Ben worked online again this morning and we picked up where we left off from yesterday's online class. Ben was in good spirits, cooperative, and appeared rested. We continued to discuss American inventions and included Isaac Singer - who improved on the sewing machine design, the first commercially successful typewriter, Alexander Graham Bell who invented the telephone, and when I mentioned Thomas Edison's invention of a version of the lightbulb, Ben refused to give him the credit and we researched the fact that Tesla actually became embroiled in a dispute about Edison but that ultimately, Tesla was the inventor of the AC system lightbulb used today. Ben shared similar thoughts and a negative opinion about Henry Ford, about whom he shared his knowledge; Ben's wealth of general information is impressive. We concluded our session discussing other inventions and the results that ensued in the workforce, and covered the growth of corporations, trusts, the businessmen and philanthropists, Andrew Carnegie and Rockefeller, and subject-specific vocabulary such as gilded, philanthropist, and monopoly. We finished our session discussing life in factories, child labor, unions, robber barons, and strikes. Ben was familiar with the topics we covered and freely shared his knowledge and opinions with me without sugar-coating the words.