What important technology was the 2nd industrial revolution?

(Building on the Foundations of the 18th Century)

Date range: 1850–1914
Notable revolution: The increased automation of production machines, and the introduction of steel into the common market

The first Industrial Revolution represented the period between the 1760s and around 1840. Following the first Industrial Revolution, almost a century later we see the world go through the second. It started at the end of the 19th century, with massive technological advancements in the field of industries that helped the emergence of a new source of energy namely, electricity, gas, and oil. Historians sometimes refer to this as “The Technological Revolution”

During this time, new technological systems were introduced, most notably superior electrical technology, which allowed for even greater production and more sophisticated machines. The inventions of the automobile and the plane at the beginning of the 20th century are the reason why, to this day, the Second Industrial Revolution is considered the most important one! This also resulted in the creation of the internal combustion engine that started to reach its full potential. Other important points of the second industrial revolution were the development of steel demand, chemical synthesis, and methods of communication such as the telegraph and the telephone.

While some historians quibble over the exact boundary between the First Industrial Revolution that began in the mid-18th century and the second that started around the mid-19th century a primary difference is that, the second saw the beginning of mass production in manufacturing and consumer goods.

The Second Industrial Revolution enabled globalization and created a rough draft of our world today. Interesting, right? Let’s take a look at what people invented during this period and how it affected mankind.

Major Technological Advances of the Second Industrial Revolution

The 1870s. Automatic signals, air brakes, and knuckle couplers on the railroads; the Bessemer and then the open-hearth process in the steel mills; the telephone, electric light, and typewriter.

The 1880s. During the Second Industrial Revolution, the existing manufacturing and production methods were improved. For instance, steel replaced iron in the building business. It was strong and it was cheap. So, it made it possible to build rail lines at a competitive cost and spread transportation. Steel also facilitated the construction of ships, skyscrapers, and larger bridges.

The 1890s. The phonograph and motion pictures; the electric generator, contributed to modern household items such as refrigerators and washing machines and gradually replaced water and steam-powered engines; and the internal combustion engine made possible the first automobiles and the first airplane flight the Wright brothers in 1903.

There also were innovations in papermaking. During this period, Charles Fenerty and Friedrich Gottlob Keller invented the current paper machine. This enabled the introduction of cheaper paper, and hence, wider distribution of books and newspapers. The fountain pen, the mass-produced pencil, and the steam-driven rotary printing press also appeared during the Second Industrial Revolution.

Without certain inventions from the Second Industrial Revolution, some of the ways we communicate today wouldn’t be possible. For instance, in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Later on, in 1901, Guglielmo Marconi sent radio waves across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.

The internal combustion engine, which powers cars today, was invented during the Second Industrial Revolution. This engine used gas and air, which made it impractical for public use. Then liquid fuels, such as gasoline, came along. Ultimately, without this engine, airplanes and cars wouldn’t be here today.

The Brilliant Idea Of Electricity

Faraday started playing with the idea of electricity. Then, a few years later, Edison and Swan perfected their design of a light bulb, which was practical for home use.

This, in addition to the appearance of the first efficient commercial electrical generators in the 1870s, made public electricity possible.

Swan took his incandescent light bulbs to England. The English used Swan’s light bulbs to light Mosley Street in Newcastle upon Tyne. So, this was the first electrical street lighting installation in the world. Then, Swan gifted the Savoy Theatre in London with 1,200 of his light bulbs. Thus making it the first public building to be lit entirely by electricity.

Then followed the power station at Pearl Street in New York. Afterward, Sebastian de Ferranti thought of “stepping down” high-voltage alternating current. De Ferranti’s idea enabled the assembly line and mass production.

Interconnected Growth

Inventions during the Second Industrial Revolution were interconnected. The railroad spurred the growth of the telegraph machine. Telegraph lines and railroad lines inextricably bound together as telegraph polls dotted the distance of railroad lines. The telegraph, and later the telephone, ushered in the era of instant communication and brought about, in the words of cultural historian Stephen Kern, “the annihilation of distance.” The “local” shot outward to the “national” and even “international” as a new sense of world unity established through these new technologies. These technologies also increased the pace of life and how people worked and lived.

This cartoon portrays a “Standard Oil” storage tank as an octopus with tentacles wrapped around the steel, copper, and shipping industries, as well as a statehouse, the U.S. Capitol, and one tentacle reaching for the White House.

“Railroad Expansion Alters the U.S. Landscape”

Railroads were largely responsible for this great burst of economic production. Long-distance transportation networks connected by rail, steamship, and canals opened new markets for farmers, factory owners, and bankers who could bring America’s natural resources to a global marketplace. For the first time, goods from the American heartland were shipped into the global market based on credit. Before the development of this elaborate transportation and communication system, economies were localized and often based on a barter system. The expansion of the railroad brought a dramatic reduction in the time and money it took to move heavy goods, creating new opportunities for wealth at a time when two-thirds of all Americans still resided on farms.

Railroad lines expanded from 35,000 miles in 1865 to 254,000 miles in 1916.

Automobile and Ford

After World War I, the automobile would replace the railroad.

German inventor Karl Benz patented the world’s first automobile in 1886, the first automobile entirely designed as such to generate its power, not simply a motorized-stage coach or horse carriage.

Benz began to sell the vehicle (advertising it as the Benz Patent Motor-wagon) in the late summer of 1888, making it the first commercially available automobile in history.

Henry Ford built his first car in 1896 and worked as a pioneer in the industry. With his emphasis on vertical integration of parts and assembly-line manufacturing, Henry Ford was its king. At its peak, the Ford Motor Company factory in Michigan employed 40,000 workers under one big roof.

Ford Motor developed a completely redesigned factory with machine tools and special purpose machines that were systematically positioned in the work sequence. All unnecessary human motions were eliminated by placing all work and tools within easy reach, and where practical on conveyors, forming the assembly line, the complete process is called mass production. This was the first time in history when a large, complex product consisting of 5000 parts had been produced on a scale of hundreds of thousands per year. The savings from mass production methods allowed the Model T price to decline from $780 in 1910 to $360 in 1916. In 1924, 2 million T-Fords were produced and retailed $290 each.

Social and economic impact

Economically, the Second Industrial Revolution made the West a major producer of the world’s goods. Mass production allowed goods to be sold cheaply. People became employees rather than craftsmen — these employees were often treated as interchangeable parts of the machine. Business owners became very rich and they raised money by issuing stocks. People learned that they could increase their wealth by buying and selling stocks.

Industrialization increased material wealth, restructured society, and created important new schools of philosophy. The social impact of industrialization was profound. For the first time since the Neolithic Revolution, people worked outside of the local environment of their homes. They arose every morning and traveled to their place of employment. Led to the rapid growth of population in industrial centers. The shift away from agriculture toward industry had occurred in Britain. The figure had fallen to under 10% and the vast majority of the British population was urbanized.

The tremendous productivity growth, transportation networks, industrial production, and agricultural output lowered the prices of almost all goods. Crop failures no longer resulted in starvation in areas connected to large markets through transport infrastructure. Businesses competed intensely with each other and corporations battled to gain control of industries. Countless companies’ failed and larger corporations, which eventually ruled the marketplace, bought others up. This led to periods that were called depressions that occurred as the world economy grew. For those who were able to capitalize on these technological advancements, the Second Industrial Revolution was highly profitable.

During the Depression of 1873, the soon-to-be industry giant, Andrew Carnegie established a steel company that controlled every business phase from raw materials to transportation, manufacturing, and distribution. By the 1890s, Carnegie dominated the steel industry and had accumulated a fortune worth millions. His steel factories were the most technologically advanced in the world.

Like Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller also accumulated enormous amounts of wealth, although his money came through domination of the oil industry.

For many, the shift from rural to factory life was grueling — especially for children.

Household items like soap, butter, and clothing that used to be made at home started being made in factories as well. The availability of work became unpredictable as it rose and fell with the demand for goods. Gradually, women who had first been drawn into cities to work in the factories lost their manufacturing jobs as machines decrease the demand for labor. So, cut off from their families, many had no other option than prostitution.

Massive improvements in public health and sanitation resulted from public health initiatives, such as the construction of the London sewerage system in the 1860s in addition, the passage of laws that regulated filtered water supplies — (the Metropolis Water Act introduced regulation of the water supply companies in London, including minimum standards of water quality for the first time in 1852). This greatly reduced the infection and death rates from many diseases.

The changing world of the Second Industrial Revolution also led to fears by social critics about the loss of freedom, autonomy, and independence that is replaced by boredom, repetition, and toil. Early 20th-century films like Fritz Lang’s sci-fi dystopia “Metropolis” or Charlie Chaplin’s assembly line comedy “Modern Times” capture this fear of the factory worker as a human-robot.

Conclusion

The Second Industrial Revolution fuelled the Gilded Age, a period of great extremes: great wealth and widespread poverty, great expansion and deep depression, new opportunities, and greater standardization. Economic insecurity became a basic way of life as the depressions of the 1870s and 1890s put millions out of work or reduced pay. Those who remained in the industrial line of work experienced extremely dangerous working conditions, long hours, no compensation for injuries, no pensions, and low wages. However, for a limited minority of workers, the industrial system established new forms of freedom. Skilled workers received high wages in industrial work and oversaw a great deal of the production process. Economic independence now required a technical skill rather than ownership of one’s shop and tools. Its proponents labeled it “progress”, but those who worked the floor at the factory knew it came at a price.

However, we cannot deny that thanks to all of these inventions and new ideas, the second industrial revolution would have to be summed up as a positive, beneficial time for history. Each new thing led to another and therefore created a new age of discoveries and inventions.

The Second Industrial Revolution ended just before World War I, historians say. The Third Industrial Revolution in which digital communications technology and the internet changed, how we transmit information, do business, and interact with each other has followed it.

Some argue we are now entering a Fourth Industrial Revolution, in which robotics, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and biotechnology are changing our concepts of both life and consciousness. The trajectory of this phase of human development must wait for future historians to write.

References

The Industrial Revolution| Supply Chain Game Changer

The 4 Industrial Revolutions | Institute of Entrepreneurship Development

Second Industrial Revolution |Richmond Vale Academy

The Second Industrial Revolution, 1870–1914 | US History Scene

How the Second Industrial Revolution Changed People’s Lives |History

Second Industrial Revolution |Wikipedia

History Of Europe|Britannica

Authors -

Roshan Agarwal — Chief Strategist, SIME, BIT Mesra, Ranchi, India

Abhishek Pandey — Strategist, SIME, BIT Mesra, Ranchi, India

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