Industrial Inventions
Who invented the telephone in 1876?
Alexander Graham Bell
What is the term for the rapid growth of cities?
Urbanization
What was the main entry point for European immigrants coming to the U.S.?
Ellis Island
What was the main goal of labor unions?
To improve wages, hours, and working conditions.
What was the goal of the Progressive Movement?
To fix the social, political, and economic problems caused by industrialization.
This invention by Thomas Edison allowed factories to stay open after dark.
The light bulb
What was a tenement?
A crowded, unsafe apartment building for working-class families.
Immigrants from Asia were processed mainly at which location?
Angel Island
What event inspired reform after many young women died in a factory fire?
The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire
What did Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle lead to?
The Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act.
How did inventions like the telegraph and the telephone change American business?
They allowed faster communication, helping the national economy grow.
Who exposed poor living conditions in tenements through photographs?
Jacob Riis
What was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882?
A law that banned Chinese immigration to the U.S.
What was one common reaction of the government to major strikes during the Gilded Age?
The government often sent troops or sided with business owners.
What was a muckraker, and what did they do?
Journalists who exposed corruption and poor conditions.
What inventions helped to make vertical cities possible?
Steel and the Elevator
Other than immigrants what other group moved to cities for opportunities?
Rural Americans
Define “nativism.”
The belief that native-born Americans should be favored over immigrants.
This labor group was present at the Centralia Tragedy.
International Workers or the World, IWW, Wobblies.
What do we call a business that controls all of one industry?
A monopoly
Explain one way that new inventions of the Second Industrial Revolution changed life for ordinary Americans.
Example Response: Electricity and new machines made work easier, increased production, and improved communication.
Name two major problems cities faced due to rapid growth during the Gilded Age.
Overcrowding, poor sanitation, pollution, fires, crime, and lack of clean water.
Compare the experience at Ellis Island to Angel Island.
Example Response: Ellis Island processed European immigrants quickly; Angel Island held Asian immigrants for longer and treated them with more suspicion.
Name one major strike of the Gilded Age and explain its result.
Example Response: Homestead Strike or Pullman Strike; both ended with violence and government support for business.
Explain the difference between a “Robber Baron” and a “Captain of Industry.”
Robber Baron = used unfair or ruthless methods for profit; Captain of Industry = helped grow the economy and created jobs.