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Bessemer Process
Bessemer patented the Besemer Converter. The Bessemer Converter was the first process used to mass produce steel. It was named after Sir Henry Bessemer, but the idea was concieved by William Kelly at the same time. This process aims to remove impurities from pig iron through means of an air blast. Both Kelly and Bessemer were able to use this invention, but Bessemer was the only of the two that provided it for mass production. The process was later improved and renamed by others. -
Edwin Drake
Edwin Drake begins drilling for oil, soon discovering he was unable to continue drilling from a borehole so close to the surface because of loose rock. He solved this problem by drilling pipe into the ground until rock was hit and continuing to drill until the depth hit 69 feet. This revolutionary oil drilling teqnique caused Titusville and other surroung communities to grow. -
J.P. Morgan
J.P. Morgan becomes the Agent for his father's banking company. This company is centered in New York. This was the beginning of Morgan's very ong and successful career. -
Christopher Sholes
Christopher Sholes is granted a patent for the typewriter. With the help of Samuel W. Soulé and Carlos Glidden, Sholes created this device and lter gathered two more patents for improvements made later on. -
Transcontinental Railroad
The Transcontinental Railroad is completed. Two companies were hired to build a rairoad across the United States-the Transcontinental Railroad-and they were to each get 12,800 acres of land and $48,000 for every mile the two companies built. The two companies were the Union PacificRailroad and the Central Pacific Railroad. This railroad decreast the cost to travel across the country. -
John D. Rockefeller
John Rockefeller established Standard Oil. Standard Oil controlled about 90% of US refineries and pipelines by the early 1800's. -
Credit Mobilier Scandal
New York Sun breaks story about Credit Mobilier Scandal. Sokholders in the Union Pacific Railroad created a company named the Crédit Mobilier of America. They then gave it contracts to build the railroad. Shares were then given and sold to congressmen. these congressmen profited from this because the approved federal subsidies without paying attention to expenses, allowing railroad builders to gain large profits. -
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell transmits speech for the first time. He said to his assistant, Thomas Watson, "Mr. Watson-come here-I want to see you". This was the beginning of the telephone. -
Munn v. Illinios
The Supreme Court hears the Appeal. The court decided that private buisinesses are subject to state regulations as long as they serve the public. This was a very important case in the struggle for public regulation of private enterprise. -
Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison first unveils the Phonograph. This invention is what proppels Edison into fame. He gets much acclaim for the rovolutionary device and is dubbed the "Wizard of Melno Park". Edison will later go on to collect a record 1,093 patents for various advances in the field of electricity. -
Haymarket Riot
The Haymarket Riot, also known as the Haymarket Affair and the Haymarket Massacre, occurs. The riot was a conflict between police and loabour protestors that turned violent. During a peaceful protest in Haymarket Square, Chicago, a bomb is thrown and police respond by opening fire. Seven police officers were killed and 60 injured. There was an estimated four to eight civillian casualties and 30 to 40 injured. This event would later become a symbol of the struggles of workers. -
Interstate Commerce Act
Congress passes the Interstate Commerce Act. This act created an Interstate Commerce Commision charged with overseeing the conduct of the railroad industry. Bucause of this act, the railroad industry becomes the first industry to be subjected to Federal regulation. -
Sherman Antitrust Act
The Sherman Antitrust Act is approved by U.S. Congress. This was the first Federal act that prohibited monopollstic buisiness acts. -
Homestead Strike
The Homestead Strike or Homestead Riot occurs. The Homestead Strike was a violent labour dispute between the Carnegie Steel Company and its workers. After being fired before the contract with the steel company had ended, union workers were furious. They stormed the plant they were previosly working at and fought Pinkerton Agents-private security guards-for twelve hours before the Pinkertons surrendered. About three Pinkertons and seven workers were killed during this event. -
Eugene Debs
Eugene Debs becomes president of the American Railway Union. This union was the first to successfully bring together railway workers from different crafts. -
Pullman Strike
President Grover Cleavland and Congress declare a national holiday, Labor Day, in an effort to placate workers in the American Labor Movement. The Pullman Strike was the first time and injunction was used to break a stike. -
Mother Jones
Mother Jones co founds the Social Democratic Party. She was also one of the founders of the Industrial Workers of the World, later, in 1905. -
Henry Ford
Henry Ford established the Ford Motor Company.The company prduced the first Model T five years later. Ford also later (1913) created the first moving assembly line in an attenpt to produce enough cars to meet the demand. Henry Ford made various influential discoveries and created many inventions still, in some ways used today in the morter vehicle industry. -
Wright Brothers
The Wright brothers fly. This is the first time that a michine havier than air demonstrated powered and sustained flight. It was also the first time a machine such as this was under the complete control of the pilot. The first airplanes would later be sold and distributed to many buisinesses. -
Lochner v. NY Decision
The Supreme Court ruled against a New York state law limiting the legal amount of labour in the baking trade to 10 hours a day. Justace Rufus Wheeler Peckham delivered the opinion of the court. This was very controvercial and sparked a lot of discussion about labor laws.
