The Industrial Development of the United States

1. The Industrial Development of the United States

2. The American Railroad Industry

3. Importance of Trigger Industries • Major industries trigger change • When a nation begins industrializing, one major industry acts as a trigger to change the whole economy

4. Oil Automobile Railroad Industry Trigger Industries in the United States • Remember the trigger industry in Britain? Textiles • Trigger industry in the United States:

5. Importance of an efficient transportation system • Wealth & prosperity of a country depends on efficient transportation system • Why?

6. American transportation system, 1800 • 1800: transportation system in the USA was primitive • Easier to get from New York to Europe by ship than to travel west into the American continent! • Canals popular in Britain, but not practical in the USA…why?

7. John Stevens & the American Railroad Industry • Who was John Stevens? • b1749 • Became a lawyer, but interested in steam engines • Had been an officer in George Washington’s army in the War of Independence • Proposed the idea of railroads • 1788: designed the first multitubular, marine steam engine

8. Protection of Stevens’ invention…and all the inventions that would come • 1790: President Washington signs the first Patent Act into law • Ensured protection of inventions • Result? • Stimulated even more industrial inventions b/se now entrepreneurs & their inventions were protected • Remember many British inventions revolutionized the industry, but their inventors did not gain any financial rewards b/se of problems w/patents

9. John Stevens & the American Railroad Industry, continued… • 1804: Stevens was using a steam-powered boat to travel to and from his home • Designed & built the boat in his own foundry & engineering workshop • Workshop for founding or casting molten metal • Stevens’ boat was the first to have underwater screw propellers instead of side mounted paddle wheels

10. What did Stevens’ steam-powered boat look like?

11. George Stephenson & the launch of the Railway Age • Who was George Stephenson? • Launched the Railway Age with his engine, the Locomotion in Britain • How does Stephenson’s invention relate to the American Industrial Revolution? • Stevens imported one of Stephenson’s engines, the John Bull, and proposed the system of railroads

12. Crazy Stevens • When Stevens proposed the idea of a railroad system, he was years ahead of his time • Stevens went on to argue that American should not invest in canals, and instead should begin building railroads • He also began to experiment w/adapting his steam technology to rail travel • People thought he was crazy • But by 1838, when Stevens died, the foundation of the American railroad industry was laid

13. The Railroad Boom • Freight wagons had used horses along their rail lines • Obviously there was a limit to how much weight the horses could pull, and how long they could work • This was an inefficient system of transportation • 1830: famous race b/wn a horse & a locomotive, Tomb Thumb. • Peter Cooper (had built the Tomb Thumb) staged the race to convince the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to use locomotives rather than horses to pull freight wagons along their rail lines

14. Tomb Thumb v. the horse • Who won the race? • But the race left a lasting impression – the size, power, & reliability of steam locomotives was recognized

15. South Carolina Canal & Railroad Company • 1831: a locomotive called the Best Friend of Charleston began making regular runs b/wn Charleston & Hamburg for the South Carolina Canal & Railroad Company • This was the first company in the US to provide regular passenger & fright service by steam locomotive

16. The Railroad Boom, continued… • The railroad was definitely a more efficient mode of transportation, but the start-up costs were huge • The railroad began with a concentration in the eastern states • Why?

17. The Railroad Boom, continued… • As the railroad lines were extended from the settled eastern states into the thinly populated areas in the center, it became expensive & difficult • Plus railway companies knew expanding into these thinly populated areas in the center would not result in as much revunes • Gov’t knew these areas would never develop w/out proper transportation facilities

18. Encouraging the Boom with incentives • 1850: US Congress began providing incentives to railroad companies • Obviously the incentives were in the form of a reward • What kind of incentives? • Land grants • Federal land was given to state gov’ts • State gov’t used this land to give private railroad companies subsidies => encouraged private railway companies to build in less profitable areas

19. Results of incentives to the railway companies • First railroad built through incentives was in Alabama • Result? • Settlers poured into the area

20. The next railway hurdle: building a line across the country • 1862: Pacific Railroad Act • Gave approval to a plan to build the first transcontinental line • Purpose? • To connect two existing railroads: Union Pacific + Central Pacific • Union Pacific built west from Omaha, Nebraska • Central Pacfic built east from Sacramento, California

21. Pacific Railroad Act of 1862

22. The next railway hurdle: building a line across the country, continued… • Companies received large gov’t subsidies b/se: • Subsidies: grant or contribution of money • Union Pacific had to cut through the Rocky Mountains • Central Pacific had to cross the Sierra Nevada Mountains

23. Who actually built the railroads? • Coolies(Central Pacific)& European immigrants(Union Pacfic) • Who were the coolies? • Chinese labourers • Brought into the United States by the Central Pacific • A brief history of Chinese labor- • After slavery was abolished, there was a severe lack of labour in many European colonies. Labourers were supposed to be recruited by voluntary negotiation, and this was probably usually the case, though kidnapping and trickery were frequent. • The treatment of Chinese was often very harsh, and the gov’t involved did little to remedy their plight

24. Chinese labor during the railway boom • Chinese “coolies” contributed to the building of the Transcontinental Railroad in the United States (as well as the Canadian Pacific Railway in Western Canada) • Butthe Chinese labourers were not welcome to stay after its completion. • 1862: California's Anti-Coolie Act of 1862 • 1882: Chinese Exclusion Act • Both of these Acts contributed to the oppression of Chinese labourers in the United States.

25. Treatment of Coolies - political cartoon • Analyze this political cartoon

26. Driving the Last Spike

27. Driving the Last Spike:Union of Central Pacific & Union Pacific • May 10, 1869: two rail lines meet at Promontory Point (mountains of Utah)*** • By the early 1900s: 4 transcontinental lines & the US had a vast railroad system

28. Thomas Hill’s famous painting, “The Last Spike”

29. Why was the American railroad industry a trigger industry?