.. y the experimenter in charge of the project. Then the group worked on it. It was impossible to give credit for an invention to any one person. The brilliant scientist was also a clever businessman. Edison wanted the streets of New York City torn up for the laying of electrical cables.
So he invited the entire city council out to Menlo Park at dusk. The council members walked up a narrow staircase in the dark. As they stumbled in the dark, Edison clapped his hands. The lights came on.
There in the dining hall was a feast catered by New York’s best restaurant. Another great accomplishment of Edison was the invention of an entirely new way for businesses to work. Edison and his partners invented, built and shipped the product – all in the same complex. This was a new and unusual way to do business at that time. Many modern businesses have copied Edison’s invention factory design. ARDREW CARNEGIE Andrew Carnegie was an American who owned industries and was charitable.
At age 33 he had an annual income of $50,000. He said, “Beyond this, never earn, make no effort to increase fortune, but spend the surplus each year for benevolent purposes.” Andrew Carnegie was born in Dunfermline, Scotland. He went to the U.S. in 1848 and began work short after his arrival as a threading machine attendant in a cotton mill in Allegheny, Pennsylvania. He got paid $1.20 a week.
In 1849 he became a messenger in a Pittsburgh telegraph office. He was next employed by the Pennsylvania Railroad as a private secretary to Thomas Alexander Scott. Carnegie got promoted many times until he was superintendent of the Pittsburgh part of the railroad. He invested in what is now called the Pullman Company and in oil land near Oil City. During the Civil War he served in the War Department under Thomas Alexander Scott. Carnegie was in charge of military transportation and government telegraphs.
After the war was over he went and formed a company that makes iron railroad bridges. He founded a steel mill and was one of the first people to use the Bessemer process. In 1899 he put all of his interests together in the Carnegie Steel Company. He was responsible for almost 25% of the American iron and steel production. In 1901 he sold his company to the United States Steel Corp.
for $250 million dollars. He then retired. Carnegie never received a formal education during his childhood but donated more then $350 million dollars to many different educational, cultural, and peace organizations. His largest gift was in 1911 for $125 million dollars to the Carnegie Corporation of New York. He also donated money for the construction of what is now the International Court of Justice for the United Nations at The Hague, Netherlands.
Carnegie was honored throughout his lifetime. The High Points in Carnegie’s Life Include: US Steel skyrocked from 1643 tons to 7 million tons a year and the nation was the source of more than 40% of the worlds output. -Alexander Holley was Americas first steel master and made a valuable contribution to the steel industry. The Bessemer process became widely used – outlined a process for making steel in large batches by forcing a blast of air on hot pig iron to burn out the impurities In the last quarter of the 19th century Andrew Carnegie personified the story of the steel industry in the US He gained knowledge from working at the Penn Railroad Co and then began to get involved in the mass production of steel Carnegie said that costs of production should be regularly reduced and that earnings should be invested in new equipment and expansion.
Carnegie worked like “everything being within ourselves” -when Carnegie sold his steel company his share was $225 million where only 30 yrs ago he had invested $250,000 By the end of the 20th century the corporation had become a billion-dollar enterprise funding advancements in education and medicine around the globe. Carnegie On Competition “The price which society pays for the law of competition, like the price it pays for cheap comforts and luxuries, is great; but the advantages of this law are also greater still than its cost-for it is to this law that we owe our wonderful material development, which brings improved conditions in its train. But, whether the law be benign or not, we must say of it: It is here; we cannot evade it; no substitutes for it have been found; and while the law may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race, because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.” ROCKEFELLER & THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY Rockefeller’s stake in the oil industry increased as the industry itself expanded, spurred by the rapidly spreading use of kerosene for lighting. In 1870 he organized The Standard Oil Company along with his brother William, Andrews, Henry M. Flagler, S.V.
Harkness, and others. It had a capital of $1 million. By 1872 Standard Oil had purchased and controlled nearly all the refining firms in Cleveland, plus two refineries in the New York City area. Before long the company was refining 29,000 barrels of crude oil a day and had its own shop manufacturing wooden barrels. The company also had storage tanks with a capacity of several hundred thousand barrels of oil, warehouses for refined oil, and plants for the manufacture of paints and glue.
The Standard Oil Company prospered and, in 1882, all its properties were merged in the Standard Oil Trust, which was in effect one great company. It had a beginning sum of money that totaled $70 million. After ten years the trust was dissolved by a court decision in Ohio. The companies that had made up the trust later joined in the formation of the Standard Oil Company (New Jersey), since New Jersey had adopted a law that permitted a parent company to own the stock of other companies.
It is estimated that Standard Oil owned three-fourths of the petroleum business in the U.S. in the 1890s. In addition to being the head of Standard Oil Company, Rockefeller owned iron mines and timberland and invested in numerous companies in manufacturing, transportation, and other industries. Although he held the title of president of Standard Oil until 1911, Rockefeller retired from leadership of the company in 1896.
In 1911 the U.S. Supreme Court found the Standard Oil trust to be in violation of the anti-trust laws and ordered the dissolution of the parent New Jersey Corporation. The thirty-eight companies, which it then controlled, were separated into individual firms. High Points of The Kerosene Age and Mr.
Rockefeller Edwin Drake was sent to Penn to supervise a project to drill for oil He was successful, but it took longer than expected and then others were attracted to the area and many came to find oil Production soared from 2000 barrels a year in 1859 to almost 5 million ten years later 1870 -Standard Oil of Ohio- John D Rockefeller Standard Oil Phases Confederation- eliminated wasteful production, get others to join or cease operating Consolidation- central control and rational organization Vertical integration-less dependent on others Public attack- price cutting, sabotage Standards share of the nations refining capacity was reduced to 60% by 1911 Rockefeller on Money “I know of nothing more despicable and pathetic than a man who devotes all the hours of the waking day to the making of money for money’s sake.” CONCLUSION With all the new technologies that were developed and applied in our history it was only a matter of time before major businesses and industries sere developed. Many laws were made because some individuals took advantage of the growth of businesses and were able to monopolize certain parts of the American businesses. Laws such as the Sherman Anti-Trust Act were made and applied, which led to the de-monopolization of major business tycoons like Andrew Carnegie. This time period established the United States as a massive money making country and gave the country world recognition for our economy. The United States was now fully established and roaring to go and do more.
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