Economic and Technolgical 1861 to 1880 By: Gaby Evelo
Inventions of Alexander Graham Bell After the Civil War the focus on technology became stronger. One of the most prominent technological inventions of this time was Alexander Graham Bell's invention of the telephone. From a young age Bell had dreamed of being able to transmit the human voice. He is first successful on March 10, 1876 when he is able to transmit a sentence. He continues to experiment and is soon able to transfer from farther distances and for longer periods of time. In 1877, Bell and his companions Gardiner Hubbard and Thomas Sanders helped form the Bell Telephone Company to operate local telephones. The American Telephone and Telegraph Company were created on March 3, 1885 to build and operate the original long distance telephone network. In 1880 France gave he the Volta Prize, worth 50,000 francs, for his invention. With this money he founded the Volta Laboratory in Washington, D.C., where, in that same year, he and his associates invented the photo phone, which transmits speech by light rays. He then decided to move on to aeronautics and tested many of his new contraptions near his house. The invention of the telephone and the many other objects that Bell created was a long process that involved several ideas and hard work that has greatly impacted the way that we now live our lives.
This picture shows Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, making a long distance call from New York to Chicago in 1892. This call proved that long distance calls were in fact possible.
Homestead Act 1862
The Homestead Act, was created during the Civil War. It allowed any adult citizen, who had never fought against the United States government could claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. People that claimed the land were required to “improve” the plot by building a dwelling and cultivating the land. After 5 years on the land, they were entitled to the property, with out any charge, except for a small registration fee. The land could also be acquired after only a 6-month residency and trivial improvements, provided the person paid the government $1.25 per acre. After the Civil War, Union soldiers could subtract the time they had served from the required 5 years. Although this act was included in the Republican party platform of 1860, support for the idea began years earlier. The act, however, did not help with people that were in poverty. Few laborers and farmers could afford to build a farm or acquire the material needed. Most of those who purchased land under the act came from areas close to their new homesteads (Iowans moved to Nebraska, Minnesotans to South Dakota, and so on). Most of the land went to speculators, cattlemen, miners, lumbermen, and railroads. Of some 500 million acres dispersed by the General Land Office between 1862 and 1904, only 80 million acres went to homesteaders.
This is a picture of dynamite which was invented by Alfred Nobel and patented in 1867. After he decided to experiment with nitroglycerine.
Panic of 1873 A major economic problem began in Europe and reached the United States in the fall of 1873. This was the most serve depression up to this time. The turning point event in the United States was the failure of Jay Cooke and Company. The firm was the main backer of the Northern Pacicif Railroad and had handled most of the government’s wartime loans, using a widespread sales campaign back by advertising to sell bonds to people who had never before owned securities. Cooke’s fall caused a series of events that overwhelmed the entire nation. This caused African American rights to come to a halt. The New York Stock Exchange was closed for 10 days. Credit dried up, foreclosures were common and banks failed. Factories closed their doors, costing thousands of workers' jobs. The amount of desperate people soon overwhelmed the charities and they were unable to function. Unemployment reached up to 25% and most of the major railroads failed. The blame fell onto President Grant and Congress for not taking care of the economy. Many people did not understand that the whole situation was much more than just the governments fault. The postwar period was one of frenetic, unregulated growth with the government playing no role in curbing abuses. More than any other single event, the extreme overbuilding of the nation’s railroad system laid the groundwork of the Panic and the depression that followed because of this people did not begin to recovery until 1878. In addition to the ruined fortunes of many Americans, there developed from the Panic of 1873 bitter antagonism between workers and the leaders of banking and manufacturing. This tension between workers and leaders would show itself in the upcoming years.
This is a political cartoon depicting the Panic of 1873, which was on the New York Daily shows that these panics where good because they helped clean up the economy.