Timeline

1850–1879 ∼ The Beginning of a Modern Economy

Corporations shift from public charters to private enterprises (1850s) / Bessemer steel process invented (1850s) / Transatlantic cable laid from the U.S. to Europe (1857–1866) / First oil well drilled, in Pennsylvania (1859) /First cattle drives begin (1866) /Gold rush in California and Colorado attracts hoards of prospectors (1848–1860) / Proliferation of mining, ranching, and farming on the frontier (1860–1880) / Silver rush in Nevada and the Dakotas (1860–1880) / Patent office issues 440,000 patents between 1860–1890 / Homestead Act provides free land to pioneer settlers (1862) / Railroads improved by dining cars (1868), air brakes (1870), steam heat (1881), and electric lights (1887) / Invention of the typewriter (1868), cash register (1879), adding machine (1891) / Electric arc light system invented (1870s) / Rise of the modem corporation in which the stockholders are not responsible for corporate debt (1870s)

MILESTONES: Census shows great increase in the types...