Technological Innovations During the Time Period from 1865 to 1920

Factory workers and middle-class urban residents were highly affected by the impact of technological innovations during the time period from 1865 to 1920. Technological inventions made factory workers lives harder from 1865 to 1920 while the middle class urban resident's lives were developing.

For the factory workers, technology changed the way of labor itself. There were mass productions of goods and soon skill was not needed. The companies controlling the factories needed labor and they didn't care if they were skilled or not. They just needed people to man the machines. Workers before were paid for the skill in producing goods but with technology coming in, employment for unskilled workers went up. The companies hired women and children because they were cheaper than men and it would be more of a profit for the companies. The schedule for the workers soon changed also with electric lights at night, workers were able to work night shifts and they often worked an average of twelve hours a day. Company owners often didn't care about their workers and their main interests were to obtain a profit. The work conditions were very cruel especially for the children. With all the horrible work conditions and low rages, the workers would unionize against the companies. People like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller cared little for their workers and therefore had little interest in making the factory a safe place to work at. Mass production made factories more unsafe because the technology had increased the speed, complexity and rate of the production.

Middle-class workers, on the other hand, had lives that were improving for the better. They had a better transportation system such as cable cars, streetcars, electric trolleys, elevated trains, electrical interurban railway, trains, subways, and automobiles. The urban areas expandand the transportation allowed the workers to live farther away. Medicine improved for the middle-class because of technology and diseases reduced and also the deaths caused by diseases reduced. Housing was also more comfortable because of architectural technology and the mass production and mass consumption created a new middle-class working class. Developments of steel bridges allowed people to live in new areas and connected everyone together. Paved roads made the roads easier to ravel on and more comfortable to ride on and it was also safer for the pedestrians. Middle class worker's life were also made more comfortable with