The Second Industrial revolution had promoted smaller businesses and ideas that had huge beneficial effects on the economy. These innovations in transportation like railroads and steamboats and other technological advancements had united the country and created an efficient marketing technique as manufacturers were able to sell their goods all over the globe. Meanwhile, steel was becoming very popular during this time due to its value and usefulness in products. As steel was beginning to replace iron in railroads, bridges, and more, major factories supplying steel production had formed. Steel also played a big part in ships, as steel was used for many of the warships during WWII. Along with the newfound appliances for steel, electricity had been discovered - first by the use of efficient commercial electrical generators in the 1870s. However, as electricity became more popular in comparison to the candles and gas lamps used prior, a single public power station was placed in many towns and would supply electricity to residential areas. As a result of these advancements, society was able to move forward in technology. In 1876, Alexander Bell invented the telephone, in 1879, Thomas Edison was able to perfect home use of the light bulb, and in 1879, the first electric railroad had appeared in Germany. These all show how technology had impacted the world and led to the modernization we are more similar to today.
The Government was also made sure to be involved during this revolution by granting land to railroad laborers, promoting high tariffs to limit foreign competition, and use the army to force Indians out of their native lands and to reservations so that the land could be used for agricultural purposes. As a result, the government supported the industrial society which led to more manufacturing and an overall increase in the population of cities versus rural areas. In conclusion, the Second Industrial Revolution had affected society through the technological findings and reforms, such as the steel railroads, as well as the inventions that had occurred during this time.
Written by Ragan Krames, P4
Sources - https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-second-industrial-revolution-timeline-inventions.html
http://ushistoryscene.com/article/second-industrial-revolution/
I was really interested about how the Second Industrial Revolution impacted America specifically. Your last paragraph comments on the role of government in regulating the market. After I researched a bit, the U.S. grew extremely fast economically, spurred in part by the huge corporations created by the cheap manufacturing of steel. The Bessemer process allowed for quick mass production of steel, which was capitalized by Andrew Carnegie and later J. P. Morgan. J. P. Morgan formed United States Steel, creating the first billion dollar company and was the largest steel producer in the world for a period of time.
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https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-P-Morgan
I thought your post did a great job covering the events of the second industrial revolution! I was really interested in the mentioned invention of electricity and the light bulb. I looked into the history of constructing the light bulb, and turns out that Thomas Edison, who is commonly the proclaimed creator of electricity, did not actually invent it, instead he provided the world with an incandescent light bulb. Light bulbs have been around since before Edison was born, but they all only burned for a few minutes. Edison's light bulb was an international effort, with glass provided from glassblowers in Germany, and research for the filament done by Charles Batchelor, a British scientist. Batchelor experimented with a variety of filaments, eventually settling on a charred string of cotton in a vacuum bulb. This allowed the light bulb to burn for 13 hours! Eventually the cotton was replaced with bamboo, and J. Kruesi invented the dynamo that generated electric power. In 1882, Edison founded the Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York to bring electric lights to Manhattan, but only in 1925 did half of the country use electricity to light up their homes.
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https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/the-electric-light-system-phonograph-motion-pictures.htm#targetText=In%201882%20Edison%20helped%20form,the%20U.S.%20have%20electric%20power.