People’s lives in the city improved during the second half of the nineteenth century. Methods of governing cities improved. It went from a disorganized and old system, to a more organized and professionalized system that brought for better planning and services for the urban residents. Some of the new services included running water, sewer systems, and police and fire protection became a common feature in most of the cities. Government health departments were able to manage one of the worst aspects of urban life, which is the spread of contagious diseases. There was an improvement in …show more content…
Inventors continued to work throughout the rest of the 19th century and the 20th century on ways to make life easier while helping increase productivity. Some of the most important inventions such as the light bulb (Thomas Edison), telephone (Alexander Bell), and the automobile (Karl Benz) made life easier for all Americans and still is making life easier.
People started to move from farms to cities because of the uprising of industries and factories. Overcrowding and disease became important issues. Advances were made in agriculture including better machines and cultivators. Cyrus McCormick invented the reaper, which made the process of harvesting grain quicker and cheaper. John Deere created the first steel plow in 1837. This helped speed up farming across the Midwest.
Medicine advanced greatly during the 19th century. Louis Pasteur proved that microscopic organisms caused disease. Many scientists believed in unplanned generation in the early 19th century. For example, the believed in the idea that some living things grew from non-living matter. Pasteur proved that this theory was incorrect with a series of experiments between 1857 and 1863. Once doctors found out what caused certain diseases, they started looking for