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U.S. History 1877-Present Videos 173 videos
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U.S. History 1877-Present 3: Gilded Age and Electricity 11181 Views
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Description:
Today we'll learn about why you shouldn't phone it in after inventing the phone (or anything else for that matter). Whoever files their patent first gets all the credit.
Transcript
- 00:04
Nobody out there is going to be shocked to hear that railroads [Train goes by]
- 00:07
weren't the only important technology in the Gilded Age think of seam travel is
- 00:12
the opening number that sets the stage for what was to come the grand finale
- 00:16
will probably involve machines that transform us all into pure energy and
- 00:21
upload us into the interplanetary internet what do you think it's just to [Computer screen appears in space]
Full Transcript
- 00:26
get all right so that would never be possible without the Gilded Age and
- 00:29
which advances in energy and communication changed everything from
- 00:32
the speed of business to the way people lived in their home this period of
- 00:36
technological change is basically why grandmas everywhere now have the [Woman holding phone]
- 00:40
regrettable ability to text in this lesson we're going to boil it all down
- 00:44
to two major stories telephone and public electricity well both inventions [Water boils in pan]
- 00:49
were the work of many men competing with a lot of the same ideas it was like the
- 00:54
USC but a little less violent and everybody wore bowties the reason we've [Scientists appear in bowties]
- 01:02
all heard of Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Edison is that they were the
- 01:08
first to patent their systems and get them into the market so that nobody else
- 01:12
could well there were tons of other guys out there where stuff that totally [Books appear on shelf]
- 01:15
worked but they just weren't quick enough or ruthless enough if Cromwell
- 01:20
Varley has got his telephone patented first well everybody would know then too
- 01:24
we do Nobel turns out he experimented with systems for electrification just [Man holding a plug]
- 01:30
like many others but he focused on the telephone edison got electrification
- 01:33
casted first making public electric lighting possible for the first time
- 01:41
edison started the general electric company in 1889 with the help of some [General electric company building]
- 01:46
mango moolah from JP Morgan yep the company is still around today but to
- 01:51
only call a general electric or just GE what was Edison's key to success easy
- 01:56
find smart dudes hire them to work in his labs then when they invented [People working in lab]
- 02:00
something awesome he put his own name on it tested that sucker sold it and took
- 02:04
all the money and this was a common story so here we go for an example a [Edison holding pile of cash]
- 02:08
black employee of Edison named Luis Latimer in
- 02:12
vented the carbon filament inside the light bulb but it wasn't Lewis
- 02:16
lattimer's name on that filament it was Edison if Edison was paying the salary
- 02:22
so he was paid to do so Edison gets keeps all the royalties in fact almost
- 02:27
all major discoveries happen the same way some employees happy to take a
- 02:31
hundred thousand dollar a year or more salary and invent stuff they take no
- 02:35
risk and the guy who did makes all the money welcome to America well another
- 02:40
one of Edison's genius lackeys Nikola Tesla had the nerve to start his own [Tesla appears in lab]
- 02:44
company and sell his own inventions it might not be a coincidence that he came
- 02:51
up with electric generators that used a different currents and Edison a [Electric generator appears]
- 02:55
different way for electricity to travel well he worked to say this did not make
- 02:59
Edison a happy camper Edison used a direct current or DC that was pretty low
- 03:05
voltage but Tesla created sockets and switches and all those other things to [voltage travels across electric wire]
- 03:09
use an alternating current or AC that was pretty high voltage Edison battled
- 03:14
against a fee with all his might but it won out over his win PCT after the [AC and DC in a boxing ring]
- 03:19
switch to AC there was no stopping electricity on its mad rampage through
- 03:23
society there was also no stopping the band agency business yeah pour some [ACDC band singing on stage]
- 03:31
sugar on me baby
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