U.S. History

  • Bessemer process

    Bessemer received the first patent for the Bessemer Process. Steel had long been produced by melting iron, adding carbon, and removing impurities. The Bessemer proces made it much easier adn cheaper to remove the impurities.
  • The Mass Production.

    The Bessemer Process made possible the mass production: or production in great amounts, of steel.
  • Transcontinental Railroad.

    A railway that began construction this year, extending from coast to coast. when it began it already reached from East Coast to the Mississippi River.
  • George Westinghouse

    Westinghouse developed more effective air brakes. helping improve safety for train travel.
  • Railroads

    Railroads could carry goods and passengers from coast to coast, but they still had problems. But train travel continued to improve, steel replaced iron for example.
  • Thomas A. Edison

    Edison and his team, invented house electrical lighting, replacing oil lamps and gaslights.
  • Thomas A. Edison

    To attract investors, Edison built a power plant that lit dozens of buildings in New York City.
  • Improved Electricity

    Inventor George Westinghouse, was experimenting with another form of electricity, Alternating Current: cheaper than direct current(which Edison uses) and can travel farther distances.
  • Granville Woods.

    Woods patented a telegraph system for communicating with moving trains, thus reducing the risk of collison.
  • Power Stations

    Thanks to Edisons and his teams work, power stations across the country provided electricity for lamps, fans, printing presses, and many other newly invented appliances.
  • Assassination of Franz Ferdinand

    Gavrilo Princip shot Ferdinands wife (Sophie) and she died instantly, then shot Ferdinand once and in minutes he died. Gavrilo tried committing suicide but was caught.