Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Second Industrial Revolution started in 1870 and ended when World War I commenced in 1914. This period followed the First Industrial Revolution which had concluded around the middle of the nineteenth century.
James Beaumont Neilson patented the hot blast technique in 1828 at Wilsontown Ironworks in Scotland. This method used hot flue gas from a blast furnace to preheat combustion air blown into the furnace.
Sir Joseph Swan supplied about 1,200 incandescent lamps to the Savoy Theatre in Westminster London in 1881. This was the first theater and public building in the world lit entirely by electricity.
Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company in 1903 after building his first car in 1896. The Model T price declined from $780 in 1910 to $360 in 1916 due to mass production methods.
By 1914 the German chemical industry had become world dominant with firms like BASF Bayer and Hoechst producing several hundred different dyes. In 1913 eight firms produced almost 90 percent of the world supply of dyestuffs.