American Society from the Civil War to the 1900's
During and after the Civil War, America began to advance technologically. The use of machines and railroads changed the daily lives of Americans.Between the Civil War and 1900, steam and electricity replaced human muscle, iron replaced wood, and steel replaced iron (before the Bessemer process, iron was hardened into steel at the rate of 3 to 5 tons a day; now the same amount could be processed in 15 minutes). Machines could now drive steel tools. Oil could lubricate machines and light homes, streets, factories. People and goods could move by railroad, propelled by steam along steel rails; by 1900 there were 193,000 miles of railroad. The telephone, the typewriter, and the adding machine speeded up the work of business.
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Advancements in technology were possible because of the want for progress that the American people had. In order to industrialize, Americans started to create new products.While some people pursued opportunity in the American West, others sought new ways of doing things with technology. Thomas Edison was one such person...If Americans wanted new products, Edison believed, they had to organize and work purposefully to bring about progress. His attitude reflected the spirit that enlivened American inventiveness, which in turn propelled industrialization in the late nineteenth century... Between 1790 and 1860 the government granted a total of 36,000 patents. In the next seventy-year span, between 1860 and 1930, it registered 1.5 million.
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