CH 212 Test 2

Wilfred Owen

A poet that captured this perfectly was British poet and soldier, Wilfred Owen. One of the leading poets of World War I, Owen wrote shocking, realistic war poetry on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare. His works stood in stark contrast to both the public perception of war at the time, and most were published posthumously. Owens was killed in action exactly one week (almost to the hour) before the signing of the armistice that ended the war. Wrote Dulce et Decorum Est

Michael Faraday

A fascinating figure, Faraday is the epitome of the way in which science can provide upward mobility for those who are clever and work hard, as he overcame class prejudice and lack of mathematical training to be one of the biggest contributors to the science of electromagnetism. And, he became a huge popularizer of science, articulating the simplicity of it, during a time when science was seen as quite complicated. Faraday's father was a blacksmith and poor apprentice who died early. Consequently, Faraday moved to London as a boy, apprenticed to a bookbinder, and started reading the books. Because he had a terrible memory, he kept beautiful notes of everything. And, he had a strong visual, tactile orientation, and was truly bad at math. BUT, because of his strongly visual, non-mathematical side for experimentation, he was able to imagine operations of the natural world. And, although he was dismissed as a lower class tinkerer and showman, his ability to visualize made him both an excellent scientist and communicator. Faraday was enthralled with electricity, and, importantly, he saw it as something that could be understood via natural laws. At a time when electricity was still considered ephemeral and impenetrable, Faraday saw it as governed by laws that could be grasped and as such, experimented upon. Here he says, "Electricity is often called wonderful, beautiful; but...the beauty of electricity or of any other force is not that the power is mysterious and unexpected, touching every sense at unawares in turn, but it is under law, and that the taught intellect can govern it largely." Faraday is best known for his work on electricity and magnetism. He worked closely with other physicists and chemists, such as Humphrey Davy and John Daniell. This is depicted in the image on the left, where he and Daniell, now understood to be the founders of electrochemistry, are discussing an experiment. And, he conducted nonstop experiments with electricity, magnetism, and chemicals. His huge breakthrough was discovering mutual induction, finding that if he moved a magnet through a loop of wire, an electric current flowed in the wire, and it also flowed if the loop was moved over a magnet. This established that a changing magnetic field produces an electric field, later coined by James Clerk Maxwell as "Faraday's Law." Faraday conducted his experiments at the Royal Institution, which was founded in London in 1799. The purpose of the institution was for "diffusing the knowledge, and facilitating the general introduction, of useful mechanical inventions and improvements; and for teaching, by courses of philosophical lectures and experiments, the application of science to the common purposes of life." He was originally hired as a lab assistant, where he cleaned equipment, set up experiments, and worked for leading scientist Humphrey Davy. Eventually, he took on a more advanced role, conducting many different experiments and services to private individuals and the public. Intensely interested in children's education, he eventually conducted public experiments. You were assigned a transcript of one of these lectures. As you read through it, look for sections that outline his desire to demonstrate the wonders of science as something beyond a commercial venture (like good old Franklin did) or salon adventures (as Bose and other Europeans did during the eighteenth century). Faraday's goal was to popularize and advertise experiments to a broader public, especially youth. Pay attention to his word choice and the items he uses for his experiments. What do you notice about these lectures? Do you think he's successful? Okay, so what's the big picture with Faraday? You don't need to remember his specific scientific experiments. I've provided them so you can understand that he's a huge name in the history of electricity. What is important to remember is that Faraday's experiments were aimed at investigating the nature of electricity. And, contrary to the scientific opinion of the time, he concluded that there weren't various kinds of electricity—there existed only a single electricity. It just happened to have changing values of quantity and intensity—which we now understand to be current and voltage—that produce different types of phenomena. And, in addition to helping the world better understand electricity, he was also passionate about educating others on the subject, believing that anyone with an interest in learning about it can—regardless of their age, income, or social class. This is hugely important to us today.

World's Fairs

A great example of Europe and the United States demonstrating progress to the world was the World Fair expositions [hit space bar slowly three times] that were held only in Europe and the United States from 1851 to 1939. These expositions were the perfect way to demonstrate how much Europe had progressed at the turn of the twentieth century, as exhibitions like incubators, hot air balloons, and other technological inventions were juxtaposed next to disparaging exhibits of Native Americans [hit space bar slowly three times] from Europe's colonies and American's reservations. The Native American exhibits have been likened to human zoos, as they were depicted in their [quote unquote] 'natural habitat'—which was essentially mud and straw huts—and wore very outdated or ceremonial clothing. Needless to say, these exhibits did not reflect the real lives of native peoples at that point in time. Rather, such exhibits enabled Europeans and Americans to demonstrate how much progress they had made in comparison to other parts of the globe, thus further defining them as a progressive and civilized society. Even though, as we learned last week in during the second week of this course, progress in colonized parts of the globe was seriously impeded because of European and American imperialism. The obsession with the future is also seen in the 1939 World's Fair, held in New York. The theme of the fair was "The World of Tomorrow." Government agencies, corporations, civic groups, and smaller organizations from around the world arrived in huge numbers, building extraordinary pavilions and setting up exhibitions. Over the course of two seasons, 44 million people attended the fair, catching glimpses of a possible future, and enjoying entertainments from marionette shows and thrill rides to girlie shows and choreographed aquatic extravaganzas. A popular exhibit and ride was Futurama designed by Norman Bel Geddes and sponsored by General Motors. Futurama presented a possible model of the world twenty years into the future (1959-60), and was characterized by automated highways and vast suburbs. Working off of the assumption automobile would be most common means of transportation by 1960, Futurama was designed to inspire public enthusiasm and support for planning and construction of highways. Another popular exhibit was Westinghouse's Hall of Electrical Living and Elektro, their "Moto-Man." The picture on the right depicts the unveiling of Elektro, and as you can see, crowds of people are jammed into the hall, in order to get a glimpse of Elektro performing his mechanical tricks. He could perform twenty-six tricks in all, including, walking, talking, smoking a cigarette, and counting. This was the last World's Fair of this magnitude. Nothing like it has existed since, except perhaps Disney World, which opened its doors in 1955. Additionally, the story of this world's fair isn't over—Westinghouse buried a time capsule to be opened in the year 6939. It is filled with holding seeds, fabrics, microfilm, a Gillette safety razor, a dollar in change, and a pack of Camel cigarettes. What couldn't be captured in that capsule was the sense of wonder and hope that characterized this era. Many see that feeling as something that ended prior to World War II.

Nature and the Sublime

As it is highly influential and has been repeatedly reused by Hollywood to lure you into watching any number of different action films. It's successful, isn't it? It makes you want to find out what the awesome and overpowering scene that the man is confronting is, right? It perfectly captures how truly alone we are in the moment of the sublime: we are completely overpowered by the enormity of the scene in front of us that all we can do is watch. Think of the romantic qualities inherent in these images. They lack the rationality of the Enlightenment, don't they? There is no faith in mankind, or trust that his government or social body will help him. He is alone in front of an awe-inspiring moment that (in the case of these movie posters) will undoubtedly test his masculinity and individuality. Well, actually there are a few posters here that technically don't embody the sublime, since they're not really in front of anything and/or have their heads turned back towards the viewer...but you get the point. It is interesting to note that this image is rarely reproduced for a movie with a female lead. It is almost always a man on the precipice, which begs the question of why not? (Seriously. I scoured the Internet, along with former students, and we could only find these two posters at the time of recording this lecture. So, it wasn't for lack of trying.) Anyway, why don't we see more movie posters with female leads posing in a sublime moment? And, what does it say about how gendered the concept of the sublime is?

Electrical Lighting

As you might expect, the REA and New Deal efforts to electrify America caused energy consumption for electrical lighting in the United States to sky rocket from 1900 to 1950. Indeed, according to a recent Energy and environmental report conducted at Boston University, the US has "generally higher energy intensity" than most of the world. And, given the fact that we no longer use traditional means of energy, such as kerosene, whale oil, and candles, (as shown in this chart), it is imperative that innovation in energy conversion technologies happen, as we may be on the brink of yet another major energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy.

Modernism

As I've already mentioned, the immense changes that occurred at the turn of the twentieth century were met, on the one hand, with optimism and pride but also, on the other, with anxiety and apprehension. Let's now look at artistic movements and works of art that embodied the anxiety and apprehension felt by many as Europe and North America thrust forward into the 20th century. Modernism, in many ways, sought to capture the uneasiness, the misgiving, and the angst of the period. So here are the basics of the Modernist mood, if you will. Modernism began, really, in 1871, primarily in response to the Second Industrial Revolution. Interestingly, Modernism lasted until roughly 1970, but we'll obviously only spend our time here looking into what we would characterize now as Early Modernism, which coincides with the turn of the 20th century. While the Second Industrial Revolution may have been the initial impetus for Modernism, a really important contributor to the Modernist mood was actually good old Sigmund Freud. You see, Freud dropped a pretty major bombshell when he revealed to the Western world his theories on the individual's often beleaguered inner mind. Indeed, Freud pointed out that the ego is constantly battling basic human instincts and, even more importantly, social and cultural expectations of proper behavior, often leading to psychologically unhealthy people. As a result, artists of the early Modernist era began to see art as an outlet for the healthy expression of the artist's inner mind. Significantly, inspired by Freudian theory, Modernist artists decided to break loose from the constraints placed upon them by both artistic tradition and cultural expectation. As a result, they rebelled against and wholly rejected artistic standards and traditions that had been in place since the Renaissance, ultimately prizing imagination, creativity, and feeling over any kind of realism in visual representation. Modernist art was supposed to reflect the pure inner mind and the unadulterated expression of emotion by the artist, realism be damned. What this means, on the whole, is that Modernist artists redefined the purpose of art. Art was no longer made to depict the world accurately, but instead to reflect the artist's inner self authentically—as you can see in the example on this slide by Vincent Van Gogh. This is particularly important in the context of the turn of the century as things like rapid industrialization, urbanization, and rampant consumerism seemed to be causing total social conformity. Indeed, Modernists worried that individuality was slipping away at the turn of the century, that people were losing touch with their authentic selves in the crowded, consumption-driven urban environments becoming so common during that period. The need for personal and authentic expression, then, seemed essential and urgent to fight the anxiety surrounding conformity and the dwindling of authenticity.

The Guillotine

As you can imagine, and should learn more about in the French Revolution video placed in this week's reading and viewing assignment page, France witnessed many public executions during the eighteenth century. The common method was quartering, which was where the prisoner's limbs were tied to four oxen, then the animals were driven in four different directions, resulting in the prisoner being literally pulled apart. If you were a member of the elite, you could often purchase your way into a less painful death, such as hanging or beheading. Enter Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin, who belonged to a small faction of people that believed the death penalty was cruel and inhumane, and should be banished completely. Urging for a painless and private punishment that was equal for all classes, he devised a beheading device with help from a German engineer and harpsichord maker. This is based on the theory that the severing the head is one of the quickest, least painful ways to die. And, more importantly, the layman who operates the guillotine never missed the mark, since the head is placed immediately under the blade, which falls from at least seven feet above, directly onto the prisoner's neck. Older methods of beheading could be incredibly gruesome, and prone to human error. The first execution via guillotine occurred in 1792 in France, after their new assembly rewrote their penal code to say, "Every person condemned to the death penalty shall have his head severed." Since all social classes were to receive the same type of execution, the guillotine was put into fast and frequent use—and remained in use until 1977, although the execution was no longer public by then. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, guillotine executions were major spectator events and children even had little mini guillotine toys that they could use to decapitate dolls. A number of countries in Europe employed the guillotine well into the twentieth century, but it was never used in the United States, which has always preferred executions by firing squads, electrocution, and, more recently, lethal injection. (Note that Guillotin himself was horrified by the government's frequent use of his invention and attempted to distance himself from the invention. Obviously that didn't work.) The guillotine serves as an example of the marrying of Enlightened thought with the new technologies that came out of the Industrial Revolution. Being a device designed on the scientific principles of modernity, the guillotine offered what was seen at the time as a more humane execution—and many argue that it is still one of the most humane methods. It was used during the Reign of Terror period of the revolution to cleanse France of it's backward and barbaric past, just as the other new philosophies of the Enlightenment would do. However, it became unequivocally associated with the Reign of Terror, and therefore is a great example of how technology cannot be disassociated from the social context in which it was created and used.

Beautification

Beatification was a demonstration whereby electricity ran from a prime conductor to the plate above the crown on a man's head. The static electricity essentially creates a halo effect above the man's head. The picture above is of a Mr. Rackstrow, demonstrating the electric performance in 1748. As a practical joke, Bose once seated his guests at the dinner table, rigged their forks to an electrical machine hidden under a rug. To their surprise, Bose then shocked the guests when they picked up their forks to eat. Such a story demonstrates the ways in which making electricity was connected to creating moments of disorientation and sensory scrambling (122).

Futurism

Connected to these ideas for the future was the modern art and cultural movement of futurism. Originating in Italy with the publishing of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's Futurist Manifesto in 1909—so, we're stepping back in time by a couple of decades, to the era we looked at last week—futurism gave formal expression to the movement, energy, speed, and power of machines. It emphasized memory and vision, glorified war, stressed vitality, change, and the restlessness of modern life, rejecting the past and everything old—especially political and artistic traditions. To help provide you with an example of futurism in art, the top image is Giacomo Balla's Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash, created in 1912. Here you see Balla trying to capture the movement of the little dog's feet, as well as his owner's feet. Note what Balla has done to capture the concept of movement of the feet and leash. The bottom image is a tad more difficult to comprehend. This is also Balla, but here he is capturing the speed of a motorcycle. Do you see the wheels? They're here, moving forward across the image. See where the man's head and hands would be, as the motorcycle rockets forward. The lines surrounding these darker swirls are his attempt to catch the speed and dynamism of a moving motorcycle. How successful do you think he is? He is definitely shirking traditional artistic methods, isn't he?

Benjamin Franklin

But, suffice it to say that he is the archetypal American "self made man," and a true Renaissance Man. Franklin was a political theorist, politician, postmaster, diplomat, scientist, musician, inventor, civic activist, statesman, satirist, printer, etc. Proud of his working class origins and success later in life, Franklin was the embodiment of the American Dream. Importantly for this lecture, he was connected in both the elite scientific world of Europe (as a diplomat that was truly cherished in France and throughout Europe) and the popular magic of electricity in the American colonies. Immanuel Kant even dubbed him the Modern Prometheus who stole fire from the heavens and gave it to mankind. He was, of course, referring to Franklin's famous lightning and kite myth. Now a momentous part of American mythology, Franklin is believed by many to be the man who discovered electricity. As a refresher, the story is that Franklin picked a stormy day to fly a silken kite that had a lightning rod and key dangling at the end of the string. When lightning struck the kite, a bolt charged the metal key and Franklin touched it and was zapped by electricity. We now know that there is no way this could have actually happened, as lightning bolts contain several hundred million volts, and even if Franklin's kite was hit with half that amount (and it most likely was not hit by lightning at all), the key would have been far too hot for Franklin to handle. In October of 1752, Franklin published his results in the Pennsylvania Gazette. Interestingly, he never says that he performed the experiment. It was fifteen years later that Joseph Priestley, an Englishman and chemist (among other things) gave Franklin credit for "bringing lightning from the clouds to the ground." Given what we've been discussing for the past few weeks about observation, evidence, and experimentation, you may be wondering where Franklin's evidence was. That's the kicker here. He has no evidence to support his claims. But, what he did have was a fantastic story, which, goes a lot farther than boring old facts. What we do know is that Franklin did write an experiment that posited whether lightning is the same as electricity (and as such can be drawn through metal), but he was not the first to perform said experiment, if he did so at all. Needless to say, Franklin was fascinated by electrical experiments and storms. He turned his home into a little laboratory where he made machines out of things he found around his house. In 1750, he had observed that a sharp iron needle would conduct electricity from a charged metal sphere. He then theorized that using an elevated iron rod, he could connect static from a cloud to the Earth before lightning actually struck. Franklin argued that such pointed rods would "draw the electrical fire silently out of a cloud before it came nigh enough to strike, and thereby secure us from that most sudden and terrible mischief." (Apparently, lightning strikes were quite the worrisome event in his day. But, truly, lightning can cause a great amount of damage.) The shape of the material offered the least resistance to conduct electricity into ground without heat. Thereafter, Franklin advocated for pointed lightning rods, and they started to be found protecting many buildings and homes—early Americans absolutely loved this invention. The lightning rod atop the State House in Maryland (the picture on the right) was the largest "Franklin" lightning rod created during his lifetime.

Charles Babbage

Charles Babbage was born in Walworth, Surrey, on December 26, 1791. His father was a banker and he was one of four children. He attended Trinity, Cambridge to study mathematics, graduating with an MA. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1816 and was chair of mathematics at Cambridge University. Babbage was a prominent figure, regarded as colorfully controversial and even eccentric. Like many of his contemporaries, was what was known as a "gentleman scientist" meaning he was an independently wealthy amateur well able to support his interests from his own means. And, his interests were wide, as he published six full-length works and nearly ninety papers. He was a prolific inventor, mathematician, scientist, reforming critic of the scientific establishment and political economist. He pioneered lighthouse signaling, invented the ophthalmoscope (an instrument for inspecting the retina and other parts of the eye), proposed "black box" recorders for monitoring the conditions preceding railway catastrophes (which we now use on trains and planes), proposed the use of tidal power once coal reserves were exhausted, designed a cow-catcher for the front end of railway locomotives, failsafe quick release couplings for railway carriages, multi-colored theatre lighting, an altimeter (instrument for determining altitude), a seismic detector, a tugboat for winching vessels upstream, and an arcade game for members of the public to challenge in a game of tic-tac-toe. His interests included lock picking, ciphers, chess, submarine propulsion, armaments, and diving bells. Charles Babbage was an energetic man who had many ideas, some of them good. At the age of 30 he thought of making mathematical tables by machine, and continued to pursue this idea until he died 49 years later, inventing the Analytical Engine as a way to achieve his objective. He was good—even inspired—at the engineering details. He was bad at keeping a project on track.

Sigmund Freud

Electroshock therapy brings us to the assigned reading by Sigmund Freud. The father of psychoanalysis and one of the most influential figures of twentieth-century psychology, Freud published many books and articles. One of the things he researched was the use of electroshock therapy. Much to the chagrin of their nations, many soldiers were returning home or being discharged due to a strange condition that came to be called "shell shock." Governments began to look towards methods to heal the soldiers in a timely fashion so that they could be returned to the battlefield—you can see this in the first paragraph of Freud's memorandum. Very quickly, soldiers began to be treated with the relatively new phenomena of electricity. It appeared as though just a few treatments were needed to shock the patients back into a more stable mental condition. Freud writes about the efficacy of the treatment and why it was used. Wrote Memorandum on Electrical Treatment of War Neurotics

Luigi Galvani

I'll start with Galvani, who was an Italian physician, biologist, and philosopher who discovered animal electricity. He did not come from an aristocratic family but his father was a goldsmith who was wealthy enough to send him to university where he studied medicine and surgery—a fact that is important for understanding his animal experiments and manipulation of living bodies. In the middle of the eighteenth century, Galvani became interested the field of "medical electricity," which we now call bioelectricity. Legend has it that he was skinning a frog that he happened to be performing static electricity experiments upon when his assistant touched an exposed sciatic nerve of the frog with a metal scalpel that picked up an electric charge, making the dead frog's legs kick. From that observation, Galvani became the first man to investigate the relationship between electricity and life (or what was called "animation" during this time), concluding that animals had intrinsic electricity that was accumulated in the muscle and that external conductors were capable of inducing contractions. He contemplated the possibility that the muscle held the electricity the nerve worked as a conductor, carrying the flow of electricity around the body. Galvani named this force "animal electricity," and actively researched it until his death. And, importantly for us, his experiments were summer reading for Mary Shelley, and helped her construct her novel Frankenstein—even though there is no direct mention of electrical reanimation in the novel.

Analytical Engines

Importantly for our course, Babbage was a computer pioneer, inventing two different important devices that are hugely important to the history of modern computing. During this time, engineers, architects, mathematicians, astronomers, bankers, actuaries, journeymen, insurance brokers, statisticians, navigators—anyone with a need for calculation—relied on printed numerical tables for anything more than trivial calculations. Printed tables were calculated, copied, checked and typeset by hand. Humans are notoriously fallible, however, and some feared that undetected errors were disasters in waiting. Considering the need for correct calculations, Babbage conceived of an engine that would work like a giant, modern adding machine. He designed the Difference Engine, which was strictly a calculator that crunched numbers through repeated addition according to the method of finite differences. There were actually a few different Difference Engines, so it's correct to refer to them in the plural, but for the sake of clarity, I'm referring to it in the singular. The Difference Engine could not be used for general arithmetical calculation. Analytical Engines (there were three designs in total), however, mark the progression from a mechanized arithmetic of calculation to fully-fledged general purpose computation. Babbage's Analytical Engines were programmable using punched cards, like Jacquard's loom, and each had a "store" where numbers and results could be held, along with a separate "mill" where the arithmetic processing was performed. The engines were capable of functions that we see in modern computing: microprogramming, parallel processing, iteration, latching, polling, and pulse-shaping. And the engines had outputs including a hardcopy printout, punched cards, and graph plotting. The picture on the left is of a model that would be part of the entire Engine—it is not of the engine, as you'll see in a moment. The picture on the right is of the punched cards that would be used in the Engine. But, Babbage never really built his analytical engine. The reasons are still debated. For one, Babbage was known as a prickly character, highly principled, easily offended, and given to virulent public criticism of those he took to be his enemies. He was also a rotten publicist who hated to lecture on his work and neither proclaimed nor promoted the mathematical potential of his engines. As a result the engines were judged largely on their practical utility to produce error-free tables, and experts of the day did not agree that there was any real need for new tables. Some argued that existing tables were already sufficiently accurate and that there was no economic justification for the large capital costs of building his huge machines. Additionally, the thing would have been massive and slow, but is noteworthy in that it would also have been digital, programmable, and Turing-complete. Indeed, the picture from the last slide [hit key] of part of the Engine, would be a smaller section like this one [hit key], where you can see the three columns working with one another. Currently, computer scientists in England are hoping to secure funds to build it by 2030, because, yes, it is that huge, complicated, and expensive, and even today people don't understand why it would need to be built. Rest assured, though. While Babbage never saw his engine built to fruition, its concept was completed and the proof is the fact that you're using a computer to view this lecture right now.

Industrial Revolution

Industrialization in Europe required three necessary changes to take place in European society: first, manual labor needed to be replaced with machines; second, animal and human power needed to be replaced with sources of energy that came from water and steam; and third, new and large amounts of raw materials such as iron and coal needed to be introduced. These things happened because of what we learned about in the past few weeks of class: intellectual movements like the Renaissance, and Scientific Revolution helped foment an increase in knowledge and learning; discoveries of natural resources and use of slave labor in the New World coupled with increased navigation and maritime technology provided Europe with the raw materials to process and manufacture in new factories; Protestantism and it's emphasis on individualism and the work ethic helped prime an already hard-working labor force; and applied principles that were derived in the Enlightenment helped create new order to the changes that were happening during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and usher in capitalism as an economic system. Scholars typically agree that the Industrial Revolution had its origins in England and this is because of a variety of reasons. First, England was not war-torn during the eighteenth century. The several decades of peace at the end of the eighteenth century had created an atmosphere conducive to economic growth. Second, their large navy easily helped move goods throughout the empire and provided merchants access to raw materials and new overseas markets. Third, this era also saw a population increase which provided a labor force and consumer market, which in turn created a surplus of capital that went into sound investment. There were also other reasons connected to politics and agriculture re-structuring, but I won't explain those here. Beginning around 1780 and 1800, the industrial revolution is typified by the following developments. New forms of energy were created, such as steam and water, which replaced human labor and power. Different parts of Europe developed at different times, and the change and developments of the industrial revolution happened gradually. For the most part, it went unnoticed until 1815 when the Napoleonic Wars ended. Basically, it can be viewed as consisting of two stages: the first was steam and factories, and the second stage was railways and transportation. The industrial revolution is a hugely significant even because it changed so many aspects of life during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that still resonate today. One such development that came from the industrial revolution was the invention of the time clock as a concept to guide labor. If you think about this, the time clock is truly the application of Enlightenment principles in people's lives. It was a rational way of organizing and structuring the work force within factories, etc., and we still use these principles today. You've probably never considered what life was like before we had a mechanized sense of time. Imagine waking up and not having a specific time that you need to be somewhere! It sounds luxurious, but remember that before the industrial revolution society was more agrarian, so you would usually wake at dawn, work until mid day, have a break, and then work until sun down—so the mechanized factory system has been both good and bad, if you think about it. On the one hand we are now regulated by arbitrary times that were created around production and machines; on the other, with the labor laws that went into effect in the early nineteenth century, we work less time than we would have if our society remained agrarian. Most importantly, though: the time clock commoditized time, literally making time money and giving us the famous phrase "time is money". Remember, though, that during this time the factory shifts were often very long hours and the conditions were horrendous. The mechanized factory system was capable of vast production, which resulted in a radical transformation of capital—this in turn helped bring on the rise of free market capitalism. Suddenly factories in England and other European countries were producing textiles in minutes and hours that would have taken days if done by hand. Artisans and guilds who used to produce certain materials—such as candles, threads, etc.—could not compete with the new, faster, and more efficient factory. Just as artisans couldn't compete, neither could the economic system that they were a part of survive, hence the natural shift to capitalism began. This system, though was not perfect and machines could not regulate human labor. The advent of a mechanized factory system also brought with it the creation of a brand new type of job: management. Very quickly, factory owners realized that they needed to hire people to oversee the workers and voila! The pyramid structure of work organization was created and this basic structure continues to exist today. Although, eventually, management became more complex and something more like this, where you can see there are different managers for different sectors and all answer to the big wig or head honcho general manager at the top. Regardless of how complicated management becomes however, the basic structure for all corporations is still fundamentally the same: the vast majority of the corporation's workers are low level, with all of the wealth concentrated at the top of the pyramid. As I just mentioned, free market capitalism came hand in hand with the Industrial Revolution. A basic definition of free market capitalism is a system of economics that minimizes government intervention and maximizes the role of the market. According to the theory of the free market, rational economic actors, who acting in their own self interest, deal with information and price goods and services the most efficiently. Government regulations, trade barriers, and labor laws are generally thought to distort the market. Proponents of the free market argue that it provides the most opportunities for both consumers and producers by creating more jobs and allowing competition to decide what businesses are successful. Critics maintain that an unfettered free market concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, which is unsustainable in the long term. In practice, no country—either past nor present—has a completely free market. During the eighteenth and nineteenth century, liberals (don't think of liberals by today's US politics—these liberals are actually comparable to conservative pro-business US politics of today) advocated individual freedom and no social or economic regulation. One such liberal that advocated for a market guided by Enlightened principles was Adam Smith, the man whose image is on this slide. Smith wrote one of the most important works of the modern era: Inquiry in to the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. While not assigned in this course, we do need to understand what the work was and why it has had such an impact on society. Wealth of Nations took Smith seventeen years to complete, as he compiled notes, made observations, and held many conversations among economists of the time about the Industrial Revolution and how it was effecting society both socially and economically. Smith's end result was a treatise which sought to offer a practical application for reformed economic theory to replace the existing economic theories that were becoming less relevant in the time of industrial progress and innovation. Essentially, the work provided the foundation for new economists, politicians, mathematicians, biologists, and thinkers of all fields to build upon, and represents a clear shift in the field of economics. In Wealth of Nations, Smith focuses on agriculture and commerce, as opposed to really focusing on manufacturing. However, businessmen—especially in England—read his work and interpreted it in a way that verified their business activities. In Wealth of Nations, Smith argues that entrepreneurs acting out of their own enlightened self-interest would get rich and raise the standards of living for all of society, if the government did not interfere with the economy. If you think about this, Smith takes a decidedly Enlightenment approach to economics, asking "What are the "natural" laws regulating the economy?" and "How do we align the economy with them?" According to Smith, the economy is guided by an "invisible hand", which means that when left to it's own devices, the economy will self-regulate and ensure maximum efficiency. But, this invisible hand is always threatened by government regulations, monopolies, lobbying groups, etc. At the end of the work, Smith suggests that the government's proper role is to focus on defense, justice, the creation and maintenance of public works that contribute to commerce, education, the maintenance of the sovereign, etc., which are all activities that are financed by taxation. So, if you happen upon an economic argument and someone decides to quote Smith, which is often done, listen carefully. Usually they focus exclusively on the invisible hand argument and ignore this last argument about the role that taxation plays in securing the wealth of nations. Smith's work was incredibly influential, of course. And, as the Western world shifted from a mercantilist to capitalist system, factories and managements system did their part to realign the class system into capitalists and workers (proletariats), further transforming the social order, and creating new indicators of wealth and success and new patterns of class behavior. Under the old regime, guilds filled with skilled artisans were the main producers of goods in Europe. Once the factories were created, skilled workers became a thing of the past. Also, a huge part of the work force were children, who had traditionally worked with families when European society was more agrarian-based. Now children worked the same hours and shifts as their parents and were paid the same. Consider how just this fact alone would change how society perceived itself.

Voltaic Pile

Initially, Galvani's experiments were welcomed and repeated by Alessandro Volta, a scientist at the University of Pavia. Volta was a pioneer in the field of electricity, and a unit of electric potential was named after him as "the Volt." He was the youngest of seven children and joined the Jesuit College in 1757, choosing the study of electricity. Alessandro was a large, vigorous man, and a practicing Catholic. According to a friend, Volta apparently "understood a lot about the electricity of women"—whatever that means—and developed the concept of "state of saturation of bodies' to explain attractions and repulsions of electrified bodies." He, like Matthias Bose (whom we learned about last week) and Galvani experimented with electricity and performed demonstrations for audiences. In 1775, he was granted the professorship of experimental physics. Seeing Volta's electrical demonstrations, Napoleon raised him to Count and Senator of the kingdom of Italy. During the last twenty years of his life he had the income of a very wealthy man. We have Volta to thank for our batteries. In 1800 he invented the Voltaic pile, which was the first electric battery. Essentially, it's a circuit with two different metals separated by a piece of cloth or cardboard soaked in brine (an electrolyte). The completed circuit produces an electric current. By stacking a pair of copper and zinc discs with an electrolyte between them—one atop the other—Volta could adjust the amount of electricity produced to his desired level.

Hertha Ayrton

It is in the context of First Wave Feminism that Hertha Ayrton emerged as an important scientist and suffragette. Born Phoebe Sarah Marks, she later adopted the name Hertha after a strong female character in a favorite work of fiction. Ayrton attended Cambridge, passing the Cambridge University Examination for Women in 1874 with honors in English and Mathematics. However, because Cambridge did not give degrees to women, she received her degree through the University of London instead. She is an incredible woman, who was awarded the Hughes Medal by the Royal Society for her work on electric arcs and ripples in sand and water. She was the first woman ever to read her own paper before the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE), then became its first elected female member. Additionally, Ayrton was the first woman to win a prize from the Royal Society, the Hughes Medal. Her successes led the British Association for the Advancement of Science to allow women to serve on general and sectional committees. I rattled these achievements off rather quickly, but it's important to note that she was not well received by the scientific societies due to the fact that she was a married woman. Indeed, she couldn't even read her paper to the Royal Society; a man had to do so for her. Without Ayrton paving the way for future women, most of these science institutes would have only allowed membership to men for decades to come. But, she was steadfast in producing quality work and continuously appealing to these institutions, paving the way for future women to do the same. After publishing, Ayrton demonstrated her findings for the Royal Society, which were presented by a man, since the Society didn't allow women. Later, she earned a nomination to join the society, but the group consulted a lawyer who decided that her sex made her ineligible; according to English common law, a married woman had no legal standing separate from her husband (210). Ayrton thought that the discrimination she faced was utter nonsense, as she says here: "I personally do not agree with sex being brought into science at all. The idea of 'women and science' is entirely irrelevant. Either a woman is a good scientists or she is not. In any case she should be given opportunities, and her work should be studied from the scientific, not the sex, point of view" (211). Ayrton, informed by her continuing experience with sexism, was an outspoken suffragist. She was an active member of the woman's Social and Political Union and participated in many suffrage rallies between 1906 and 1913. She was also a founding member of the International Federation of University Women and the National Union of Scientific Workers. In addition to all of these accolades, Ayrton was a creative problem solver. As Rachel Swaby reminds us in Headstrong: 52 Women who Changed Science—and the World, "Ayrton had the flexibility and skill set to tackle a hiss, a flicker, or a deadly gas, whether it required a set of pillboxes or the principles of physics. It never mattered if others believed those things weren't within her reach. She knew they were" (212).

Alessandro Volta

Look at Voltaic Pile

Charles Darwin

Natural Selection and Social Darwinism

War of the Currents

Nicola Tesla and Thomas Edison "bridged the gap between theoretical and experimental science and application," and as such, helped transform Western society (Ede 360). According to Andrew Ede, in A History of Science in Society, "their inventions, the teams they created, and the companies that developed their work brought electrification to industry and the home." By 1910, American businesses and industry were eagerly incorporating electricity into their daily operations and increasing production. It spread much more slowly into American homes, however. Electricity would remain a luxury until the 1940s. For example, nationwide, in 1907, only 8 percent of Americans lived in homes served by electricity, and while that number would rise, it truly did so in urban environments. By 1930, just thirty years after Edison figured out how to build the first power grid, electricity was changing the daily lives of urban America. Rural America, however, was a different story, and typifies how electricity, often considered a right, was truly an economic and geographic privilege and luxury.

Naturgemälde

Not a mad scientist figure himself, Alexander von Humboldt is a better representation of the Romantic scientist, so let's start here. Humboldt is one of the most amazing figures we'll learn about in this course. He was a Prussian geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. Humboldt traveled throughout most of his life, inspiring many other scientists and geographers to do the same, as he had always "felt an inexplicable pull towards the unknown, what the Germans call Fernweh—a longing for distant places" (21). Humboldt's legacy is enormous. More places, plants, and animals are named after him than anyone else, from the Humboldt Current to the penguin and several mountain ranges and forests (including the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest here in the Sierra), but he's also the founder and popularizer of infographics—long before the term was used. Not only was he at the forefront of map-making, he was also the first to present his scientific data using stunning visualizations. He championed topographical maps and many other techniques that we see on today's maps. While definitely a Romantic scientist, Humboldt also believed in the importance of close observation and rigorous measurements—firmly embracing Enlightenment methods—but he also appreciated individual perceptions and subjectivity. He believed that the human imagination was just as necessary as rational thought was for understanding the natural world (40). He actually argued that the external world only existed in so far as we perceived it within ourselves. Meaning that because our minds shaped our understandings of the world, it also shaped our understandings of nature. Think about this. Do you agree with von Humboldt? Humboldt was also a visionary. He described nature as a web of life where everything was connected—rather than viewing it as Carl Linnaeus and other Romantic scientists did, through a rather narrow lens of classification. Instead of using taxonomies, von Humboldt described Earth as a living organism (pre-dating James Lovelock's Gaia Theory by more than a century). Humboldt argued that "Nature is a living whole, not a dead aggregate," claiming that all parts of the Earth are connected. And, he even predicted harmful human-induced climate change in 1800. WHA!? I could go on and on about von Humboldt and all of the amazing things he did and discovered. Truly, this entire lecture could just be about him, but we've got to move on. If you're interested in learning more about Humboldt, I highly suggest reading Andrea Wulf's 2015 New York Times Bestselling and Best Book of the Year, The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World. Wulf goes into great and fascinating detail of Humboldt's amazing life. Before we do move on, let's take a look at a couple of his more well known contributions to science and society. In 1799, Humboldt set off on a five-year exploration of Latin America—a voyage that shaped his thinking and made him legendary across the world. He ventured deep into the rainforest and crossed the Andes, carrying dozens of scientific instruments to record everything. Upon completing his excursion and detailed observations and experiments, Humboldt produced his first and most stunning depiction of nature as an interconnected whole, which he called Naturgemälde—a German term that can mean 'painting of nature' but which also implies a sense of unity or wholeness. It was, as Humboldt later explained, a "microcosm on one page." Essentially, his Naturgemälde was an early geographic information system. Let's look at another one of his illustrations that will make this more clear. In this illustration of Naturgemälde from his South American expedition in modern day Ecuador, you can see the different ecological and geographic areas with detailed notes of the types of flora, fauna, minerals, etc., you find as you go up the mountain. On the side is detailed information based on Humboldt's observations and experiments. Here is another illustration of Naturgemälde from the same expedition. Here you can see the different latitudes across the world, and how they give rise to similar climates, flora, and fauna across the world. Such an infographic helps make clear that the all aspects of Earth are interconnected, from the lowest altitude and latitude to the highest.

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

One of the principal figures of the Futurist movement was Filippo Tommaso Marinetti. Marinetti was an Italian poet, editor, and founder of the futurist movement. He was dubbed "the caffeine of Europe," and later became an active supporter of Benito Mussolini, Italy's fascist dictator during World War II. In his manifesto, he discusses a new and strongly revolutionary program with his friends. He calls for an end to every artistic relationship with the past, claiming that Europe should "destroy the museums, the libraries, every type of academy". As you may assume, his work was read and debated all throughout Europe and was especially popular with young Europeans. Wrote The Foundation and Manifesto of Futurism: When reading Marinetti's manifesto, I'd like you to consider what it is that he is declaring. Find the section of the reading that makes this clear. Also, note his style: he blends nature imagery with technological imagery, see for example when he says something like, "famished roar of automobiles". Next, consider how he views technology, beauty, art, war, and speed. Finally, what does Marinetti claim is the duty of the young?

Dulce et Decorum Est

Poem about the harsh reality of WW1

Romanticism

Romanticism in general was a literary and artistic rebellion against the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution. Above all, Romantics questioned the Enlightenment philosophy that humans possessed and utilized reason to perfect the human condition. In fact, Romantics believed that in valuing rational thought and behavior, humans had become cold, hard thinking machines rather than authentic feeling individuals. The Romantics also believed that reason was great in theory but that most humans operated from emotion rather than rational thought processes. For example, look to the painting on this slide by Francisco Goya. In its very title, it is critiquing reason: The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. Here we see a man sleeping at his desk while monsters fly around him. Three main features. These are emotion and spontaneity of feeling, individualism, and nature. So what exactly is Romanticism? As a reaction against the Enlightenment, first and foremost, Romanticism emphasized NOT reason and rationality (like the Enlightenment) but emotions and feelings. Romantics confidently asserted that emotions and feelings were far more likely to influence human behavior than the use of reason. I mean the best way to think about it is through our own experiences. So example time: you and your significant other just broke up and you're an emotional wreck. All at the same time you feel heartbroken, depressed, betrayed, but you also feel furious, rejected, and jilted! So a few days pass and those emotions seem to be eating you alive, man, so you have a choice. You say to yourself, "I shouldn't call. With time I won't feel this way anymore and I'll see that breaking up was for the best. Plus, I'll probably say things that I'll regret." That's your reason; rational thought process is telling you not to make that call! But then, after picking up your phone about a thousand times, trying to hide it from yourself, etc., you dial up the ex and leave a long rambling tear-infused voicemail about how sad you are and lonely and you just miss seeing ex every day and you don't what to do without your best friend and then the rage kicks in and you say something ridiculous like "you'll never find someone as awesome as me!" and then you hang up and feel vindicated and humiliated. That's emotion totally influencing your behavior; reason seems to have completely vanished. The best thing about Romanticism is that it completely supports that phone call! Romantics actually encouraged allowing those spontaneous emotional outpourings to direct our behavior. They thought reason was too orderly, too mechanical, and altogether inauthentic. Take this painting as an example: the two figures are in a passionate embrace. Their faces are hidden behind their body movements, which demonstrate the passion they feel for one another. Romantics also embraced both positive and negative feelings. Romantics were really concerned with all emotions, but a few examples include feelings like love but also abhorrence (or hatred); peacefulness, but also apprehension; utter joy as well as complete terror; comfortable familiarity and also almost inexpressible awe; contentment and resentment. Any emotion a person could feel Romantics believed to be valid. Romantics, then, are known to have made the distinction we know well today: that between: "the head" and "the heart." Our heads (or reason) tells us one thing, but our hearts (or emotion, feeling, passion) say another. Romantics believed that the spontaneous expression of emotions and feelings made a person a true individual. When people chose to follow rational thought processes, they chose, according to Romantics, to censor themselves. Thus, Romantics believed in individualism, but they did not see it the same way that Enlightenment thinkers did. Enlightenment thinkers believed every individual had the ability to use reason and to make some contribution to the world with their use of reason. Romantics believed in the expression of emotion and inner thoughts and that rules and decorum should be abandoned for those spontaneous effusions of emotion. So, if we go back to the original example of a break-up, here's how individualism works for Romantics. Say your significant other chose to break up with you at a restaurant. You're sitting there at a table surrounded by other patrons and you're thinking, "ohmygod, I'm being dumped in public!" Your emotions are raging through you. Rational thought would tell you not to make a scene, to just be like, "It's cool. I understand," and to get the check and go home to punch pillows and whatnot. Romantic individualism however would involve you not caring that you're surrounded by strangers and letting your emotions out, so you throw a drink in your now ex-significant other's face, flip over the table, tell the whole restaurant something totally embarrassing about the ex and storm off. By letting out your true feelings and not caring about the rules of appropriate public conduct, you have expressed your individuality. Another significant aspect of Romanticism is its celebration of untamed nature. The Enlightenment had aimed to control nature, to bring order to what was believed to be chaos. The Industrial Revolution had, to some extent, made nature secondary to production and had turned natural environments into industrial ones. Romantics believed nature should be left as is and more importantly should be appreciated, enjoyed, and marveled at. Only in nature could humans be truly at peace with themselves and have the time to think and feel. Interestingly, too, Romantics believed that untamed nature was symbolic of the soul of humans. Nature was unpredictable as was the human soul or heart (as is evident by the range of emotions we can feel). Take, for example, the image on this slide. Here the people are dwarfed by the immense nature that surrounds them, comprising only a quarter of the painting.

World War I

Scholars generally agree that four broad processes led to the outbreak of the Great War: imperialism, nationalism, militarization, and the formation of alliances. Broadly speaking, imperialism is said to have caused intense competition and rivalry amongst powerful European nations. And nationalism increased fervor and zealotry surrounding love of country and duty to country within those highly competitive nations. In the spirit of international competition, European nations also vied to have more powerful militaries than their rivals. And finally, amidst the atmosphere of contest, European nations made defensive friendship pacts and support treaties often based on similar imperialistic aims, perceived nationalistic connections, and sometimes fear. Let's look at each of these individually, starting with imperialism. For several centuries, the Balkan region had been ruled by the Ottoman Empire—a primarily Muslim empire that, at its height, stretched from Southeast Europe to parts of northern Africa and the Middle East. By the mid-1800s, however, the Ottoman Empire had begun to falter and gave up much of its territory in the Balkans. When Ottoman imperialism ceased in the Balkan region, the region was divided by uncertain and illogical borders; that is, the creation of the Balkan states, by larger and more powerful European nations, failed to take into account the ethnic and religious ties of the people living there, so that a great deal of tension between various ethnic and religious groups became the norm. Additionally, having been linked economically to a great empire, the newly created Balkan states now had to fend for themselves, the result of which was ultimate economic instability. Overall, the Balkan states suffered tension, violence, and extreme economic hardship. These problems associated with imperialism certainly fed nationalism in the Balkan states, which is, then, our next topic. Nationalism became particularly extreme and fanatical in Serbia. A region called Bosnia-Herzegovina had been unofficially granted to Austria-Hungary in the years following the end of Ottoman rule; however, Serbians felt that Bosnia-Herzegovina should, in fact, be a part of Serbia based on its shared ethnic ties to Serbians. As such, Serbian nationalism focused on a shared perception of ethnic identity and centered upon reuniting Bosnia-Herzegovina with Serbia. Additionally, as the Balkan states struggled, a broader nationalistic movement occurred which we call Pan-Slavism. Weak as they were, many Balkan nations looked to Russia for aid and for protection from interference by other European nations based entirely, once again, on a perceived shared Slavic ethnicity. In addition to the consequences of imperialism and increasingly fanatical nationalism, militarization was on the rise. In the Balkan states, particularly Serbia, for instance, many violent nationalist terrorist organizations were established. Certainly, nationalism in that case was bolstered by violent acts of terror which can be considered a sort of militarism. On a larger scale, at the same time, Germany was quickly and profoundly augmenting its military might, primarily in competition with other powerful European militaries, specifically Britain's. Finally, in the years leading up to the Great War, the formation of alliances no doubt had an impact on the events that would soon take place. Prior to and during the Great War there were two broad alliances: the Central Powers and the Triple Entente. The Central Powers was an alliance between Austria-Hungary and Germany and was formed defensively against Russia and its growing involvement with the strife in the Balkans. The Triple Entente was also formed defensively among England, France, and Russia primarily against Germany. All three nations sort of hated Germany for various reasons—but mostly having to do with conflicts over certain territories in each of their empires—and all feared Germany's rapid militarization. World War I was also the first war to engage in chemical warfare. A variety of different poisonous gasses were used. As this infographic demonstrates, tear gas, chlorine, phosgene and diphosgene, and mustard gas were also used. The most lethal of all gasses was not mustard gas, as many might suggest, it was actually phosgene and diphosgene [hit space bar], as it is estimated that 85% of all gas-related casualties resulted from these gasses, which were used to fill artillery shells. Mortality rates of mustard gas are low, but its effects were debilitating and patients required elaborate care. To protect soldiers and animals, gas masks were developed, as you can see in these images. Their use was effective, provided that the filters were cleaned out regularly. World War I was also the first war to use the machine gun, which has drastically changed war and human society ever since. The two top images depict soldiers using them from the trenches. Automatic machine guns, while still somewhat primitive to those we have developed today, were definitely tremendously more effective than manually reloaded guns capable of firing only a few bullets per minute. Even early machine guns could fire hundreds of rounds per minute, inflicting heavy casualties and incapacitating the enemy very quickly. In addition to machine, hand, and rifle guns, railroad guns, as you see in the lower right corner picture) and the howitzer (seen in the lower left) canon-style guns were also used. We also have this war to thank for drones. US military began designing and developing unmanned aircraft during WWI, even though unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) were first truly developed to completion—meaning they had the capability to return successfully after a mission—during the 1950s. The first functioning unmanned aerial vehicle was developed in 1918 by Orville Wright and Charles F. Kettering. Under Kettering's engineering direction, the US government developed the world's first "self-flying aerial torpedo," (or drone), which became known as the Kettering Bug. Indeed, there were hugely important consequences of the war that would have a direct correlation to World War II. The geopolitical transformations that followed the war shifted the balance of power, and repositioned Europe's position in the world. There was a redistribution of colonies and European territory, the Russian Revolution, and Germany faced devastating conditions for surrender, as they had instigated the war. World War I forced the United States to really enter into world politics, and it also saw unprecedented destruction of land and infrastructure. It took decades for Europe to recoup. The war was a truly traumatic experience, which helped catapult Freud's idea of the unconscious to mainstream status, as it became a way to explain the war WWI and trauma. And, lastly, there was a resounding belief that bourgeois society had collapsed, and life would never be the same.

Rural Electrification Act

So far I've outlined electricity for the urban upper and middle classes at the turn of the century. It was a different story, however, for rural Americans. As of 1934, only a tenth of the nation's farms had electricity. Think about this! Decades after people in cities have had electricity, the majority of rural America had none! And, worse, those who lived in rural parts of America saw electricity and in-home wiring as a luxury that did not extend to them. It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who first proposed the radical notion that isolated farmers were as entitled to the liberating benefits of electricity as Americans living in cities and suburbs. In 1935, he issued Executive Order 7037 which created the Rural Electrification Act (REA). As you might expect, this was no small feat! Some members of Congress argued that the REA was a dangerous program that would bring the nation closer to socialism; others that the farmers weren't sophisticated enough to manage local electric companies. The REA set a tough goal for itself, too: it was to establish hundreds of rural electric cooperatives that would serve hundreds of thousands households, and as part of the act, private utilities were encouraged to get on the action, and start "electrifying" the countryside as well. The goal was met, and most of the cooperative electric power companies still exist today. The REA also helped fund the completion of a series of hydroelectric dams throughout the western United States. By 1940, 59% of the farms in Oregon had electricity, and 71% of Washington, and these numbers are pretty close to the national average. By the 1970s, nearly all farms in the United States had electricity. (Did you catch that!? The 1970s. That is not that long ago!) The REA was abolished in 1994, but consider the impact that this has had on America.

Electric Arcs

So, what exactly was Ayrton's work about? Well, arc lighting dates back to 1807, but it was only used as the go-to solution for lighthouses and other applications where very strong beams were needed. By the 1890s, however, they began to replace gas in streetlights, and later became famous for their use in early filmmaking (209). Indeed, arc lighting illuminated early film sets, and the lights hissed, sputtered, and flickered so obviously, that the term "flick" began to be used to describe a film (209-10). Ayrton and her husband began researching the topic of arc lighting in the late 1800s. While her husband was away, Ayrton conducted her own investigations and found that flickering phenomena was the result of oxygen coming into contact with the carbon rods used to create the arc (210). She published twelve papers in The Electrician, which laid out her findings in 1895 and 1896, then wrote The Electric Arc.

Enlightenment

The Enlightenment occurred during the better part of the eighteenth century. Broadly, it emphasized every person's possession of reason, or the ability to think critically and rationally. More importantly, people were to use their reason. Enlightenment thinkers believed that the world existed in a state of chaos; however, if people used their reason and applied it to the world's problems the result would be a definite improvement to the conditions of mankind and a world of order and harmony. With the goal of improving the conditions of mankind it was incredibly important to enlightenment thinkers that "the light of reason" illuminate humanity and that every person be aware of his own ability to use reason. Much like Renaissance humanism, Enlightenment principles included the rejection of superstition and challenging so-called "irrational" institutions like the church and unfair governments. As such, the Enlightenment was an entirely secular (or non-religious) movement. Additionally, the Enlightenment celebrated individualism and equality. Above all, Enlightenment thought asserted that individuals have the power to perfect themselves and the world they live in, resulting in inevitable human progress. While the Renaissance was more a mood or spirit that energized intellectual thought and artistic principles in Europe, the Enlightenment was an actual movement. Rather than inspiring intellectuals, leaders, and artists, the Enlightenment was supposed to affect every person at every level of society. As such, there were a number of methods by which the enlightenment spread throughout society. First was the cheap publication of informative documents like pamphlets, newspapers, and journals. By the eighteenth century, the printing press was well established and such publications could be cheaply produced and distributed. And certainly, such documents could discuss any pertinent issues of the time. To take an example, one of the most inspiring documents of the American Revolution was Thomas Paine's pamphlet Common Sense. Secondly—long before the days of drunkenly discussing your love life with bartenders or avoiding eye contact over your laptop at Starbucks—so-called "penny universities" (which we know today as pubs or bars) as well as coffee houses served as environments for dialogue. The affordable cost of beer and coffee and the public nature of those two types of establishments meant that anyone could come in for a drink and join in a lively discussion of current issues in society. And people absolutely did! Thirdly, often people of the community would form debating societies. For every meeting of the society, a relevant topic would be chosen and speakers would prepare opposing arguments obviously presenting the different facets of the issue for all to consider independently. Finally, particularly popular in France, were salons. The image on this slide depicts a 1755 salon. No, women didn't hang around getting their hair done and talking politics. Actually, salons were gatherings in private homes, hosted typically by women, and were meant to simply engage community members in pleasant but informative conversations. The hostess would act as a sort of moderator and discussions would ensue. When you think about it, we shouldn't be surprised that it was the eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries that we really see information systematized, as these two centuries brought us the Enlightenment, Romantic Era, Industrial Revolution, and various political revolutions. These centuries also witnessed population growth, production, and trade on both sides of the Atlantic. Thus the growing North Atlantic economies stimulated commerce and became wealthier than it had been a century or so earlier. So, why would the economy stimulate and help give rise to an information revolution? Well, merchants were eager to know more about production, prices, and risks—essentially, information was money. The more they knew, the more money they could make. This is still true today, is it not? Especially when you consider insider trading and the role that the stock market plays in our global economy. Additionally, militaries and navies consumed information, needing maps and reliable information to ensure safe travels and effective strategies. You can't effectively engage in war without the proper information on the society, culture, and geography at hand. Lastly, people—educated or not—needed specialized information to best work in their field. For example, farmers needed almanacs, craftsmen instructions and diagrams, lawyers compilations of law, pharmacists formulas, revolutionaries their pamphlets, etc. Essentially, people wanted the information. They wanted to know about, organize, and understand their world.

Edmund Burke

There were many people who opposed the radicalism of both Enlightened thought and the notion of revolution. These people saw tradition as important, and that if a society were to change, revolution was not the answer, as it was bloody, disruptive, and downright horrific, as in the case of the French Revolution. One of those men was Edmund Burke, who is considered the first modern conservative. Dismayed by the violence of the French Revolution, Burke emphasized the importance of tradition, culture, history, and above all, tradition in sustaining society. He warned of the dangers of abrupt social transformation based on utopian Enlightenment ideas, pointing to the chaos that ensued during and after the French Revolution as evidence. Wrote Reflections on the Revolution in France: Also In A Philosophical Enquiry, Burke explains the process of perception and effect on the perceiver, arguing that in nature, there exists the well-formed and aesthetically pleasing "beautiful," and the "sublime," which has the power to compel and destroy us. The opposition of the two categories is physiological, meaning that when we experience a sublime moment, we feel both pleasure and pain from it. It's also gendered, as the sublime is described by Burke as irregular, powerful, masculine, and painful; while the beautiful is regular, smooth, feminine, and pleasurable—essentially, ahem, breasts. Burke explains the sublime as "The passion caused by the great and sublime in nature...is Astonishment; and astonishment is that state of the soul, in which all its motions are suspended, with some degree of horror."

Iron Law of Population

Very simply, this law states that rising population rates will contribute to a rising supply of labor, and the inevitable conclusion will be the lowering of wages.

Nicola Tesla

War of the Currents

Thomas Edison

War of the Currents

Adolf Hitler

What we must keep in mind as we attempt to understand the rise of fascism is that in times of national turmoil, people want answers and they want solutions. And when some person or some party comes along that seems to have the answers and the solutions, people tend to emotionally, not necessarily logically, latch on. That is exactly what happened in Germany concerning Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Hitler had been a proud, idealistic, and super-nationalistic German soldier during the Great War. So when Germany lost the war and was thrown into political and economic upheaval, he took the defeat quite personally and felt ashamed for his country and its failures. As a young man somewhat blinded by his nationalism, however, Hitler could not reconcile Germany's loss with its own shortcomings or with any other country's superiority. Instead, then, he accepted a theory that blamed another group entirely for Germany's defeat: Jews. Now, as we attempt to understand the rise of fascism in Germany as well as Adolf Hitler's and the Nazi Party's obviously illogical anti-Semitic philosophies, keep in mind that Europe had a long history of anti-Semitism (hatred for Jews). This phenomenon will be explained in more detail next week. Hitler, however, was not alone in his perspective of blaming the Jews for Germany's dire situation. In fact, he found a political party that was right up his alley, one that had been in the making since the end of the Great War: the National Socialist German Workers' Party or the Nazi Party. The Nazi Party was violently nationalistic, entirely anti-Semitic, and opposed to republican-style democracies (like the Weimar Republic). And overall, it was most certainly a fascist party in terms of its characteristics. In any case, Hitler found his niche, enthusiastically joined the party, and very quickly was voted Fuhrer (the leader of the party) in 1921. Wrote Mein Kampf: While in prison for a failed military coup, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, a veritable treatise of Nazi ideology that became quite popular. In it, Hitler explained his and the Nazis' worldview which was ultimately linked to a Social Darwinist type of racial nationalism. He argued that Germanic peoples or Aryans—those with German ethnic ties—were the superior race and, as such, that all others were inferior. Those superior and inferior races were in, he asserted, a crucial struggle against one another for survival. Only when the inferior races died out or were killed off could Germany spread its superior culture throughout the world. Obviously already an anti-Semite, Hitler described Jews as the most inferior of all races and explained it with seemingly sound scientific logic, which gave his followers a satisfying explanation of what had gone wrong in Germany and how that might be corrected. If you haven't picked up on this already, all of his Hitler's political maneuvering was done so legally. After being jailed for the coup, he made sure to work within the legal framework of the Weimar Republic and win a large percentage of the German public's support. I won't go into exactly what he did upon being elected here. But the fact that he did work within the law forces us question how easy it is to spot a despot. If a tyrant is rising in political status via legal means, how does the republic stop him?

Imperialism

the creation and or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationship

Natural Selection

the process whereby organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. The theory of its action was first fully expounded by Charles Darwin and is now believed to be the main process that brings about evolution.

Social Darwinism

the theory that individuals, groups, and peoples are subject to the same Darwinian laws of natural selection as plants and animals. Now largely discredited, social Darwinism was advocated by Herbert Spencer and others in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was used to justify political conservatism, imperialism, and racism and to discourage intervention and reform.

Conservatism

From the end of the eighteenth century through about the 1820s or so, conservatism began to dominate the European political agenda, until many of the revolutions I mentioned at the start of the lecture began to erupt throughout Europe. This is because nationalism gained significant momentum following the French and American Revolutions, scaring the bejeezus out of major governments, such as Britain, who recognized the fragility of their rule.

French Revolution

Enlightened thinkers urged the notion that governments should promote the greatest good of all people, as opposed to the narrow interests of a small elite. Hostile to the Catholic Church and the tax exemptions of the elite, their remedies ranged from a call for democracy to a more efficient monarchy. And, this enlightened thought differed depending on the class and society at hand. This line of thinking helped bring about one of the largest and most important socio-political revolutions of the modern world: the French Revolution. However, I am not going to explain it in detail within this lecture, as you are assigned an excellent video that does a thorough and engaging job outlining it. Make sure to watch it, as you are accountable for understanding the event and its significance to the modern world. What I do want to point out is that for many of the revolutions, and especially the French and Haitian, it wasn't so much enlightened thought that really pushed revolution as it was the lack of what we now consider basic necessities, such as food and political rights that disenfranchised the poorest segments of society. And, on top of the lack of basic necessities, some nations were working to overthrow oppressive and demeaning socio-economic structures.

Karel Čapek

Elektro brings us to our assigned reading, R.U.R., which stands for Rossum's Universal Robots by Karel Čapek. A liberal, anti-fascist Czechoslovakian, Čapek wrote prolifically, publishing plays, fiction, and various editorials. Most of his literary work dealt with questions of moral philosophy and human values, often representing the state of the world in the 1920s and 30s. His writings also investigated science, international politics, social ethics, exploitation, and the consequences of capitalism, such as economic depression, political revolt and war. Čapek was appalled by the bloody brutality of World War I and the moral obtuseness of the political order that produced it. As such, he tended towards pacifism in the years that followed the war. R.U.R. is Čapek's best known work in English-speaking world. We have this play and Čapek to thank for the word "robot," which comes from the Czech word for "drudgery." At it's core, R.U.R. is warning mankind against the dangers of machine civilization, and it looks at the unintended consequences of technological hubris—a popular theme following WWI. As you'll see after reading, the plot centers around the manufacturing of robots that are built for labor. The robots do it so well that prices plummet and millions of humans are out of work. As trouble builds, the robot business is so profitable that the manufacturers refuse to cease production, regardless of the social consequences. As these problems occur, they are overshadowed by changes in the robots themselves, who begin to rise up over their human rulers. The play has influenced many aspects of popular culture, including sci-fi movies, books, and television shows. You will see Čapek's influence when we read Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in the next couple of weeks.

Ada Lovelace

In 1833, Babbage befriended a seventeen-year old girl named Ada Lovelace, where he demonstrated a small section of his Analytical Engine for her. And, while he mystified others, Ada understood him. She totally picked up what he was putting down and was entranced with the mathematical capabilities of the machine and became good friends with Babbage, frequently exchanging letters on the subject. And she saw something that he didn't: that it could do more than mathematics, that the numbers could represent other things, such as music, if it was programmed to do so. Hence, she is considered the first computer programmer, although she didn't actually work with computers. After befriending Charles Babbage, Ada wrote extensively on his work and mathematics in general, publishing an article on the subject. Ada's article and notes impressed Babbage and others. It was in these notes that we see her visionary statements on the Engine's potential. As previously mentioned, she speculated that the Engine "might act upon other things besides number... the Engine might compose elaborate and scientific pieces of music of any degree of complexity or extent." The idea of a machine that could manipulate symbols in accordance with rules and that number could represent entities other than quantity marks the fundamental transition from calculation to computation. Ada was the first to explicitly articulate this notion and in this she appears to have seen further than Babbage. She has been referred to as "prophet of the computer age" for being the first to express the potential for computers outside mathematics. Ada Lovelace was an intelligent woman who became friends with Babbage (BTW, there's zero evidence they were ever romantically involved). As something of a favor to Babbage, she wrote an exposition of the Analytical Engine, and in doing so she developed a more abstract understanding of it than Babbage had—and got a glimpse of the incredibly powerful idea of universal computation.

Galvani- Volta Debate

Interestingly, Volta's inventing the Voltaic pile can be tracked back to an argument with Galvani. So, here we are yet again, for our second big argument between scientists (the first being Newton and Leibniz, as you should recall, and the third will be popping up in the next week or so). So, even though Volta initially welcomed Galvani's experiments, he began to doubt Galvani's conclusions when he realized that a small amount of electricity was needed to elicit the contraction of the frog's muscle. This led Volta to deduce that the small amount of external electricity (meaning electricity from outside of the frog's body) was enough to produce the contractions in the frog legs, therefore he argued that Galvani had confused this with the ability of the animal to produce electricity. This conclusion started one of the most famous debates in science history, whereby each side did more experiments and demonstrations to prove the other side wrong. Unfortunately, right before Galvani died in 1797, he gave one last irrefutable demonstration that intrinsic animal electricity existed, but it basically went unnoticed for three important reasons: Volta's view on extrinsic electricity had gained significant popularity and peaked when, in 1800, he developed the Voltaic pile; Galvani's refusal to recognize Napoleon's authority over Northern Italy (recently conquered by Napoleon's army) caused him to be removed from his University appointment whereas Volta did "bend the knee" (so to speak) and was allowed to keep his position; and, Volta was a physics professor, which, quite frankly, at this time was simply more sexy than Galvani's discipline of medicine, and as such, provided more money and opportunities for Volta. This debate is an important lesson in the politics and social issues that surround a scientist's success or failure. So, as Volta's authority increased with the creation of the Voltaic pile, Galvani's theories of intrinsic animal electricity lie dormant for decades, until his nephew, Giovanni Aldini, continued the experiments, peaking the interests of other scientists, and slowly giving rise to the creation of new disciplines within electricity, such as electrophysiology, electrochemistry, and electromagnetism. It wasn't until 1952, however, that Galvani's theories were confirmed and credit was given to his efforts in understanding electricity within animal bodies.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Jean-Jacques Rousseau. A well-known Swiss Enlightenment philosopher, Rousseau was also a major critic of the Enlightenment. He believed that all the many developments that had occurred since the Renaissance had led to nothing but degeneration and injustice. Indeed, Rousseau believed that by celebrating and encouraging individualism and the use of reason to perfect the human condition and to make progress, people had actually perverted the principles of the Renaissance and Enlightenment. And that that perversion led people to value appearance rather than substance, wealth rather than character, and power rather than cooperation, so that society had devolved into an environment of manipulation and corruption. Still, Rousseau was optimistic. He advocated for governments based on pure democracy because they would cure the evils wrought by centuries of bad behavior. By putting political power directly in the hands of the people, they would be forced to consider what he called "the general will." They simply could not think selfishly and only of themselves and would necessarily have to consider the well-being of others and their communities. And if, of course, a person did think and act selfishly in political matters his would be just one vote among many, and the greater good could still be protected. Wrote Social Contract: it begins with what has become one of the most famous Enlightened phrases of all time: "Man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains." As you read through the piece, consider what Rousseau means by this and whether you agree or disagree with him. His response distinguishes between natural and social inequality, as he clearly sees man born in a state of nature where he is completely free, but government and society places him in situations where he is no longer free. This means that to understand social inequality, we must first understand the original state of Nature and how civil society developed. As you'll see with how he describes human nature prior to society, there is no real evidence; we must use imaginative reason. Can you see a connection to John Locke's notion of the human mind is a blank slate?

William Butler Yeats

Let's now look at a work of modernist poetry by William Butler Yeats called The Second Coming. Because of its stunning, violent imagery and terrifying ritualistic language, "The Second Coming" is one of Yeats's most famous and most anthologized poems; it is also seen as one of the most thematically obscure and difficult to understand. Wrote in the wake of the World War I, the Russian Revolution, and political turmoil in his native Ireland, the poem captures more than just political unrest and violence. It depicts anxiety and concerns for the social ills of modernity. These ills might include the rupture of traditional family and societal structures, the loss of collective religious faith, and the feeling that the old rules no longer apply and there's nothing to replace them. Many see this poem as prophetic, because we know that twentieth-century history did turn more horrific after 1919—we'll definitely cover this more in depth in the next few weeks. Yeats uses the gyres to present his idea that something similar to the Christian notion of a "second coming" is about to occur. However, to Yeats, rather than bringing earthly peace, the second coming will bring terror. The gyres (or spirals) capture the contrary motions inherent within the different historical processes that brought society to this moment. As you read through the poem, decide what you think about his metaphor for the gyres, how prophetic you think Yeats was, and what you think the beast is.

The Bicycle

Let's think a little more in depth about the modern woman. As you saw in last week's lecture the Victorian Era was a time of growth and change for the people of the western world. Social changes accelerated at the end of the nineteenth century, with the beginning of the industrial revolution and the rising middle class. A number of recreational activities became popular with the upper and middle classes, such as croquet, lawn tennis, roller skating, horseback riding, and most pertinent to our discussion of women and feminism, bicycle riding. It's hard to comprehend now, but many people considered the bicycle to be the invention of the devil, and symbolic of a decline in morals, as they tended to be seen as frivolous activities that distracted people from more serious endeavors. There existed a fierce debate over women and bicycling, and, like university education and working, the bicycle conferred on the new woman a new mobility. The bicycle was understood as expressing and enabling increased sexual freedom, and in reality, it did help break down the divide between private and public spheres. Suddenly, women could hop on a bicycle and ride away—to a park to read, meet friends, markets, etc. But she could also ride off to see her lover or participate in immoral acts, as it was believed. In the lower image you see how the bicycle was sexualized. It recalls the new mobility but also a fear and/or acceptance of a decline of morals that are connected to women who used bicycles. Think about this image and what it tells us about women, bicycles, and the worries that European society had.

Carl Linnaeus

Linnaeus took information and created ordered systems for understanding all living matter. A Swedish botanist and founder of taxonomy (the modern systems of naming organisms) that is currently still in use. Prior to Linnaeus, plants and animals were given polynomial names (meaning three or four terms per name) that varied from author to author and little agreement existed on how to organize knowledge about plants and animals. By classifying biodiversity through a binomial system, Linnaeus created order over a seemingly chaotic world of nature. His binomial system gave each species of plant and animal a genus name followed by a specific name (species), with both names being in Latin. For example, humans are Homo sapiens. He also published many books using his new system of classification and his two most famous books, Species plantarum and Systema naturae, are still used by scientists as the basis for naming plants and animals. Lastly, Linnaeus named over 12,000 species of plants and animals in his lifetime, which is no small feat. There are two issues inherent in Linneaus' taxonomies. First, the act of classifying nature and creating such taxonomies means that Linnaeus viewed natural history as rather static. Indeed, he did not believe in evolution, which meant that his taxonomies did not follow any laws of growth or change. Second, some scholars have argued that his taxonomies were essentially a form of imperialism, as the psychology of collecting, ordering, and naming specimens could be seen as a form of mental colonizing and empire-building. Essentially, by taking a bird, for example, from the South Pacific, and then changing its name to a Latin binomial, the bird had just become a tiny British colony Wrote Systema Naturae: Shows classifications binomial taxonomy

Thomas Malthus

Malthus is a man whose ideas remain pretty controversial. He attended Warrington Academy, a dissenting academy that was closed in 1784. (Dissenting academies were schools and colleges ran by religious dissenters who refused to conform to the Church of England. Dissenters actually formed a pretty significant part of England's educational system during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.) After Warrington, Malthus graduated from Cambridge. Malthus is the first economist to propose a systematic theory of population, which you were assigned an excerpt of for this week. He is also known for his criticisms of the Poor Laws, which he claimed led to inflation rather than improvement for the poor. Wrote Essay on the Principle of Population: Rather pessimistically, he predicted that the world's population would increase geometrically, doubling every 25 years while food production would only grow arithmetically. To Malthus, the only result of such growth will be famine and starvation. He suggests controlling the birth rate to prevent this from happening. Discusses the Iron Law of Population In later editions of the essay, Malthus urged Moral Restraint, arguing that if people postpone marriage until they can afford a family, and practiced sexual abstinence and celibacy, it would help ease the poverty of lower classes, along with slowing down population growth.

Mathias Bose

Matthias Bose to thank for the increasing popularity of electrical demonstrations during the eighteenth century in Europe. Bose was born in Leipzig, and was the son of a local judge. By seventeen, he was lecturing publically on physics and mathematics while studying medicine. He is described as having a "fiery intellect, ready memory, penetrating judgment, tireless industry, and insatiable curiosity" (264). Bose was especially noted for his inventing striking demonstrations, as we'll see in just a moment. Bose was the first scientist to develop a way of temporarily storing static electricity charges by using an insulated conductor. He published his work on electricity in 1744. As a student at the University of Leipzig, Bose became enthralled with the electrical experiments of his peers. He constructed his own static electric generator that was a rotating glass sphere with a friction rubber of fur and a brass conductor. He then went on to create a prime conductor that consisted of an assistant standing on a block of resin (which is a pretty effective conductor), holding a metal bar in one hand while touching the spinning globe with the other. The friction-generated charge flowed through the assistant to the metal bar, accumulating there. Today, this is a pretty basic static electricity conductor, but it was important to the world's understanding of how static electricity could be conducted. At the time, people believed that it could only be transferred via insulators. Bose changed everything when he demonstrated that metal conductors could accumulate static electricity, as it helped later experiments prove that the charged electrons were on the exterior of the metal.

Mary Shelley

Okay, that walks us right into Frankenstein, our other piece of Romantic literature this week, and one of my favorite novels ever. This text has an interested origin story that is worth knowing before reading the text. Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein seemingly on a whim for amusement while vacationing with her husband and their literary friends at Lake Geneva in Switzerland in 1816. Lake Geneva was a location that Europe's most ambitious bohemians flocked to for its inspiring mountains and liberal political climate. Part of Shelley's group was Lord Byron, who came along on the trip as a means to flee England and his scandalous separation—remember him, as we will return to Byron next week, since he left his very important daughter, Ada behind in his wife's care. She plays an important role in this course. Anyway, Shelley and her group of literary and poetic geniuses, inspired by the gorgeous scenery, worked with one another and ended up producing Shelley's gothic Romance, Frankenstein, published in 1818. Gothic, in this sense, refers to a style "characterized by a gloomy setting, grotesque, mysterious, or violent events, and an atmosphere of degeneration and decay." Broadly, the Gothic Romance aimed to treat the darker human emotions and passions like abhorrence, apprehension, terror, awe, and resentment. And Frankenstein does just that...

Thunder Houses

One impressive electrical demonstration that was inspired by Franklin's work and showcased American ingenuity was the Thunder House. A scientific model, the thunder house was used to show how lightning, when it strikes a house or ship, could be conducted to the earth or water, doing the least amount of damage possible. When the miniature rod was attached to the thunder house, and an electrical charge passed through its roof, no harm resulted. After removing the lightning rod, however, and applying a second charge, the house was blown apart with the electric spark ignited gunpowder from within. Audiences gasped, laughed, and then applauded.

Shell Shock

One last important phenomenon or by-product of the Great War is Shell Shock. Commonly understood today as a form of PTSD, Shell Shock was an ill-defined catch-all descriptor of symptoms of men who fought in World War I. By December of 1914, a small percentage of British soldiers began to return to England with what were deemed at the time to be strange symptoms due to nervous and mental shock. By 1915, men began to refer to the symptoms as "shell shock." However, it remained poorly understood and the term itself became problematic in that it could happen to men who hadn't actually been near a shell or in the trenches. Some of the symptoms include stammering, nervous breakdown, irritability, functional neuroses (such as hysterical blindness or deafness), physical tremors (such as shaking, nodding, nervous ticks), and screaming, or other verbal ticks. Make sure you watch the assigned videos that show actual soldiers suffering from shell shock, as they provide a much better description that I am doing so here. As you can see from the list of symptoms, shell shock encompassed so many different types of symptoms—some psychological, some neurological, some physical, that treatment was difficult and needed to be personalized to the person. Some treatments include counseling (or a "talking cure" where doctors tried to get soldiers to talk about what they were feeling, which many were reluctant to do for fear that the government would send them right back to the frontlines if so), rest and/or hypnosis (as a means of bringing the soldier to a state of extreme relaxation), singing (if they had a stammer or difficulty speaking), busy odd jobs (to help with the nervousness), and in some cases, electroshock therapy.

Rose Scearce

Rural electrification was based on the belief that affordable electricity would improve the standard of living and the economic competitiveness of the American family farm—which was a hugely important economic industry. The changes it made to rural standard of living during the first half of the twentieth century are nicely captured in Rose Dudley Scearce's 1939 letter to the Rural Electrification News, titled, "What REA Service Means to our Farm Home."

STS

Science, Technology, and Society

James Clerk Maxwell

So, I mentioned that Faraday was a visionary but not so hot at math. Well, enter our other revolutionary figure for the week: James Clerk Maxwell, who was highly regarded as one of the most brilliant mathematical physicists of his age, actually checked on Faraday's math and found it to be impeccable. Maxwell translated Faraday's ideas into mathematical language in his 1873 work Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, and in doing so, created field theory, a unified framework of electricity, magnetism, and light that became basis for twentieth-century physics. As the assigned viewing makes clear, Maxwell's treatise did for electromagnetism what Newton's Principia had done for classical mechanics: it not only provided the mathematical tools for the investigation and representation of the whole of electromagnetic theory, but it altered the very framework of both theoretical and experimental physics. And, it's the basis for developing theories in quantum mechanics, among other fields. So, in very basic and somewhat silly terms, we'd have none of the super cool sci-fi movies and theories of space-time continuums, theoretical realities, and other mind-bending conceptions of what constitute human reality without this guy. Wrote Faraday's Law

Difference Engines

The Difference Engine and things like it are special-purpose computers, with hardware that's built to do only one kind of thing. It's possible to make general-purpose computers, where a single fixed piece of hardware can be programmed to do any computation. And it's this idea of universal computation that makes software possible—and that launched the whole computer revolution in the 20th century.

Venus electrificata

The Venus Electrificata, also known as the "electric kiss," was an interactive salon performance where by an attractive female was electrified in secrecy. When guests arrived to the salon and attempted to kiss or touch her, they were hit by electric sparks. The woman would stand, as an electrified object for the men at the salon to behold. Unbeknownst to them, an unsuspecting gentleman would be invited from the audience to kiss her and sparks would literally fly. The Venus Electrificata was a favorite party trick of the European elite.

Haitian Revolution

The Haitian Revolution is an important revolution because it was a successful anti-slavery and anti-colonial insurrection by self-liberated slaves against French colonial rule. It was the only slave uprising that led to the founding of a state that was free from slavery and ruled by non-whites and former captives. For many around the world, Enlightened thought divided the world into "enlightened leaders" and "ignorant masses." Toussaint Louverture was one Enlightened man who sought to bridge this gap. Louverture sought to strike a balance between Enlightened thought and the means of winning liberation in a manner that demonstrated that people of color deserved a society built upon Enlightened thought. As you should recall from this week's lecture, the Enlightenment essentially left out women and people of color from its rhetoric. So, Louverture, a former slave himself, was making a bold move that paid off.

Information Revolution

The Information Revolution has deep historical roots, as the origin of important information systems and flowering of others took place during the age of reason and revolution (the Enlightenment). Historians disagree as to exactly when the Information Revolution happened, as some argue it was 1947, when the transistor was created, and others argue it was the printing press, or railroads, or steam-powered newspaper presses, etc. So, the short answer is that the Information Revolution has no real beginning, it's, as Daniel R. Headrick argues, "as old as humankind." However, we can pinpoint a period of sharp acceleration in the accumulation and amount of information being produced—just as we have done with the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution. And, that period seems to start in the eighteenth century. This century didn't produce any information machines per se, but it did produce many different systems for working with information, which set the stage for the electromechanical processing of information we see in the nineteenth century. Therefore, important advances were accompanied by new vocabulary that allowed for information to be organized, and new observations were happening that needed systems for presenting and classifying new information.

"turning and turning in the widening gyre"

The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats

"Books! tis a dull and endless strife"

The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth

Feminism

Today, a basic definition of feminism is the demanding of women's full rights as human beings. It really is that simple. However, the definition differed significantly over time and even among different groups within the same time period. Also, different understandings of the sexes and the relationships between them existed, as did different ideas of rights and methods for how to achieve said rights. Thus, there are actually many different feminisms, as you'll see in this lecture. Basically, there are three main historical stages. I will keep my overview of each brief, and for those of you have taken upper level Women's Studies courses, you will notice that I've left things out, but please remember that this is a 200-level Humanities course, and the goal is overview. The First Wave is roughly 1860 to 1950, whereby women strived for equal legal and public opportunity. Remember the Victorian lecture that discussed the separate spheres—public and private? Well this first wave is all about working within those spheres during the nineteenth century, and then dismantling them as time wore on. Women did not want to be represented publically by their husbands, fathers, uncles, or brothers. They wanted the opportunity to represent themselves in public matters. This lecture will focus on this stage. The Second Wave is roughly 1960 to 1980s, and it's origins lie in civil rights and anti-war movements that began in the late 1950s and 1960s. In this stage women strived for fair treatment, and not just equal opportunity. For second wave feminists, the personal is political, therefore they sought to bring awareness to issues such as domestic violence and rape. The Third Wave began in the mid-1980s and continues to the present. Feminists in this stage embrace diversity and differences in perspectives among women. They strive to combat inequalities that women face as a result of their age, gender, race, sexual orientation, economic status, physical ability, or level of education. Finally, they acknowledge contradictions and seek to build coalitions.

William Wordsworth

Wordsworth, as a Romantic, believed that poetry was an imaginative activity rather than a dull literary form. According to Wordsworth, poets should not worry about how many syllables go into a line or how many stanzas into a certain type of poem, about rhyme patterns and meter. Rather poetry should be a expression of the poet's imagination and of his or her inner thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Wrote The Tables Turned: it reflects the features of Romanticism

William Watson

Wrote a letter to the Royal Society about Bose's Beatification experiment

John (Giovanni) Aldini

You were assigned Aldini's Account of the Galvanic Experiments to read for the week. In it he describes an experiment he conducted on a human cadaver. The use of human cadavers for scientific research has always been controversial, and during this time some European countries had passed laws stating that experiments could be performed on the cadavers of men executed for crimes, (which is how Aldini performed his experiment—any other method of acquiring a human body for experimentation would have been illegal).