The Industrial Revolutions

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Chapter 62: An American Aristocracy Feb 06, 2023

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Americans had long believed their country was a classless society. But by the end of the 19th Century, that myth had been shattered. In the Gilded Age, a super-rich elite emerged. They spent lavishly on houses, parties, and luxuries, while also investing in education and philanthropy. In this chapter, we’ll discuss this new upper-class, as well as how wealth in the United States became so imbalanced. We’ll explore topics like homesteading, Reconstruction, immigration, political corruption, corporate consolidation, and more.

Podcast Special! - From Textile Workers to Rideshare Drivers: The Never-Ending History of Creative Destruction Dec 05, 2022

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The live recording of my recent Mill Talk at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation.

Chapter 61: New Energy, New Engine Oct 03, 2022

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In the mid-19th Century, two new industrial developments were underway. In the UK and US, new discoveries were made for the refining of crude petroleum into numerous useful oils. Meanwhile, in France and Germany, engineers were starting to produce the first commercially viable internal combustion engines. Together, these two breakthroughs would open up a world of possibilities and, in time, put an end to the Steam Age.
If you’re in the Boston area, be sure to catch Dave’s upcoming Mill Talk at the Chares River Museum of Industry and Innovation on Tuesday, November 15th! Register here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mill-talk-from-textile-workers-to-rideshare-drivers-tickets-425845614697

Industrial Revolutions Update Jun 13, 2022

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Chapter 60: The Electric Age May 02, 2022

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Electric power has become a staple of our daily lives. In this episode, we’ll discuss how it was made possible. Topics covered include: The rise of the modern engineer and the many technological breakthroughs made in the late 19th Century; The life of Thomas Edison; The development of the lightbulb; The spread of electrical distribution; and The War of the Currents.
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Chapter 59: Steel and Rubber Apr 04, 2022

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It is simply impossible to imagine life today without the mass-production of steel and rubber, made possible during the Technological Revolution. In this episode, we’ll discuss the inventions of the Bessemer converter and the Siemens-Martin process for steel making, the expanding steel empire of Alfred Krupp in Germany, and the efforts of Alexander Holley and Andrew Carnegie to make the U.S. the global leader in steel production. We’ll also talk about how steel was adopted for bridges, skyscrapers, and more. Finally, we’ll turn to the expanding uses of rubber, how rubber companies cultivated the market, and how they exploited the Global South to get it.
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Chapter 58: A New Commercial Era Mar 07, 2022

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More so than in the First Industrial Revolution, the Second Industrial Revolution saw big changes in consumer markets. Thanks to mail-order catalogs, dry goods palaces, and new department stores, consumers had more options than ever before. Whether it was clothing, furniture, grooming products, cameras, musical instruments, processed food, or bottled soft drinks, people from all backgrounds could buy stuff they didn’t used to have available to them. And with more disposable income, lower prices, and increasingly-creative advertisements targeting them, buy stuff they did.
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Chapter 57: America's Railroad Age Feb 07, 2022

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In this episode, we talk about the many changes to American life brought about by the railroads in the late 19th Century. Topics include: New construction tools like dynamite; George Pullman’s sleeper cars; Railroad tycoons like Cornelius Vanderbilt and Jay Gould; The development of modern corporations; Innovations in time management; The growth of the American beef industry; and The spread of consumer catalogues.
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Chapter 56: The Technological Revolution Dec 06, 2021

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A quick introduction to the Second Industrial Revolution.
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Chapter 55: Bold Leaps of Discovery Sep 20, 2021

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In the mid-19th Century, scientists would upend everything human beings understood about themselves and the world around them, and they would drive that world forward into a second industrial revolution.
In this chapter we discuss the new fields of genetics and evolutionary biology, the philosophy of Positivism, the development of thermodynamics, the discovery of the electromagnetic field, and the births of new technologies for electrical engineering.

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