Technology as symbol
& technology as system;
machine aesthetic
Gothic steam engine
1850s;
4 major characteristics
of technological system -
1) large-scale
construction;
2) brings together
different components;
3) standardization &
goal of efficiency;
4) large-scale
effects;
railroads - 1890,
164,000 miles track.
standard gauge - uniform
system.
different components
–
machines (rolling stock), track, & structures.
Standardization:
early 1800s, each city,
town & farm kept local time.
Nov. 18, 1883,
railroad set
of standard time zones;
Iowa Supreme Court 1899,
"We are not quite ready to concede that for the mere convenience of these
companies, nature's timepiece may be arbitrarily superseded. Local time cannot be lightly set aside
on the mere pretext that certain lines of business so demand."
1850s, fruit from
California
& Florida to northeast cities; refrigeration cars;
Erie railroad 1840s,
milk
consumed in NY increased four times;
Symbol -
"annihilate"
both space & time;
Currier & Ives
print.
1851 Crystal Palace
- Great
Exhibition of London;
"the distinctive
character of the English".
Crystal Palace - modular
construction - first large, freestanding iron-frame building.
Cyrus Mccormick
reaper.
Samuel Colt's
revolvers.
Prizes - 1 of 4 American
entries.
1854 British engineers,
industrialists visit to U.S.
1876 U.S. Centennial
–
Philly exposition;
Bell telephone,
Singer sewing
machine,
Remington
typewriter;
Agricultural Hall.
Machinery Hall - Corliss steam engine - 40 feet
tall, 700 tons, 1,400 horsepower.
President Ulysses Grant.
display of technological
optimism;
8 million attended;
Brooklyn Bridge.
1867, chief engineer
John Roebling,
longest suspension
bridge in world, 1600 feet long, unprecedented load - 19,000 tons.
Washington Roebling,
1869 sinking
caissons
"caisson
disease" ("the bends").
finished 1883. first day
150,000 people.
1865-1915, American
production increased 12 times in value.
1880-1890, investment in
machinery doubled, then again 1900-1910.
Chicago grain market;
trading center;
new factories -
McCormick
reaper works.
1850s, new rail
routes.
Grain
elevators;
Chicago Board of
Trade.
lumber trade from Wisc
& Mich;
stockyards -
"disassembly
line"
refrigerator cars -
Armour
& Swift.
1871 Great Chicago Fire
- destroyed area 4 miles long by 1 mile wide, 100,000 homeless.
skyscraper.
1893 World's Columbian
Expo, Chicago,
"White
City"
12 million
visitors.
Mass markets - national communities of consumption.
department stores -
Macy's, Wanamaker's, Marshall Field's
"palaces of
consumption"
chain stores -
Woolworth's
– “five & ten cent” stores;
integration of
production,
distribution and retail.
clothing -
standardized sizes,
ready-made clothes.
Farmers more of
businessman;
1870s Granger movement,
1890s Populist movement.
Aaron Montgomery
Ward 1872,
catalog,
"I suppose you
wonder why we haven't ordered anything from you since fall. Well, cow kicked my arm & broke it
& my wife ill so had doctor bills.
But now all well, have new baby boy & please send up hat on p.
20."
"Please send me a
good wife. She must be a good
housekeeper, 5 feet 6 inches in height; weight 150 pounds, black hair &
brown eyes. I am 45 years old, six
feet tall, am considered good-looking man. I own quite a lot of stock & land & am tired of
living bachelor life."
Richard Warren Sears
–
1893, catalog 200 pages
long,
Rural free
delivery.
Alexander Graham
Bell
patent 1876.
Thomas Alva Edison
"wizard of Menlo Park".