Which inventor received the 1876 patent for the telephone and was the first to sell it commercially?
Alexander Graham Bell
✓
Thomas Edison
George Westinghouse
Samuel Morse
Correct Answer
Alexander Graham Bell
Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone in 1876 and formed the company that grew into AT&T; by 1900 more than a million telephones were in use. Thomas Edison later improved telephone design but did not hold the original patent. George Westinghouse built his fame on alternating-current electric power. Samuel Morse developed the telegraph decades earlier.
Category: Age of Invention
Question 2
What made Thomas Edison's laboratory at Menlo Park, New Jersey, so unusual for its time?
It was owned and run by the federal government
Teams of researchers turned out inventions steadily
✓
It produced steel rails for the railroads
It trained telegraph operators for Western Union
Correct Answer
Teams of researchers turned out inventions steadily
Menlo Park was an invention factory where Edison and a staff of assistants developed devices such as the phonograph and a practical light bulb in an organized, continuous way. It was owned and run by the federal government is false; it was Edison's private lab. It produced steel rails for the railroads describes a steel mill. It trained telegraph operators for Western Union is false; it was a research workshop.
Category: Age of Invention
Question 3
How did electric power change where American factories could be built?
Plants had to move next to coal mines
Plants were banned from city centers
Plants no longer had to sit beside rivers
✓
Plants could only run during daylight
Correct Answer
Plants no longer had to sit beside rivers
Before electricity, many mills depended on water power and had to be built along rivers, but electric power let industry locate in cities near workers and markets. Plants had to move next to coal mines is wrong; power could be delivered by wire. Plants were banned from city centers is wrong; industry concentrated in cities. Plants could only run during daylight is wrong; electric light allowed longer shifts.
Category: Age of Invention
Question 4
What did the Bessemer process make possible in the late 1800s?
Refining crude oil into kerosene
Sending messages by undersea cable
Freezing food for long storage
Cheap mass production of steel
✓
Correct Answer
Cheap mass production of steel
The Bessemer process forced air through molten iron to burn off impurities, so steel could be made quickly and cheaply, and American output soared while prices fell. Refining crude oil into kerosene was the business of oil refiners such as Standard Oil. Sending messages by undersea cable depended on telegraph technology. Freezing food for long storage depended on refrigeration technology, not steelmaking.
Category: Steel and Oil Empires
Question 5
Midwestern farmers who called railroad owners "robber barons" objected especially to which practice?
Charging rates that favored big shippers
✓
Refusing to carry immigrant passengers
Building new lines only in the South
Paying workers in company scrip alone
Correct Answer
Charging rates that favored big shippers
Railroads often gave large businesses lower rates and rebates while charging small farmers more, so farmers saw the owners as exploiters. Refusing to carry immigrant passengers is wrong; railroads eagerly carried immigrants west. Building new lines only in the South is wrong; railroads expanded in every region. Paying workers in company scrip alone was not the farmers' complaint against railroad owners.
Category: Railroads and Finance
Question 6
Andrew Carnegie bought the iron mines, ore ships and railroads that supplied his mills. What is this strategy called?
Horizontal integration
Vertical integration
✓
Scientific management
Collective bargaining
Correct Answer
Vertical integration
Vertical integration means controlling every stage of production, from raw materials to delivery, which let Carnegie cut costs and avoid paying suppliers. Horizontal integration means buying up competitors that make the same product. Scientific management is a method of timing and dividing factory tasks. Collective bargaining is negotiation between a union and an employer.
Category: Steel and Oil Empires
Question 7
In business in the 1880s, what was a trust?
A bank that insured workers' savings
A union of skilled craft workers
A board of trustees running many firms
✓
A government board setting rail rates
Correct Answer
A board of trustees running many firms
In a trust, stockholders of several companies turned their shares over to a board of trustees that ran the firms as one unit, a device Standard Oil used starting in 1882. A bank that insured workers' savings did not exist in this era. A union of skilled craft workers describes groups such as those in the AFL. A government board setting rail rates describes the Interstate Commerce Commission.
Category: Steel and Oil Empires
Question 8
In "The Gospel of Wealth," what did Andrew Carnegie argue that rich people should do?
Pass their fortunes on to their heirs
Spend freely on luxury and leisure
Share company ownership with workers
Use their fortunes for the public good
✓
Correct Answer
Use their fortunes for the public good
Carnegie wrote that the wealthy were trustees of society and should give their money to causes such as libraries, hospitals and colleges, and he gave away most of his own fortune. Pass their fortunes on to their heirs is the opposite of his view. Spend freely on luxury and leisure is wrong; he urged modest living. Share company ownership with workers is wrong; he did not propose giving workers ownership.
Category: Business Ideas
Question 9
Social Darwinism, based on Herbert Spencer's ideas, held which view of society?
The fittest people naturally rise to wealth
✓
Government should own the major industries
Workers deserve an equal share of profits
Wealth should be divided equally by law
Correct Answer
The fittest people naturally rise to wealth
Social Darwinism applied the idea of natural selection to society, claiming that success showed fitness and that poverty was natural, which many wealthy Americans used to oppose reform. Government should own the major industries is a socialist idea. Workers deserve an equal share of profits was a labor and reformer demand. Wealth should be divided equally by law runs directly against Social Darwinism.
Category: Business Ideas
Question 10
In 1901, J. P. Morgan bought out Andrew Carnegie and created which firm, the first billion-dollar corporation in the United States?
Standard Oil
U.S. Steel
✓
General Electric
Western Union
Correct Answer
U.S. Steel
Morgan paid about $500 million for Carnegie's holdings and merged them with other firms to form U.S. Steel, capitalized at about $1.4 billion. Standard Oil was John D. Rockefeller's oil company. General Electric was an electrical company formed earlier. Western Union was the leading telegraph company.
Category: Railroads and Finance
Question 11
What was the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890 intended to do?
Set an eight-hour workday nationwide
Regulate railroad shipping rates
Outlaw combinations that restrained trade
✓
Ban child labor in factories
Correct Answer
Outlaw combinations that restrained trade
The Sherman Act made monopolies and trusts that restrained trade illegal, though weak enforcement meant mergers continued. Set an eight-hour workday nationwide was a labor goal not met by this law. Regulate railroad shipping rates was the job of the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887. Ban child labor in factories did not happen at the federal level until the twentieth century.
Category: Railroads and Finance
Question 12
What set off the Great Railroad Strike of 1877?
The arrest of a union leader
A new law banning unions
A bombing at a Chicago rally
A cut in workers' pay
✓
Correct Answer
A cut in workers' pay
When railroads cut wages during the depression that followed the Panic of 1873, workers walked off the job and the strike spread across the country until federal troops ended it. The arrest of a union leader did not start it. A new law banning unions was never passed. A bombing at a Chicago rally refers to the Haymarket affair of 1886.
Category: Labor Unions and Strikes
Question 13
How did the Knights of Labor differ from most earlier unions?
It welcomed nearly all wage workers
✓
It admitted only skilled craftsmen
It barred women and Black workers
It enrolled only railroad crews
Correct Answer
It welcomed nearly all wage workers
Under leaders such as Terence Powderly, the Knights opened membership to almost all workers, including women, African Americans and immigrants, and grew to hundreds of thousands of members by 1886. It admitted only skilled craftsmen describes the AFL. It barred women and Black workers is the reverse of its policy. It enrolled only railroad crews is wrong; it organized workers in many trades.
Category: Labor Unions and Strikes
Question 14
How did the Haymarket affair of 1886 affect the Knights of Labor?
It won an eight-hour day
Its membership fell sharply
✓
It merged with the AFL
It gained wide public sympathy
Correct Answer
Its membership fell sharply
Although the Knights had no role in the bombing, the public linked them to violence and radicalism, and membership fell from a peak of about 700,000 to a small fraction of that. It won an eight-hour day is wrong; the movement suffered a setback. It merged with the AFL is wrong; the AFL was a separate rival federation. It gained wide public sympathy is wrong; opinion turned against organized labor.
Category: Labor Unions and Strikes
Question 15
The American Federation of Labor, founded in 1886, concentrated on which goal?
A revolution to overthrow capitalism
Organizing every unskilled factory hand
Better wages and hours for skilled workers
✓
Free land for western homesteaders
Correct Answer
Better wages and hours for skilled workers
The AFL was a federation of craft unions that pursued practical gains in pay, hours and conditions for skilled workers rather than sweeping social change. A revolution to overthrow capitalism was a radical goal the AFL rejected. Organizing every unskilled factory hand is wrong; the AFL left most unskilled workers out. Free land for western homesteaders had nothing to do with its program.
Category: Labor Unions and Strikes
Question 16
During the 1892 strike at the Homestead works, how did manager Henry Clay Frick respond to the steelworkers' union?
He raised wages to end the walkout quickly
He recognized the union as bargaining agent
He sold the plant to J. P. Morgan's bank
He locked out workers and hired Pinkerton guards
✓
Correct Answer
He locked out workers and hired Pinkerton guards
Frick shut out union members and brought in armed Pinkerton agents; a gun battle killed workers and guards, and the state militia then helped strikebreakers take over, crushing the union. He raised wages to end the walkout quickly is wrong; he cut wages. He recognized the union as bargaining agent is wrong; he set out to destroy it. He sold the plant to J. P. Morgan's bank is wrong; Carnegie's holdings were sold to Morgan only in 1901.
Category: Labor Unions and Strikes
Question 17
How was the Pullman Strike of 1894 finally broken?
Federal troops and a court order
✓
A large wage increase from Pullman
A vote by the striking workers
A new federal labor law
Correct Answer
Federal troops and a court order
A federal court ordered the strikers back to work and President Cleveland sent federal troops to keep the trains moving, so the strike collapsed with no gains for workers. A large wage increase from Pullman is wrong; Pullman refused to restore wages. A vote by the striking workers did not end it. A new federal labor law was not passed.
Category: Labor Unions and Strikes
Question 18
Mail-order catalogs such as those from Montgomery Ward and Sears, Roebuck brought a wide range of goods to which customers in particular?
Factory owners in large cities
Rural families far from cities
✓
Railroad crews on long runs
Immigrants arriving at ports
Correct Answer
Rural families far from cities
Catalogs let farm families order clothing, tools and household goods at clearly listed prices instead of relying on costly country stores. Factory owners in large cities could shop at department stores. Railroad crews on long runs were not the catalogs' target market. Immigrants arriving at ports were not the group the catalogs were built to serve.
Category: Consumer Culture
Question 19
What was a yellow-dog contract?
A deal settling a strike with higher pay
A union rule limiting work to eight hours
A worker's pledge not to join a union
✓
A state license needed to run a factory
Correct Answer
A worker's pledge not to join a union
Employers made workers sign yellow-dog contracts promising not to join unions as a condition of being hired, one of several tactics used to block organizing. A deal settling a strike with higher pay is a union victory, not this. A union rule limiting work to eight hours is a labor demand. A state license needed to run a factory has nothing to do with the term.
Category: Working Conditions
Question 20
The factory system called scientific management, nicknamed "stop-watch management," aimed to do what?
Give workers a share of company profits
Shorten the workweek to forty hours
Let workers elect their own foremen
Break jobs into timed, repetitive tasks
✓
Correct Answer
Break jobs into timed, repetitive tasks
Scientific management studied each motion of a job and divided work into short, repetitive steps to raise efficiency, which made workers more like interchangeable parts. Give workers a share of company profits was not part of the system. Shorten the workweek to forty hours is wrong; the goal was output, not shorter hours. Let workers elect their own foremen is wrong; management tightened control.
Category: Working Conditions