After the Civil War, the United States entered into a period of significant industrial growth. The first transcontinental railroad was completed. Many new inventions were developed, such as the telephone and other communication tools, electric lighting, transportation advances, medical treatments, motion pictures, and many more. New techniques for the processing of natural resources and the making of goods were developed, such as the research laboratory developed by Thomas Edison and more sophisticated factory techniques of Henry Ford. It was the beginning of the Industrial Age. (Scott, The Ballad of America: The History of the United States in Song and Story (rev. ed.), p. 253-58.)