The first episode starts at the end of the civil war, with people looking to make profit for new inventions. The main focus in this episode is Cornelius Vanderbilt who became so powerful, he was known as “The Commodore”. Vanderbilt at the age of sixteen he bought a ferry with a $100 loan from his mother and as he grew up he had gotten into a different field which revolutionized the business industry. Vanderbilt was poised to alter the country with a whole new infrastructure, railroads. In the episode the audience has also been introduced to a man named John D. Rockefeller who built his first oil refinery near Cleveland, and by 1882 he had a near monopoly of the oil businesses in the U.S. but his practices led to the passing of antitrust laws.
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Rockefeller as a kid had to work to support his family with his dad being a con-man. One day in church he realized that an oil rig started spewing out oil outside the church and knew that he could start a business out of it, the age of 24 he invests everything he has in starting his first oil refinery. Rockefeller’s oil refinery that was scraping by, when he heard that Cornelius Vanderbilt wants to meet with him for a business opportunity when he was 27. Vanderbilt agrees to a deal that would give rockefeller a lucrative rebate ($1.65 per barrel) for filling his trains with oil freight. Rockefeller promises he will fill Vanderbilts trains daily, making other oil companies start to die. during this time he heard that lamps were exploding inside people's homes and burning them down so to solve this issue he invented “standard oil” which was safer and started to make a profit from its …show more content…
With the railroads dieing and at the height of the depression Vanderbilt dies at the age of 82, leaving his fortune to his son, William Henry Vanderbilt. Rockefeller is still using Tom Scott’s railroads to transport oil from Chicago to New York because his pipelines do not flow there because of his good deal he had with Tom Scott. Scott tried to combat standard oil and worked until Rockefeller shut down the refineries in chicago out of rage making many people be without jobs. The workers that worked at the refinery protested and were furious at Tom Scott for trying to combat standard oil and to attempt to put Rockefeller out of business, in doing so it forced him to shut down the refineries in Chicago making them without jobs. The workers burned down his railroad station killing his business, the episode ends with the narrator informing us that Rockefeller amassed a sum of money that would equal $225 billion dollars today, but he is about to face his biggest competitor, Andrew Carnegie, Tom Scott’s
Rockefeller as a kid had to work to support his family with his dad being a con-man. One day in church he realized that an oil rig started spewing out oil outside the church and knew that he could start a business out of it, the age of 24 he invests everything he has in starting his first oil refinery. Rockefeller’s oil refinery that was scraping by, when he heard that Cornelius Vanderbilt wants to meet with him for a business opportunity when he was 27. Vanderbilt agrees to a deal that would give rockefeller a lucrative rebate ($1.65 per barrel) for filling his trains with oil freight. Rockefeller promises he will fill Vanderbilts trains daily, making other oil companies start to die. during this time he heard that lamps were exploding inside people's homes and burning them down so to solve this issue he invented “standard oil” which was safer and started to make a profit from its …show more content…
With the railroads dieing and at the height of the depression Vanderbilt dies at the age of 82, leaving his fortune to his son, William Henry Vanderbilt. Rockefeller is still using Tom Scott’s railroads to transport oil from Chicago to New York because his pipelines do not flow there because of his good deal he had with Tom Scott. Scott tried to combat standard oil and worked until Rockefeller shut down the refineries in chicago out of rage making many people be without jobs. The workers that worked at the refinery protested and were furious at Tom Scott for trying to combat standard oil and to attempt to put Rockefeller out of business, in doing so it forced him to shut down the refineries in Chicago making them without jobs. The workers burned down his railroad station killing his business, the episode ends with the narrator informing us that Rockefeller amassed a sum of money that would equal $225 billion dollars today, but he is about to face his biggest competitor, Andrew Carnegie, Tom Scott’s