industrialization – technological advance 1860-1900 – about 440,000 patents issued inventions...

INDUSTRIALIZATION – TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCE

• 1860-1900 – about 440,000 patents issued• Inventions change the way people work, spend leisure time, travel,

and die (in certain cases) – affect all aspects of human life in U.S.• Some important inventions/developments

– Stock ticker– Barbed wire– telephone– Light bulb– Phonograph– Brooklyn Bridge– Kodak Camera– Much more…

• Frederick Winslow Taylor– Scientific Management– The Principles of Scientific Management

• Alexander Graham Bell – Scotland– Boston University

• Professor of Speech and Vocal Physiology• March 10, 1876 – first complete sentence via telephone

– Bell goes on to work on flying machines, much more

Thomas Alva Edison – Milan, Ohio – Little formal education – but precocious– Reads incessantly– At age 23, opens lab– Promises invention every 10 days for rest of life

– Works tirelessly, sleeps 3-4 hours per night (deaf)• Electric Chair

– Connected, indirectly, to Edison– 1880 – capital punishment – most states– 1881-discussion about humanity of electrocution– 1882 – Edison 1st electric utility company– 1886 – Westinghouse emerges as competitor (AC)

• 1887– Copper prices rise – bad for Edison– Edison starts killing cats and dogs (West Orange, NJ)– Issues pamphlet – problems with AC

• 1888– NY passes law – electrocution– Harold Brown – convinced of problems with AC

• Goes to Edison’s to do research• Shocks dogs, calves, a 1230 lb. horse

• Westinghouse writes to NY Times – accuses Brown of acting in the “interest and pay” of Edison

• Brown – acquires 3 Westinghouse generators• William Kemmler – kills lover with axe• Sentenced to death

– Westinghouse funds appeal – says electrocution is cruel and unusual

– Edwin Davis – Auburn prison electrician – designs chair– August 6, 1890 – Kemmler killed– “They would have done better with an axe” – Westinghouse

• Other early electrocutions– William Taylor – Fred Van Wormer