Advances in Communications
In 1835, Samuel Morse invented the telegraph, allowing people to send messages over long distances using electrical impulses.
Thirty-two years later, in 1867, Christopher Latham Sholes invented the typewriter, which opened jobs for women.
Then, in 1876, Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone after years of experiments. Bell had been trying to invent a device to transmit human speech using electricity, when one day he spilled acid on himself and called for his assistant, Watson, from a different room. Watson rushed in, exclaiming that he had heard and understood Bell through the receiver.
In 1877, the switchboard was developed, which allowed more people to connect into a telephone network. It also provided more jobs for women as switchboard operators.
A few years prior, in 1869, the Transcontinental Railroad was completed. It linked the economies of the West and East, and caused the creation of standard time. Four different time zones were created, to make the process of forming schedules easier.