In 1850, the U. S. was a second-rate power. We were way behind Britain in steel, railroads, and textiles. In fact, it was 1848 before we finished building our first large railroad with American-made rails. Before that we just imported most of our rails from Britain. In the area of science and chemicals, the Germans were the leaders. They invented or perfected many chemical products in the late 1800s and early 1900s, including bromine, aspirin, and novacaine.