How Did Communication Technology Change?

The market revolution of the early to mid-1800s had transformed the United States into an industrial powerhouse. Inventors continued to drive industrialization. By the late 1800s, the United States had become a land of invention.

Between 1870 and 1900, patent officers issued more than 500,000 new patents. Some newly patented inventions helped agriculture and industry grow and become more efficient. Others made daily life easier in many American homes.

Better communication was vital to American industries. The telegraph, in use since 1844, connected businesses around the nation.

How Was Transatlantic Communication Achieved?

The telegraph sped up communication within the United States. Newspapers could share news from around the country. It still took weeks, however, for news from Europe to arrive by ship.

Cyrus Field had the idea of laying a cable under the ocean so that telegraph messages could go back and forth between North America and Europe. He began working in 1854, making five attempts to lay the cable. Each time, the cable snapped.

In 1858, two American ships managed to lay a cable between Ireland and Newfoundland, linking Europe and North America. Field then arranged for Britain’s Queen Victoria in London to send the first transatlantic, or across-the-Atlantic, message to President James Buchanan in Washington, D.C.

For three weeks, Field was a hero. Then the cable broke. Nobody could say he lacked determination—Field would simply not give up. In 1866, the ship Great Eastern succeeded in laying a more durable cable. Field’s transatlantic cable brought the United States and Europe closer together and made him famous.

Primary Source

“In five months . . . the cable had been manufactured, shipped . . . stretched across the Atlantic, and was sending messages . . . swift as lightning from continent to continent.”

—Cyrus Field, speech, 1866

Analyze Images This historic map shows that path along which the transatlantic cable was laid.

Summarize What challenges did Cyrus Field have to overcome to make the cable a reality?

What Did Alexander Graham Bell Do?

The telegraph sent only dots and dashes over the wire. Several inventors were looking for a way to transmit voices. One of them was Alexander Graham Bell, a Scottish-born teacher of the deaf.

Bell had been working on his invention since 1865. In March 1876, he was ready to test his “talking machine.” Bell sat in one room and spoke into his machine. His assistant, Thomas Watson, sat in another room with the receiver. “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you,” Bell said. Watson heard the words faintly and rushed to Bell’s side. “Mr. Bell,” he cried, “I heard every word you said!” The telephone worked.

Bell’s telephone aroused little interest at first. Scientists praised the invention. Most people, however, saw it as a toy. Bell offered to sell the telephone to the Western Union Telegraph Company for $100,000. The company refused—a costly mistake. In the end, the telephone earned Bell millions.

Bell formed the Bell Telephone Company in 1877. By 1885, he had sold more than 300,000 phones, mostly to businesses. With the telephone, the pace of business sped up even more. People no longer had to go to a telegraph office to send messages. Business people could find out about prices or supplies by picking up the telephone.

Analyze Images Alexander Graham Bell demonstrates the telephone.

Infer Why would the telephone have increased the rate at which American businesses could operate?

READING CHECK

Summarize How did new communication devices help American businesses?

How Did Inventions Change Everyday Life?

Almost every day, it seemed, Americans were inventing new devices. As new technologies spread, businesses became more efficient, as did work around the home. Inventions improved the quality of life for all Americans.

Refrigeration

In the 1880s, Gustavus Swift came up with an idea that transformed the American diet. Swift introduced refrigeration to the meatpacking industry. In the past, cattle, pigs, and chickens had been raised and sold locally. Meat spoiled quickly, so it could not be shipped over long distances.

Swift set up a meatpacking plant in Chicago, a railroad hub midway between the cattle ranches of the West and the cities of the East. Cattle were shipped by train to Chicago. At Swift’s plant, the animals were slaughtered and carved up into sides of beef. The fresh beef was quickly loaded onto refrigerated railroad cars and carried to market. Huge blocks of ice kept the cars cold. Even in summer, Swift sent fresh meat to cities in the East.

Later, fruit and vegetable producers also began relying on refrigerated railroad cars. By 1920, thanks in part to refrigeration, California had become a leading supplier of lettuce, grapes, and other produce to markets across the country.

Improvements in Offices and Homes

New inventions also affected life in the office and at home. Christopher Sholes perfected the typewriter in 1868. What Sholes did for words, William Seward Burroughs did for figures when he invented the adding machine in 1892. Both inventions made business more efficient.

A wide range of household appliances were created during the mid to late 19th century. The sewing machine, the clothes washer, the carpet sweeper (and later, the vacuum cleaner), shortened the time needed to perform necessary household chores.

Time-saving inventions gave people something new—time to play. In 1891, James Naismith invented the game of basketball. In 1888, George Eastman introduced the lightweight Kodak camera. No longer did photography require bulky equipment and chemicals. After taking 100 photographs, the owner returned the camera to Kodak. The company printed the pictures and sent them back, along with a reloaded camera. Taking photos became a popular pastime.

America’s inventiveness was put on display at the 1893 Columbian Exposition. Held in Chicago, the fair showcased advances in engineering, agriculture, and other fields. Among the exhibitors was the electrical genius Nikola Tesla; among the fairgoers was Henry Ford, who would become one of America’s leading industrialists.

Analyze Images The first vacuum cleaners were carriage-based devices that were brought to homes and businesses.

Infer How would vacuums have improved people’s lives?

African American Inventors

African Americans contributed to the flood of inventions. In 1872, Elijah McCoy created a special device that oiled engines automatically. Granville T. Woods, found a way to send telegraph messages between moving railroad trains. Jan Matzeliger devised a machine that could perform almost all the steps in shoemaking that had previously been done by hand. Patented in 1883, the machine was eventually used in shoe factories across the country.

Many African-American inventors had trouble getting patents for their inventions. Even so, in 1900, an assistant in the patent office compiled a list of patents issued to African-American inventors. The list, together with drawings and plans of all the inventions, filled four huge volumes.

READING CHECK

Identify Cause and Effect How did new technology affect the American diet in the late 1800s?

The Wright Brothers Take to the Skies

Meanwhile, two Ohio bicycle mechanics, Orville and Wilbur Wright, were experimenting with another new method of transportation: flying. The Wright brothers owned a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. During the 1890s, they read about Europeans who were experimenting with glider planes. The brothers were soon caught up in the dream of flying.

After trying out hundreds of designs, the Wright brothers tested their first “flying machine” on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Orville’s first flight lasted 12 seconds and went 120 feet. He flew three more times that day, the longest flight lasting 59 seconds.

Improvements came quickly after the first flight. By 1905, the Wrights had built a plane that could turn, make figure-eights, and remain in the air for up to half an hour.

Surprisingly, the first flights did not attract much interest. No one could see any practical use for the flying machine. It was the United States military that first saw a use for airplanes. In 1908, the Wrights demonstrated how planes could fly over battlefields to locate enemy positions. Then they produced an airplane for the military that could reach the amazing speed of 40 miles per hour!

In time, the airplane would achieve its vast potential. It would change the world by making travel quicker and trade easier.

Analyze Images People watch as the Wright Military Flyer soars overhead.

Draw Conclusions Was the airplane an instant success? Why or why not?

READING CHECK

Identify Supporting Details What details show the usefulness of the Wrights’ “flying machine”?