annexed California, these Mexican ranchos were increasingly acquired by American-born owners. In 1864, a group of such ranchers — James Irvine, Llewellyn Bixby, and Thomas and Benjamin Flint — purchased Rancho San Joaquin, along the coast. In 1866 they added Rancho Lomas de Santiago and in 1868 part of Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. In 1876, when James Irvine bought out his partners, the boundaries of this property extended from the Pacific Ocean around Newport Bay to the foothills of the Santa Ana Mountains, more than 100,000 acres.
1879 Thomas Edison Perfects the Electric Light
By the turn of the 20th century, two American inventors — Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Alva Edison — had become folk heroes. In 1876 Bell had discovered a way to transmit the human voice over wires, creating the telephone. In 1879 Edison had developed a carbonized filament for the light bulb, thereby ushering in the age of electric lighting. Edison spent his lifetime inventing at his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, and at the height of his career averaged a U.S. patent every eleven days, including those for the phonograph, carbon microphone, and motion picture camera. Subsequently he applied the principles of mass production and teamwork to the inventive process, forming the Edison Electric Light Company with the support of such financiers as J. P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt family. By 1900, electrical service had become a significant feature of American urban life. The telephone industry grew rapidly as well, led by the Bell Company (later AT&T). By 1895 there were 340,000 telephones in the United States. SEE FIGURES 23A & B
his corporation in 1882 as the nation’s first corporate trust (a form of integration designed to limit competition by managing production and distribution), Rockefeller soon gained control of America’s entire oil industry. Public reaction to such concentrated power was so negative that it prompted passage of the Sherman Antitrust Act in 1890 and an Ohio Supreme Court decision in 1892 declaring the Standard Oil Trust an illegal monopoly. Meanwhile, Rockefeller had become the nation’s first billionaire.
1886 American Federation of Labor Founded
Figure 23A & B. Thomas Alva Edison, (far above) conducting a lab experiment with characteristic inspiration and perspiration. Image courtesy of J.M. White & Co.
During the last quarter of the 19th century American workers were in constant debate regarding what kind of union movement to build in response to the new system of corporate capitalism. They saw that centralized companies producing for large-scale markets were increasingly at the heart of industries such as railroads, steel, meat-packing, coal, and mining. They also recognized that the crucial labor struggles of this period arose largely within these core industries. One organized response by workers to this situation took the form of the Knights of Labor, founded in 1869. The Knights sought to build a broad network of employees, including women, that would pursue a wide range of systemic reforms. A different, more modest, and ultimately more successful approach was taken by the American Federation of Labor, launched in 1886. Under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, the AF of L was organized by craft among skilled workers and confined itself to seeking improvements in the workplace.
1882 John D. Rockefeller Organizes Standard Oil Trust
The major source of lighting for 19th century Americans was crude oil refined into kerosene for lamps. As cities grew and a national need for lighting did as well, smart investors began to put their money in oil refining. In the end, one businessman — John D. Rockefeller — came to dominate this activity by employing new forms of technique and structure. Through innovative strategies, aggressive pricing, and questionable manipulation, Rockefeller was able to undersell, intimidate, and acquire competing firms. By the early 1870s, his Standard Oil Company controlled the refining industry in Cleveland, and Rockefeller turned his sights on national markets. Organizing
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