AHSS*2190 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Greenwich Mean Time, Flat Rate
Week 4: Electricity and Media
Time Becomes Standardized
-“Time is Money”; Need to set schedules for railway
-Greenwich Mean Time becomes accepted benchmark
-Time becomes commodified
-Instrument of social control
-“Technological Conditioning”
Postal Delivery
-Historical development and growth
-Letters flowing across Europe by the 15th century
-Government and business both interested in development
-Pony Express
-Early development in the United States and Canada
Pony Express Route
Telephone
-Invented by Bell in 1874
-Charges electromagnetic currents to simulate vibrations of airwaves that carry
sound
-Carries human speech in natural form
-In Europe, was linked with telegraph and post office
-Developed in North America as part of free market system
-Key decision by Bell to control the service and the equipment
-Flat rate for local calls
-Quickly develops from business tool and luxury to a common utility
-Impact: Eliminates need for scribal encoding of telegraph; Would be primarily a
point-topoint medium; Helps to restore sensory balance between sight and sound
Early Telephone Industry
-Relationship between Bell and its workers - Female telephone operators treated
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Document Summary
Time is money ; need to set schedules for railway. Letters flowing across europe by the 15th century. Government and business both interested in development. Early development in the united states and canada. Charges electromagnetic currents to simulate vibrations of airwaves that carry sound. In europe, was linked with telegraph and post office. Developed in north america as part of free market system. Key decision by bell to control the service and the equipment. Quickly develops from business tool and luxury to a common utility. Impact: eliminates need for scribal encoding of telegraph; would be primarily a point-topoint medium; helps to restore sensory balance between sight and sound. Relationship between bell and its workers - female telephone operators treated differently from the male technicians. Eventually start to see small change with benefits and improved working conditions. Hard to control (1) colonial period (2) partisan period (3) penny press (4) yellow period.
