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, & cinema were all invented. In 'When old Technologies Were New', Carolyn Marvin explores how two of these new inventions - the telephone & the electric light - were publicly envisioned at the end of the 19th century, as seen in specialized engineering journals & popular media. Marvin pays particular attention to the telephone, describing how it disrupted established social relations, unsettling customary ways of dividing the private person & family from the more public setting of the community. |