ch. 14 sct.1 C.T.#5

I think the invention of electricity had the greatsest impact on society, although the other inventions such as steel had great impact too.
Electricity had many effective applications. It was used for light bulbs, powering machines, electric streetcars, and more (p.438). Steel also had many applications, but not as many as electricity, because many, many different types of machines ran on electricity.
Electricity also had a great impact in the home and peoples daily lives. It powered many time-saving appliances (p.438) such as sewing machines, telephones, and typewriters. These allowed people to work at home and opened up many jobs for women in offices (p.439). Electricty and the inventions that stemmed from it affected the workplace by allowing people to work faster from the home and in the workplace. It did much of the work that had been being done by manual labor, so it reduced peoples work hours and backbreaking labor. Electricity also took some of the need away for manual laborers, which some people did not like (p.439). One of the biggest effects of electricity on the workplace was that factories no longer had to be on rivers; they could spread over the land in city areas. This caused industry to grow very rapidly (p.439).
The invention of electricity had the greatest impact on society at that time, affecting both the workplace and peoples daily lives (in the home) greatly.