When Old Technologies Were New: Thinking About Electric Communication in the Late Nineteenth Century

by Carolyn Marvin

In the history of electronic communication, the last quarter of the 19th century holds a special place, for it was during this period that the telephone, phonograph, electric light, wireless, and cinema were all invented. In When Old Technologies Were New , Carolyn Marvin explores how two of
these new inventions--the telephone and the electric light--were publicly envisioned at the end of the 19th century, as seen in specialized engineering journals and popular media. Marvin pays particular attention to the telephone, describing how it disrupted established social relations, unsettling
customary ways of dividing the private person and family from the more public setting of the community. On the lighter side, she describes how people spoke louder when calling long distance, and how they worried about catching contagious diseases over the phone. A particularly powerful chapter deals
with telephonic precursors of radio broadcasting--the "Telephone Herald " in New York and the "Telefon Hirmondo" of Hungary--and the conflict between the technological development of broadcasting and the attempt to impose a homogenous, ethnocentric variant of Anglo-Saxon culture on the public. While
focusing on the way professionals in the electronics field tried to control the new media, Marvin also illuminates the broader social impact, presenting a wide-ranging, informative, and entertaining account of the early years of electronic media.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Technology, Science

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Carolyn Marvin is the Frances Yates Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication.

note: there are two authors with the same name

Reviews

[Tomomi Nakagawa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the crystallization of Marvin's tremendous effort before the Internet age, and also is thought-provocative through overwhelming accumulation of the contemporary data. Her method of accumulation somewhat seems to resemble Highbrow/Lowbrow by Lawrence Levine, which was issued almost at the same time. I can imagine the difficulty in finding every material and magazine article quoted in her book (As you know, it has become far easier now by using the Internet).
Though its framing seems a little bit older from the present point of view, its worth and her effort would never be impaired.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who studies new technologies, I really enjoyed this book and found myself annotating many parts of the book. It's particularly interesting to note how much things haven't changed culture-wise when it comes to new technology. A good read if you're into history.

[李 曾 · Rating 3 out of 5]

an interesting topic but not elaborate explain

[Sarah]

I only read parts

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

In When Old Technologies Were New (1988), Carolyn Marvin explores the drama around new technologies in the 19th century (especially the telephone and electric light) "in which existing groups perpetually negotiate power, authority, representation, and knowledge with whatever resources are available" (5). She shows how old practices shift, new practices develop, and relationships change as people re-interpret their world (5). She defines media as "constructed complexes of habits, beliefs, and procedures embedded in elaborate cultural codes of communication" (8). She explores the "invention" of the expert electrician, which depended upon the contempt of other social groups (especially women and people of color) (18), coercion and deception of those who didn't trust them, and suspicion of magicians who competed for their attention in public (62). She also explores how the telephone disrupted traditional notions of boundary: between the family and outside, between classes, and between communities (Chapter 2). Her discussion of light displays and communication reveals that people "assumed that such [mass:] audiences naturally belong outdoors" (189), though this wouldn't reveal itself to be true as mass audiences developed in relation to other technologies. Light helped people move indoors (through light bulbs, television, etc.) (189).

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish all histories could be this compelling while maintaining a high-degree of theoretical relevance. Marvin's history of electronic communication (think its earliest manifestations: lights, telephones) compiles an impressive and provocative array of primary source documents to expose the mindsets of these technologies' earliest users. She chooses examples that (one hopes) are representative, but that mostly stand out because they are memorable (Yale undergraduates unearthing a lamp post because it made their dorm rooms too bright; a couple getting married over the telephone without ever having met). More importantly, she relates these early examples of technological change to our own attitudes toward contemporary progress, showing how each new invention simultaneously provokes utopian visions of how technology will change the world for the better as well as fears of how the transgressive actions technology allows might upset society's balance. Her book is essential reading to anyone interested in the history of technology

[Arash Kamangir · Rating 3 out of 5]

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