| Edition |
1st U.S. ed. |
| Description |
xiii, 543 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm |
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text txt rdacontent |
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unmediated n rdamedia |
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volume nc rdacarrier |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 511-520) and index. |
| Contents |
Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Prologue: A Show of Power: Philadelphia 1876 -- 1. The Machine That Changed the World -- 2. Conquering the Waters -- 3. The Greatest Engine of All -- 4. In Search of the Mysterious Ether -- 5. Let There Be Light -- 6. A Covey of Competitors -- 7. The Light Dawns p. 136 8. The Pearl Street System -- 9. The Cowbird, the Plugger, and the Dreamer -- 10. The Alternative System -- 11. Eventful Currents -- 12. Gaining Traction -- 13. Competition and Electrocution -- 14. Money, Mergers, and Motors -- 15. A Show of Lights: Chicago 1893 -- 16. The Niagara Fallout -- 17. Hard Times -- 18. The Future Arrives -- 19. Mastering the Mysteries of Distribution -- 20. The Empire of Energy -Epilogue: A Show of Possibilities: New York 1939 -- Electrical Circuits -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index. |
| Summary |
The dramatic story of the power revolution that turned America from an agrarian society into a technological superpower, and the dynamic, fiercely competitive inventors and entrepreneurs who made it happen-- a riveting historical saga. Maury Klein, author of Rainbows End: The Crash of 1929, is one of Americas most acclaimed historians of business and industry. In The Power Makers, he offers an epic narrative of his greatest subject yet-- the power revolution that transformed American life in the course of the nineteenth century. The steam engine, the incandescent bulb, the electric motor-- inventions such as these replaced backbreaking toil with machine labor and changed every aspect of daily life in the span of a few generations. The power revolution is not a tale of machines, however, but of men: inventors such as James Watt, Elihu Thomson, and Nikola Tesla; entrepreneurs such as George Westinghouse; savvy businessmen such as J.P. Morgan, Samuel Insull, and Charles Coffin of General Electric. Striding among them like a colossus is the figure of Thomas Edison, who was creative genius and business visionary at once. With consummate skill, Klein recreates their discoveries, their stunning triumphs and frequent failures, and their unceasing, tumultuous, and ferocious battles in the marketplace. In Klein's hands, their personalities and discoveries leap off the page. The Power Makers is a dazzling saga of inspired invention, dogged persistence, and business competition at its most naked and cutthroat. |
| Subject |
Inventions -- United States -- History.
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Inventors -- United States -- Biography.
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Force and energy -- History.
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Force and energy. (OCoLC)fst00931575
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Inventions. (OCoLC)fst00977993
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Inventors. (OCoLC)fst00978052
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United States. (OCoLC)fst01204155
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| Genre/Form |
Biographies. (OCoLC)fst01919896
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History. (OCoLC)fst01411628
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Biographies.
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| ISBN |
9781596914124 (alk. paper) |
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1596914122 (alk. paper) |
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