In what ways was the second industrial revolution different from the first?
While the Civil War devastated the economy of the American South, wartime production actually stimulated Northern industries, which manufactured rifles, cannons, uniforms, and many other supplies for the U.S. Army. In the years after the Civil War, industrialization advanced quickly in the North, where factory output grew 75 percent between 1865 and 1873! At the end of the Civil War, more than half of American manufacturing was still water-powered, but, over the next three decades, steam power, coal, oil, and electrification would provide the power for American factories. The continued growth of railroads, along with the steel, petroleum, and other industries, is known as the second industrial revolution.
In addition to the growth of basic industries, American inventors created an amazing number of new devices during the era of industrialization. Between the creation of the U.S. Constitution in 1787 and 1860, American inventors patented 36,000 inventions. During the second industrial revolution, between 1860 and 1890, inventors patented 440,000 inventions.