Technology of the Late 1800s

Timezones

Time Zones

With railroads becoming more and more common, people found that when towns set their time locally, with the use of solar time, it created massive scheduling issues. Because of this, railroad companies worked together to make a national system for telling time. This not only helped railroads but almost all businesses at the time.

Airbrakes

At first, taking the railroad somewhere meant that you would have to endure noisy, dirty, and uncomfortable conditions, as well as possibly unsafe practices. In 1869, George Westinghouse invented new and improved air brakes, making trains much more safe

Transcontinental Railroad

Transcontinental railroad

The Transcontinental Railroad is a railroad from coast to coast. The Union Pacific company and The Central Pacific company built the miles long railway with the help of government loans and land grants. The coast to coast railway greatly improved not just the railroad industry but the economy in general

Telegraph System

More advancements in railroad safety were needed in order to avoid train collisions. The recently invented telegraph system started to be used alongside train systems in order to communicate with other train stations.

Telegraph

Ideas of the tlelegraph were first born even in the early 1700s, but these were not made into reality until 1844, when Samuel Morse sent his first message over a distance using electricity and wires. Soon, multiple large telegraph companies merged in order to make the Western Union Telegraph Company

Telegraph

Telepgraph

Telephone

Alaxander Bell immigrated to Boston in order to teach people that were hard of hearing. Through experimenting, he later would patent a "Talking Telepgraph" In March of 1876. While at first, telephones could only connect two places, soon, enhancements were made and entire cities could now be connected

Phonograph

Edison created the first phonograph in 1877. The first thing recored in it was "Mary Had A Little Lamb" and helped him gain popularity.

Phonograph

Alternating Current

In the begginnings of electricity, a form of power called DIrect Current was used, howveer this was expensive to generate and could only travel one to two miles. In 1855 a man named George Westinghouse began experiemnting with Alternating Current, which was more cheap and efficient and could have its range extended using transofrmers

Machinery

With electricity becoming very prevelant, many machines and inventions were made to utilize it. Sewing machines, factory machinery, and much more started to be produced. However, due to how new this was, many families still could not afford to have these appliencies in their house.

Lightbulb

Edison esperimented with electric lighting for a long time before he came up with a solution. Eventially, using filiment made fo bamboo fiber, he was able to make the first lighting fixture using electricity

Bessemer Process

The Bessemer Process was a way to turn pig iron into steel by removing its impurities and and adding carbon, much like how steel was made before, however, with this new process, the production of steel became much more effecient and inexpensive.