Is Frick: Positive Or Negatively Affected Carnegie's Business

The episode began with the actions of Carnegie’s chairman, Frick, and how they negatively impacted Carnegie’s business, forcing him to rethink his previous ways when someone makes an assassination attempt on Frick. Frick overworked and underpaid Carnegie's employees which led to strikes and death. Frick survived the attempt on his life but did not get to keep his job as Carnegie’s chairman, as Carnegie saw him as almost a threat in his company.

Carnegie reaches another problem, his company is failing and he fears that his company will be the next victim of J.P. Morgan. He was a banker who bought failing companies out and saved the for his own profit. Morgan was tired of this however, he wanted to make a name for himself rather than live in the large shadow of his father. In the way the originals like Vanderbilt and Rockefeller built their successful companies from nothing. Up until he discovered Edison he had merely bought failing companies and brought them back to life, but with his
money and Edison’s innovation of electricity he found his opportunity to make his own name and his own company. Soon after however, Morgan and Edison ran into more issues. Namely one of Edison’s apprentices, Nikola Tesla. Edison had ignored Tesla’s ideas for a new type of electricity, alternating current, which proved to be a fatal mistake. He went the wrong route to prove alternating current was far more dangerous and unpredictable and brought about the failure of his own company. Morgan practically abandoned Edison and went after Tesla and Westinghouse, and succeeded in gaining control of their company. Then he changes the name of Edison Electric to General Electric and combined the two companies to use AC to make one gigantic successful company.

J.P.
Morgan was a successful banker who was born into the banking business under his very successful father. Like any other person, he didn't want to live in the shadow of his father his entire life. So he began searching for ways to make his own company and his own name, and he found it in an inventor named Thomas Edison. Edison acquired over one thousand patents for different inventions in his career but his most widely known is, obviously, the light bulb. Even though Edison actually took someone else’s idea for the light bulb. Morgan sought out Edison to talk about his idea for teaming up to light up America with artificial lighting, aka electricity. The first house they lit up with Edison’s light bulbs was actually Morgan’s. When it was done and working they had something like an open house for other business owners to come in and see the newest innovation in lighting. Even J.P. Morgan’s father was there. The demonstration was a success but his father was still
disappointed. Without Morgan’s determination to make his own name we may not have the same type of electricity that we do now, or it may not have been as advanced.