A Technological Revolution

What do you need when you come up with a great idea and want to become an inventor or entrepreneur?

1.Money/Capital- But how do you get money quickly when your job doesn’t pay enough and the bank says no?

2. Investors- A person who gives money in exchange for Equity or other financial compensation

3.Equity- Percentage of a company

How do you keep others from stealing your idea?

1. You file for a Patent (license that give an inventor that exclusive right to make, sell or use an item)

Oil- Use to be made by boiling whale fat

Edwin L. Drake- Was sent to try and drill for oil. Spent a year raising money and in 1859 he struck oil

The Oil Business boomed and Mr. Drake and his investors became rich.

Gasoline the by product of oil was thrown out.

Thomas Edison- Helped make electricity widely available.

Worked for a stock company and earned a $40,000 bonus. Left the company and became a inventor/entrepreneur.

Built a power plant that could light a small town with electricity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyso7_HetyM

Lewis Latimer and George Westinghouse- Used Alternating Currents. This was cheaper and could travel further. Used transformers.

Two companies emerged General Electric and Westinghouse Electric.

Electricity helped change the world and other businesses as well.

Lead to rapid growth of machines Lead to the ability to work longer days Increased Productivity- Amount of goods

and services that could be created in a period of time.

Lead to new inventions such as the refrigerator.

The Telegraph- Samuel Morse perfected the telegraph and took out a patent on it. Created the Morse code. Different taps represent different letters.

Alexander Graham Bell created the “talking telegraph” aka Telephone.

Bell and a group of partners created American Telephone and Telegraph Company also known as AT&T to create long distance phone lines.

First commercial telephone was set up in New Haven Connecticut in 1978.

Transcontinental Railroad- railway extending from coast to coast.

Government had to give tax money to railroad companies to encourage them to expand west.

Most of the workers who laid down the track were immigrants

After 7 years of hard labor they met in Utah. They hit the Golden Spike in to finish the

job.

Trains were often very dirty and uncomfortable but improved.

Trains began to have telegraphs inside them.

Lead to the need of Time Zones

The Railroads Provide

A Faster and more practical means of transporting goods

Lower cost of production

Creation of national markets

A model for big business

Stimulation of other industries

Henry Bessemer and William Kelly develop a new process to make steel called the Bessemer Process.

This allows for steel to be made easier and more cheaply.

With more steel buildings can now be built higher and bridges longer

This directly leads to the creation of the Brooklyn Bridge.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSLnbM5raMg

Write a paragraph on which invention you think was most important for to America moving forward. Make sure that you explain why you picked what you picked.

Possible Ideas: Light bulb, railroad, steel, time zones, telephone, telegraph