Exploring Electrical Technology

1. Exploring Electrical Technology Perspectives on Social Impact of Electrification in America by David Nye based on Electrifying America: Social Meanings of a New Technology 1880-1940

2. The Great White Way(Nye’s Ch 2 of Electrifying America) • Identity & Influence • Referred originally to N.Y.’s Broadway, when lit with electrified signage between Madison & Herald Square • Widely emulated in other cities • Spurred usage of electricity by other institutions w/benefits & dangers • Challenged church to communicate its message into contemporary culture • Todays analog: WWW and Internet?

3. Great White Way: Other focal points that exemplified the same spirit • Expo’s: 1876-1915; 1933-39 (when the World’s Fair was active) • Resulted in a permanent increase in the load for electrical utilities • Offered most effective way to reach a large audience • Provided a model for community transformation

4. Great White Way: Other focal points that exemplified the same spirit • Expo’s • Went beyond utilitarian value to lend prestige & represent progress symbolically • Exemplified Christianity, science & progress • Enabled theatrics, special effects and signage for advertising

5. Great White Way: Other focal points that exemplified the same spirit • Electric Tower*: symbolized electricity & electrificat’n itself • A miniaturized lighted replica of Niagra Falls as source of its power • Placement of lights • Emphasized architectural details • Symbolized man’s control over nature • Suggested visibility, yet intangibility of electricity itself *Nye page 45

6. Great White Way • Promoted new uses of light • Accent beauty & hide eyesores • At Niagra Falls • Highlighted its natural splendor • Left bleak brick bldgs nearby in the dark • Added color at nighttime • Buildings & streets in the city • Emphasized impressive features • Kept eyesores in poor areas blank • Capitol & White House Bldgs took advantage

7. Great White Way • New usages of electric light • Held observers spellbound & awestruck by its brilliance • Moved beyond functional necessity • Imitations of nature became popular • False aurora borealis • Creation of the earth simulation • Buildings were lit as a spectacle for publicity • As a symbol of corporate power • As a permanent ad • Became a text without words • 1905 Times Square became New Year’s event • Instrument of cultural expression; symbolic validation of urban industrial order

8. Great White Way • Treatment by Poet’s & Artists • Viewpoints differed • Edward Hungerford rhapsodized it • Mumford & Pound had it cause a personal epiphony • Lewis Eilshemius saw it as a monster • Cather & Brook either criticized or theologized it • Lindsay was ambivalent

9. Great White Way • Practical benefit for artists: could now see their own colors well enough without sunlight

10. Great White Way • The City from Greenwich Village • An important piece of artwork • Depicts the Great White Way dominating the background • Neighborhood built on human scale occupies foreground • Illustrates new intrusive, dominant place electrified lighting came to have in lives of city dwellers

11. What Was Electricity?(Nye’s Ch 4 of Electrifying America) • Process of electrification throughout world nations • Similarities: all shaped by complex, social, political, technical ideological interactions • Differences: somewhat typified by the USA versus European model

12. What Was Electricity? • Electrification in the USA • Initially fragmented, individualized, sporadic in operation, distributed by DC systems locally • Later distributed by AC, privately funded by banks, had to be profitable, became government regulated

13. What Was Electricity? • Electrification in Europe • Publicly funded & controlled by government • Lost money, yet lighted homes more quickly than in the USA

14. What Was Electricity? • Social groups identified by Nye • American Intellectuals • General public • Engineers • Business people

15. What Was Electricity? • American Intellectuals • Included Jackson Lear’s anti-modernists & Richard Hofstadter’s Mugwumps • Viewed electricity as • a sign of modernity • Means of subjection, destruction and social control

16. What Was Electricity? • General public • Including urban middle class, working class & rural people • Saw electricity as • Item of consumption, conspicuous clothing* and signage • Means of better health** • Symbol of utopian ideals • Metaphor for mental power, psychic energy and sexual attraction *Nye page 148; ** Nye page 154

17. What Was Electricity? • Engineers • New group of professionals • Considered part of a tech. elite • Perspective on electricity • Instrument for rationality & social reform • Embraced new values based on mathematical versus cut and try approach to solving technical problems

18. What Was Electricity? • Engineers’ perspective • A view of God as the Great Electrician • A view of themselves as cultural transformers & agents of corporate capitalism • Engineers as viewed by others • Awed for their achievements by public: bridges, dams, power stations, etc. • Negatively by anti-modernists who opposed them

19. What Was Electricity? • Business people • Most organized & self-conscious • Influenced by several factors • Periodicals: Century, Success & Magazine of Wall Street • Duopoly of GE and Westinghouse • Government regulation of & competition between public utilities • Saw electricity as • A tool for making money • A commodity rather than as a public service

20. What Was Electricity? • Emerged as private electrical utilities with state regulation • Pro: facilitated growth to meet the demand of human needs & enabled funding from private enterprise • Con: sometimes became corrupt or overlooked environmental & other public interests for sake of profit

21. What Was Electricity? • Conclusion: In accord with the American ideal of free enterprise and a capitalistic economy, competition between private electrical utilities seems good, but experience also shows the need for government regulation to balance competing public interests and maintain necessary standards for protection.