulate railroad operations. Railroad companies after the Civil War were unregulated privatly owned businesses that held monopolies in the areas that they were in. The Intrsate Cmmerce Act put a five person board in place to regulate the railroad companies called the Interstate Commerce Commission. http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=49 -
Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act eliminated trusts in the United States. A Trust is a relationship in which one or more people own an individuals property and protect it for the benifit of others. The Sherman Antitrust Act included seven sections laying down laws and limitations preventing trusts. http://www.stern.nyu.edu/networks/ShermanClaytonFTC_Acts.pdf -
John D. Rockefeller
Born 1839 in New York, died 1937. John D. Rockefeller joined his brother William and established Andrews & Flagler which became the largest oil company in the world. The company was renamed Standard Oil and during the 1870s aquired competing oil companies to eliminate the compatition. The monopoly over the oil refining business led to the establishment of the Interstate Commerce Commission and Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/utcah/03018/cah-03018.html -
Homestead Strike
The workers striking's goal was to keep Carnegie Steel from disbanding the union, cutting wages, and scaling back workers' control in the workplace. Eventually the strikers returned to work after a mainly unsuccessful strike. The strike would though inspire workers across the nation to see the violence of the state towards a break in organized labor. http://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/us-homestead-steel-workers-strike-protect-unions-and-wages-1892 -
Pullman Strike
Qver four thousand Pullman Palace Car Company workers went on strike along with the American Railroad Union(ARU) looking for better wages and better working conditions. The strikers refused to let any railroad car to move on the tracks. Eventually troops were brought in because of the governers plee for assistance, leding to riots and the end of the strike. The signifigance was it was the first government involvment in a strike. http://www.lib.niu.edu/1994/ihy941208.html -
John Pierpont Morgan
Born in 1839, died in 1913. Morgan inherited his fathers business making him one of the nations weathiest men and leading philanthropist. President Cleveland was forced to deal with J.P. Morgan on saving the United States Gold Reserve. Morgan would buy bonds from the US in exchange for 62 million dollars worth of European gold. This deal made President Cleveland very unpopular even though it saved the United States Gold Reserve. http://projects.vassar.edu/1896/morganbonds.html -
Wilbur and Orville Wright
Wilbur Wright and Orville wright, brothers in Kitty Hawk ,North Caroina became the first to acheive a conrolled flight with a piloted craft heavier than air. Working out of their bike shop, the Wright Brothers built gliders working up to their eventual achievement of powered flight. http://airandspace.si.edu/wrightbrothers/index_full.cfm
http://www.fi.edu/flight/own2/challenge-wright.html
http://invention.psychology.msstate.edu/i/Wrights/WrightUSPatent/WrightPatent.html -
Lochner v. New York
New York state law stated that a baker could not work over ten hours a day and no more than sixty hours a week. This law was put into question and brought to the Supreme Court to judge whether or not it was constitutional. The case raised questions on whether the state should regulate hours, wages, and working conditions. The Supreme Court ruled the law was unconstitutional but the case led to a large step in changing state regulation on businesses. http://www.kansaspress.ku.edu/kenloc.html -
Mr. Henry Ford
Henry Ford founded the Ford Motor Company in 1903 and became the first licensed motor company not part of ALAM which would own parts of the motor companies. Ford made the Model T which was a car for the people that was made on a production line. Henry Ford would pay his workers five dollars a day which was in most cases double the normal rate of pay therefore leading to Ford being hailed as a great humanitarian. http://net.lib.byu.edu/estu/wwi/bio/f/ford.html
