Farms to Cities

For most American’s, lifestyles changed dramatically for those who were used to living on the farm. Farmland started changing to the urbanization of the cities from the late 1860’s to the 1920’s. Due to the mass increase of immigration, both the “Old Immigration” and the “New Immigration” gained new opportunities due to the Second Industrial Revolution. This included the introduction new technology and innovations, and the creation of factories and the assembly line and mass production, and a new urbanized lifestyle. The city became a new and worthy opportunity for those who formerly worked on a farm.

By 1925 the city, and not the farm, had become the basic reality for most Americans because of the Second Industrial Revolution, the mass immigration, and the opportunity for greater wages. The Second Industrial Revolution is considered to have begun in the 1860’s. New technologies and innovations such as the Bessemer steel converter, the internal combustion engine, the production and refining of oil and gasoline, the telegraph, the radio, electricity and the American system of manufacturing were created in the mid to late 19th century.

The Bessemer converter worked by blowing air through holes at the bottom of the convertor to create a reaction that oxidizes the silicon and excess carbon which converted it to pure steel or iron. This machine allowed a lowered price on steel and iron as well as speed in production. This was a major contributor to the production of railroads. The expansion of the railroads greatly increased from 1860 to 1920. Railroads tripled from 1860 to 1880 and then doubled again by 1920.

The railroads lowered the cost of shipping which enabled the cheaper movement of raw materials that would be used in factories. These new tracks also connected isolated towns to larger markets which allowed them access to new materials they could not have before. Larger cities had an expansion of better transportation systems, such elevated railways and subways and road way systems for the bicycle craze of the 1890’s. These innovations introduce in the 1880’s such as the American system of manufacturing substantially increased the productivity in the sewing and bicycle industries.

A major development in the manufacturing methods of the Second Industrial Revolution was introduction of electricity to factories. This enabled the factories to utilize the new innovations of the assembly line and mass production. New Factories were starting to pop up in many cities in the Northeast sections of the United States. Since more and more factories were being built, they needed more and more workers to help run the factory and to keep it stable. These factories created many new job opportunities for those that were considered middle class.

Wages were much higher compared to farming jobs and local small town jobs. There were two types of workers, skilled workers and unskilled workers. The skilled workers were very good at what they did and instructed the unskilled workers to perform simple task and to repeat it over and over again. This soon created the assembly line which helped the skilled worker get his job done faster since all the unskilled workers were helpingthe small task move along so the skilled worker could finish the project.

Many of the unskilled workers were tired of repeating these motions and wanted to gain a skill set to become more valuable and earn higher wages. Therefore some of the first colleges were created to help teach these unskilled men new skill sets. Also, the workers in the factories created a new market demand for things such as housing, grocery stores, and department stores. Because of this new market demand, the US economy grew immensely from the late 1860’s to the 1920’s.