Money & Power: The History of Business by Howard Means

Author:Howard Means
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Published: 2009-09-28T18:14:00+00:00

Within five years more cotton spindles had been put in motion, more iron furnaces erected, more iron smelted, more bars rolled, more steel made, more coal and copper mined, more lumber sawn and hewn, more houses and shops constructed, more manufactories of different kinds started, and more petroleum refined and exported, than during any equal period in the history of the country.

In fact, the party was just getting under way. As they had since the start of the Industrial Revolution, scientific progress and human prosperity seemed to be marching together. "Ninetenths of the uncertainties [of making steel] were dispelled under the burning sun of chemical knowledge," Andrew Carnegie declared. Soon, railroads would be the prime supplier of the ore from which steel was made, the prime mover of the finished product, and the prime consumer of that product, too: a formula for unbridled prosperity for both parties.

On July 4, 1876, and during the weeks that followed, the nation celebrated its centennial by gathering in the city where its Founding Fathers had met to launch this bold experiment in democratic capitalism. And like the nation that had grown up in the 100 years since, the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia was huge. Two hundred fifty-six acres of Fairmount Park were enclosed by fence for the event. Patrons and ten million of them, a quarter of the nation's population, showed up paid 50 cents each to enter through 13 gates, one for each original colony. Inside were 190 separate buildings, a full 50 acres under cover. The main building alone was three times the length of Grand Central Station and boasted 11.5 miles of aisles. Walking the whole exposition, from building to building and down all the aisles of each, meant wearing out 25 miles worth of shoe leather. For patrons who tired, a narrowgauge railroad circumnavigated the grounds. France contributed 700 paintings to the art exhibition in Memorial Hall. Queen Victoria of England sent along a napkin she had woven to be shown in the Woman's Pavilion. At the center of Machinery Hall stood a twin, 2,500-horsepower Corliss engine, more than 40 feet tall, weighing over 600 tons, and capable of powering some 8,000 gadgets scattered around the hall.

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