| A | B |
| consolidation | the practice of combining separate companies into one |
| railroad baron | powerful and aggressive businessman who controlled the nations railroads |
| standard gauge | the uniform width of 4 feet, 8.5 inches for railroad tracks, adopted during the late 1800s |
| rebate | discount or return of part of a repayment |
| pool | a group sharing in some activity |
| Model T | America's first mass production car made by the Ford Motor Company |
| assembly line | a system with machines and workers arranged so that each person performs an assigned task |
| mass production | the production of large quantities of goods using machinery and often an assembly line |
| corporation | a business in which investors own shares |
| stock | shares of ownership a comapnay sells in its business which often carry voting power |
| shareholders | a person who invests in a corporation by buying stock and is a partial owner |
| dividend | a stockholder's share of a company's profits, usually as a cash payment |
| trust | a combination of firms or cororations formed by a legal agreement, especially to reduce competition |
| monopoly | total control of a type of industry by one person or one company |
| merger | the combining of two or more businesses into one |
| sweatshop | a shop or factory where workers work long hours at low wages under unhealthy conditions |
| trade union | organization of workers with the same trade or skill |
| collective bargaining | discussion between an employer and union representatives of workers over wages, hours, and working conditions |
| strikebreaker | person hired to replace a striking worker in order to break up a strike |
| injunction | a court order to stop an action, such as a strike |
| George Westinghouse | devised air brakes that improved the system for stopping trains |
| Eli H. Janney | invented car couplers which made it easier for railroad workers to link cars |
| Gustavus Swift | developed refrigerated cars which enabled the railroads to ship meat and other perishable goods over long distances |
| George M. Pullman | developed the Pullman sleeping car |
| Cyrus Field | managed to lay a telegraph cable across the Atlantic Ocean |
| Alexander Graham Bell | developed a device that transmitted speech-the telephone |
| George Eastman | invented the small box camera-the Kodak |
| John Thurman | developed a vacuum cleaner in 1899 that simplified housework |
| Lewis Howard Latimer | developed an improved wire for the light bulb |
| Granville Woods | an electrical and mechanical engineer from Ohio who invented an electric incubator |
| Elijah McCoy | invented a mechanism for oiling machinery |
| Jan E. Matzeliger | developed a shoe-making machine that performed many steps previously done by hand |
| Henry Ford | experimented with an automobile engine that was powered by gasoline |
| John D. Rockefeller | was the most famous figure of the oil industry |
| Andrew Carnegie | a leading figure in the early years of the American steel industry |
| Sherman Antitrust Act | prohibited trusts and monopolies |
| Knights of Labor | a trade union |
| Terence V. Powderly | led the Knights of Labor to become a national labor organization in the 1800s |
| American Federation of Labor | a union which represented skilled workers of various crafts |
| Samuel Gompers | led the American Federation of Labor |
| Eugene V. Debs | led the American Railway Union in a strike |
| labor | to work |
| individual | person |
| transmit | send form one place to another |
| mechanism | mechanical device |
| partner | associate who agrees to operate a business with another |
| trend | general direction |
| identify | recognize |
| environment | the complex of physical, chemical, and biotic factors that surround living organisms |