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Chapter 20

Lesson 2

Inventions Change Society

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Technology Changes

Communication

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  • By 1910
    • Americans drove cars through streets
    • Electric lights
    • Department stores
    • Telephone
  • Inventors help improve lives, unify country, promote economic growth

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Morse’s Telegraph and Code

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  • Samuel Morse developed telegraph in 1830s
  • Congress helped build first line in 1844
  • First telegraph from Baltimore to Washington D.C.
  • Thousands of miles by 1860
  • Huge improvement over written communication
  • Cyrus Fields laid telegraph across Atlantic in 1866

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Bell and the Telephone

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  • Alexander Graham Bell
    • Born and educated in Scotland
    • Studied how to help deaf to speak
    • 1876 invented the telephone
    • Formed Bell Telephone company
    • Sold hundreds of thousands by 1890s
  • First used by business then homes

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The Genius of Invention

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  • Late 1800s saw burst of invention
  • 1860-1890 - 400,000 patents
  • Typewriter (1868) - C. Sholes
  • Adding machine (1888) - William Burroughs
  • 1888 - small box camera - John Eastman
  • 1899 - vacuum cleaner

- John Thurman

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The Wizard of Menlo Park

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  • Thomas Edison had trouble in school because of hearing
    • Mom taught him at home
  • Decided to be inventor in his 20s
  • 1876-set up a workshop in Menlo Park, New Jersey

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Thomas Edison (Cont.)

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  • Phonograph, movie projector, storage battery
  • Lightbulb - most important invention - 1879
  • Designed power plants
  • Others improved Edison’s work
  • Electricity powered factories, trolleys, streetlights, lamps

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African American Inventors

  • Lewis Latimer worked with Edison - improved wire for light bulb
  • Granville Woods - Dozens of patents - RR Brakes
  • Elijah McCoy- machine oil
  • Jan Matzeliger - shoe-making machine

Lewis Latimer

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A Changing Society

  • Automobile at the heart of new era
  • Henry Ford - engineer in Detroit, Michigan
  • Others built cars - expensive
  • Ford sought to build affordable cars
  • Experimented with gasoline engines

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Henry Ford (Cont.)

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  • 1903 - started Ford
  • 1908 - introduced Model T
  • Sold 15 million over 18 years
  • Pioneered assembly line
  • Mass production decreased costs and made products cheap

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The First Airplane

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  • Inventors experimented with powered flight - 1890s
  • Orville and Wilbur Wright
    • Bicycle shop owners
  • 1903 tested planes at Kitty Hawk, N.C.
  • Stayed in air for 1 minute
  • Others would improve