| A | B |
|---|
| patent | a government grant that allows only the inventor to make, use, and sell an invention for a certain time |
| pollution | damage to the land, air, and water from harmful materials |
| Thomas Edison | invented the light bulb; received 1,093 patents |
| oil industry | "black gold" found bubbling in Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1840 |
| steel industry | changed with the Bessemer process of making iron into steel easily and cheaply, steel became the building material for buildings, bridges, and railroad tracks |
| corporation | a large company formed by a group of investors |
| monopoly | the complete control of an industry by one company or person |
| Andrew Carnegie | built a steel mill empire; US STEEL |
| "robber barons" | rich business owners who became rich because of low-paid workers |
| stock | a share, or part, of the ownership of a company |
| stockholders | have a right to share in the money a corporation makes and the right to vote for a group of leaders to run the corporation |
| John D. Rockefeller | established the Standard Oil Company, the greatest, wisest, and meanest monopoly known in history |
| farmers | the first group to ask for government action against big businesses |
| company town | a community set up and run by a company for its workers |
| labor union | a group of workers that tries to help its members |
| strike | to refuse to work until certain demands, such as higher wages or better working conditions, are met |
| early working conditions | poor lighting, unsafe machinery, air pollution |
| Breaker Boys | boys that worked in the coal mines for low pay and under dangerous conditions |
| Haymarket Square Riot | a demonstration of striking laborers in Chicago in 1886 that turned violent, killing a dozen people and injuring over a hundred |
| The Pullman Strike | in Chicago, Pullman cut wages but refused to lower rents in the "company town", the strike achieved nothing |
