Inventions In The 19th Century

In 2015 the United States is arguably the only remaining would superpower. The United States' rise and continued dominance is due to the economic superiority that finds its roots in the innovations and inventions of the entrepreneurs in the 19th century. To give one a perspective of how influential 19th century inventions are to American life, one billion seven hundred thousand servings of Coke are consumed ever day. These inventions have allowed companies obtain so much dominance that the American life would be vastly different without them, despite being created two centuries ago. Even in our modern society, Americans are still influenced, controlled, and manipulated by the inventions that entrepreneurs capitalized on in the 19th century. …show more content…
The rolled cigarette had for the first time in American history provided people with tobacco in an extremely accessible and cheap form. As the rolled cigaret was becoming more and more popular companies needed to find a way to make them as fast as possible, and thanks to Bonsack's rolled cigaret machine companies were now able to "make 120,000 cigarettes a day." Imagine how this machine was able to change the entire business of the tobacco industries, allowing these companies to supply the demand of their addictive product to the American public. Their ability to supply a much bigger market gave these companies larger room to grow, but this growth in the market and increased production had caused the supply to outrun demand. With more product to sell than customers to purchase, these rolled cigaret companies were forced into vigorous competition with one another causing them to put out immense marketing campaigns. Their main focus for these marketing campaigns was to make smoking look and feel "cool", and they were very successful at doing so. They paid huge amounts of money to film production companies in order to have their product placed in movie stars' hands. These movie product placements were so important to these cigaret companies that the cigaret company Brown & Williamson had "paid …show more content…
The invention of Coca-Cola and the way the brand was able to grow around the product shows in immense detail how entrepreneurs in the eighteen hundreds were able to capitalize on their invention. As Izle Bezuidenhout puts into perspective the way Coke markets their soft drinks he mentions that, "the company and the brand strive to dominate and take over in the soft drink market across the world... the companies international success is based on a set of principles: the brand must offer unique taste, refreshment and authenticity". The way to Coca-Cola markets their product as a drink that will provide whomever drinks it happiness, social statues, and sense coolness has worked out greatly in their favor. Bezuidenhout also mentions that, "The company and the brand or selling of lifestyle, a way of seeing the world and persuading consumers to participate by drinking Coca-Cola". Coca-Cola has built its product and brand around these ideals, and by mentally manipulating the American people to think so highly of their product, the company had been able to grow to the stage that it is at now. Coke has established such a strong brand recognition that ninety four percent of the world recognize their red and white logo. Coke is one of the greatest example of an invention of the eighteen hundreds still being a