Blog #4

            Chapter seven was quite an interesting chapter to read. What immediately took my interest were the development of steam-powered transportation and the upgrade of the immigration process. From the earlier readings, I have grasped the idea that immigrating to another country was very difficult and costly. As if gathering enough money for the whole family to make the trip wasn’t hard enough, one also had to consider the dilemma of actually finding a ship that would be making the trip to America, as well as the long duration of the journey. But by the end of the 19^th  century, new technological developments made it more efficient to travel and even shortened the time to a few days. It was also very clever of the European passenger companies to create the shipping lines, which allowed immigrant passengers to live in dormitory enclave, where they were housed, fed, and medically examined. These companies were able to make a profit while reducing the amount of diseases that would accompany these passengers on board. In addition, what was most helpful to these immigrants was the decrease in ticket prices, which made traveling less financially challenging.

            I also enjoyed reading about the development of the motion picture industry. I never knew that the Greeks were the first entrepreneurs that came up with such a brilliant idea!  Since going to the movies is one of my favorite things to do, I was very intrigued upon reading about its origin.