Second Industrial Revolution: Intelligent Inventions

The Second Industrial Revolution was a time in our history when the U.S. grew in the manufacturing category. For about 100 years, this county kept developing, and by the mid-1890s, we became the world’s industrial leader. This time was also when many diligent inventors started creating modern machines that we still use to this day. Such intelligent people include the Wright Brothers, Henry Ford, Alexander Graham Bell, and Thomas Edison. Improvements made in agriculture, textile, transportation and economic development were made possible simply because of the Industrial Revolution. Before the American Industrial Revolution, individuals were basically farmers and life passed by deliberately and repetitive work was needed for simple assignments.
Before the Wright Brothers, many inventors, such as Daedalus from Greek mythology, attempted to construct the first device of flight, but all failed. The closest people ever got to flight was the creation of the hot air balloon by the Montgolfier Brothers. “While the hot air balloon was a remarkable discovery, it did not provide a practical means of transportation because of its lack of steering.” But, the invention of the plane did not start with the airplane itself. It started with gliders, which many people achieved in making, including the Wright Brothers. From there, Orville and Wilbur used the design of the glider to make the wings and worked from there to build the airplane. The first successful flight was reported to be in 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North
He based his inventions upon the making of the first electric generator by Michael Faraday and made it better. To supply power to his self-built lab in Menlo Park, New Jersey, he used the help of George Westinghouse’s alternating current transformers and motors. The upgrading of railroads allowed opportunity for many people as well. In 1861, the United Sates only had about 30,000 miles of railroad track, each 50 miles being owned by a certain company. The average trip between Chicago and New York would take about 50+ hours. But by 1900, there were about 200,000 miles of railroad track. Between 1840 and 1900, miles of railroad production grew by 192,000 miles.
There were many long and short term effects of the Industrial Revolution. Some short term effects include a sudden rise in population and new inventions. Long term effects include a rise in productivity, urbanization, easier ways to manufacture and sell products, health problems, new job opportunities available every day, people do not depend on farming and start working for employers in factories, and