Aim: How did the industrial revolution lead to new sources of

power and advances in transportation and communication

The Steel Industry

In the mid 1850’s, Henry Bessemer invented the Bessemer process, a way to manufacture steel quickly and cheaply by blasting hot air through melted iron

*Steel is iron that has been made stronger by heat and the addition of other metals

Oil as a Power Source

Chemists invented a way to convert crude, or unprocessed, oil into a fuel called kerosene (cooking, heating, and lighting)This increased a demand for oil

Question: If the demand of something is high then what happens to the cost?

Edwin L. Drake

Proved that it was possible to pump crude oil from the ground.

Oil became a huge business in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia

Electricity

Thomas Edison-in 1879, Edison and his team of inventors had created the electric lightbulb.

Q: What do you think was a major problem that Edison came across?

Answer

Few homes or businesses could get electricity.

He built a power plant that began supplying electricity to dozens of NYC buildings in 1882.

Advances in Communication

Telegraph Wires-connected the East and West coasts. (However, the telegraph carried only written messages

Alexander Graham Bell

1876-invented the telephone

Was a speech teacher who studied the science of sound

Between 1880 and 1900, the amount of telephones went up from 55,000 to 1.5 million

Automobiles and Planes

Henry Ford-introduced the Model T in 1908.

He was the first to implement the moving assembly line in manufacturing, a process that greatly reduced the cost of building a product

Wright Brothers

Wilbur and Orville Wright built a lightweight airplane that used a small, gas powered engine

In Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright made the first flight in a gas powered plance

Individual Questions

1) What was the Bessemer process?

2) What is kerosene, and for what could it be used?

3) What problem did Thomas Edison face regarding the use of electricity, and how did he solve it?

4) Why do you think there were a rush of inventions in the late 1800’s?