The Industrial Revolution after the Civil War, also known as the Second Industrial
Revolution transformed America in many ways. Although, most of these innovations were improvements on inventions from the First Industrial Revolution. Through experimentation, new discoveries and inventions in energy, transportation, and communication would reshape America’s future entirely.
One way the Second Industrial Revolution altered America, was through new sources of energy. Gas was the first new fuel source discovered. Coal gas could produce bright light which allowed factories to operate long into the night, and some even stay open twenty-four hours a day. Correspondingly, the brighter lighting provided people the capability to read easier, and for longer periods of time, accelerating literacy and learning. Furthermore, gas lamps put into streets made the towns safer by reducing crime.
Of course, another alternate source of energy was electric. In light of the discovery of the
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In the mid-nineteenth century, petroleum, increasingly used as a machine lubricant, and kerosene a by product of crude oil (unrefined petroleum), proved to be an impressive source of lighting. Discoveries in petroleum along with innovations in electricity will facilitate many other inventions throughout the Second Industrial Revolution.
Another way that the Second Industrial Revolution transformed America, was through technological advances in communication. Notably, railroad propelled the advancement of the electric telegraph machine. Telegraph and railroad lines inseparably bound together as telegraph poles dotted the span of railroad networks. While the telegraph made communication much easier, the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell, which also used electrical power, tremendously sped up the flow of communications over great distances and facilitated businesses to swap knowledge more