The Growth of Industrial Prosperity

New Products

The first major change in industry between 1870 and 1914 was the substitution of steel for iron. New methods of steel made it useful in the building of lighter, smaller, and engines, as well as railways, ships, and weapons. Electricity was a major new form of energy that proved to be of great value. It could be easily to be proved into other forms of energy, such as heat, light, and motion.

The creation of the light bulb by Thomas Edison in the United States and Joseph Swan opened homes and cities to electric lights. A revolution in communications began when Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876 and Guglielmo Marconi sent the first audio waves across the Atlantic 1901.

CAPTION THE PICTURE

Cambria Iron Company in 1854, soon after it was built. Notice the train running between the mill and the river and another on the bridge. The black smoke coming from the mill and the trains is from burning coal.