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Question:Why were the technological innovations of the mid 19th and early 20th centuries referred to as the Second Industrial Revolution?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Why were the technological innovations of the mid 19th and early 20th centuries referred to as the Second Industrial Revolution?

Because those inventions (electrification, chemical industries, internal combustion engine etc.) had social, economic and political effects which were as profound as those of the first industrial revolution. These include the rise of a hegemonic middle class, creation of a more homogenous workforce of semi-skilled machine tenders, women's involvement in reform movements, the rise of the modern corporation and the regulatory state, Taylorism as a form of workplace organization and control and many other factors.

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Think of all the developments that changed people's lives.
Refrigeration and the modern kitchen.
The light bulb and electification of cities.
Movie camera and movies.
Radio
The automobile.
The airplane
All all this available to the common person. The first indust rev turned workers into slaves. The second created an empowered middle class.

The first industrial revolution was powered by water. The giant mills which were the first major factories in the modern sense were driven by huge water wheels, and shafting taken from powered numerous spinning frames in one location.
The second water-powered element in the first industrial revolution was the canal, with its massive multiplication of the ability to carry goods
(coal and pottery, particularly).
The period 1760 to 1830 is the most relevant, and we are principally talking about the UK here, which industrialised in this way first.

The second industrial revolution was based on steam, with stationary boilers and steam engines widening drastically the locations where factories could be built. Additionally from the 1820's, railways, increasingly with steam locomotives, supplanted canals as primary transport.

The steam engine was a whole new underlying technology.