Radio

The radio was the first device that made mass communication possible. It was one of the first devices to be able to communicate internationally. In the 1860's, a Scottish Physicist named James Maxwell discovered radio waves, electromagnetic waves that have the capacity to transmit music and speeches. The first development of the radio began in 1893 when Nikolai Tesla demonstrated wireless radio communication in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1896, Guglielmo Marconi was awarded with the official patent of the radio by the British Government. 
Without the telegraph and the telephone the radio would be nothing. Radio-telegraphy is sending radio waves that contain morse code that is used in a telegraph. The first use of radio transmitters was used for ship-to-shore and ship-to-ship communication. When a ship was sinking it would use the radio to reach nearby stations to call for aid.
In 1912 The Radio Act required all land radio stations and ship stations to be staffed  24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In the late 80's and 90's the radio started expanding with radio stations that broadcasted sports and comedy acts.

Sources - 

http://www.personal.psu.edu/jtk187/art2/radio.htm

http://inventors.about.com/od/rstartinventions/a/radio.htm

Links for Transcontinental Railroads

Dealing with workers -

http://austinsandsness.blogspot.com/

Life in The Camps and Transcontinental Railroads -

http://eliushistory.blogspot.com/

Lets look at an owner -

http://www.usjamie.blogspot.com/

Hiring Workers -

http://www.kaylacarroll4200.blogspot.com/

Life in The Camps

     Eli Warmenhoven

Period 5

 Life on the trains was describes as "Hell on Wheels." Miners and traders were scattered across the countryside, getting used to their new outpost. Gambling houses, dance halls, saloons, and brothels were all assembled from wood or canvas to support their needs. The train serve brought in carloads of migrants to settle in. People would settle in with the workers to make a couple bucks. 
      These colonies of workers were very portable. One day they could be working and the next they could be on the road. All they had to do is pack up their things and dismantle the shacks. Once they packed up everything they followed the newly-laid track. Once the group of railroaders left the town they were working in the town dried up. It acts as if the town is abandoned. They moved to a location in Wyoming territory that was near a military post. They used that as their protection from claim-jumpers on the railroad property. Once the "Hell on Wheels" set up their shacks and got to work the town often grew tired of crime, Murders happened nightly. 
      The life in the camps was very rough. They constantly had to be ready to move. Never having a true home, but having a portable shack. I imagine the workers had very little supplies or food to get through the job. Death was a common thing in the camps, diseases going around with the workers and murders happening every night. 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-hell/

Riley Courteau

Period 5

Transcontinental railroad

This article is talking about how they created railroads across the nation allowing them to trade between states and the transfer goods and material from over seas. Within ten years of having the railroad up in America they have transported about 50 million dollars worth of freight from coast to coast each year. People could even travel across the country to see other places and other stuff like books ended up in other states like New York. Railroads were a big impact back then because it allowed them to transport material and items that were sent from over seas. 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/general-article/tcrr-impact/