Pre-WWI Inventions

* Electrical, chemical, mechanical inventions

- machine tools improved

-> lathes, drills, etc. standardized and sharpened

-> belts and drive-shafts attached to steam engines increase machining possibilities

-> possibly the most important invention of all - better tools make better tools, repeat

- barbed wire invented

-> cattle control easy

-> cowboys obsolete

-> allows intensive, large-scale ranching

- mechanical thresher

-> slices through fields quickly and efficiently

-> fewer hands needed, more surplus for sale

- internal combustion engines

-> extremely efficient (not counting pollution) small engines

-> requires improved fuel technology

- oil refining

-> American entrepreneurs put "bubbling tar" to work

-> petroleum quickly replaces whale oil

-> can be refined for gasoline or other fuels

- periodic table

-> Mendeleev and others show regularity of chemistry

-> the old Greek concept of atoms reinvented, improved

-> nature itself an atomic mechanism

-> raises religious questions of coherence of self

-> allows you to create cool stuff like nylon, napalm, and plastics

- dynamite

-> reliable, powerful high-explosives developed

-> digging and destroying radically simplified

=> damming rivers and digging canals radically simplified

-> huge mining impact

=> helps the supply of metal grow

- Dynamos

-> giant electrical current generating stations

-> when hooked up to electric motors, allows factories to be more efficient and variable

=> no more messing with belts and shafts

-> makes for more efficient machine tools

- electrical lighting

-> light where you want it, when you want it

-> extends the day

- subways

-> using rail technology underground

-> saves high-value real estate

-> cities can grow much larger

- bicycles

-> efficient (non-giant wheel) bikes invented

-> replaceable parts and standardized sizes make them popular

-> allows handy personal transportation

- Ford’s assembly line (1908)

-> replaceable parts and division of labor

=> Ford perfects what many had tinkered with

=> workers suddenly reduced to piece work

-> automobiles become cheap and standard

-> technique spreads rapidly worldwide

- airplane

-> knowledge of internal combustion mixed with aerodynamics

-> improvements come incredibly rapidly

=> limitless transportation possibilities

* Weapon inventions

- gun barrel-size standardization improves

-> reliable ammunition and cartridges (bullets)

- breach-loading weapons (from the back as opposed to down the spout)

-> quicker than muzzle loading, more reliable

- rifling of gun barrels

-> spins the bullet like a spiral football throw = more accurate

-> death from a distance

=> the end of lines of troops, colorful uniforms

+> French continue to wear red trousers until they are mowed down in WWI

=> artillery also becoming more accurate

- revolver pistols

-> accurate, quick-firing close combat weapons

=> makes possible the destruction of the Native Americans

-> the bayonet ceases to be only close-combat weapon

-> an individual is now much more dangerous at close-quarters

- machine guns

-> starts with Gatling’s gun

=> a rifle-revolver

-> eventually, weapon recoil harnessed to create self-loading weapon

=> rate of fire limited only by ammunition supply and heat

-> the belt machine-gun and large-cartridge gun

=> mechanized death

=> war becomes popular, not professional

+> With a machine gun, why bother to learn to shoot straight?

=> cannon fodder becomes machine-gun fodder

-> extremely handy when attached to aircraft

* Communications inventions

- telegraph

-> on and off current bursts

=> Morse code regularized communication

+>(dot dot dot, dash dash dash, shake your booty)

-> trans-Atlantic cable allows immediate US-European communication

- telephone

-> lessons of telegraph yield voice replicating device

-> the world shrinks and human interaction increases

- radio

-> electromagnetic waves harnessed to send intelligible signal

-> allows mass communication

=> anyone/everyone with a radio can hear

-> increasing standardization of culture and language

=> imitating the speech of the announcers wears away accents

=> everyone gets the same news

=> propaganda the new tool of the medium, the same lie for everyone
- photography

-> accurate pictures replicable

-> creates a whole new standard of truth and identification

=> photo ID makes it much more difficult to start life anew

- moving pictures

-> photography run together fast (Lumierre Bros.)

-> the mechanism of motion can now be seen

-> slow-motion seriously skews humans vision of time

=> the rapid word made visible

-> a new mass-culture mechanism in the movie houses

* Medical inventions

- germ theory

-> Louis Pasteur discovering bacteria in milk

=> pasteurization increases child health

-> antiseptics

=> working on bacteria theory, doctors start cleaning

=> hospitals become survivable

-> anesthetics

=> ether’s pain killing and amnesiac properties discovered

=> careful and prolonged surgery possible

-> inoculation for small-pox discovered from cow-pox

=> milk-maids don’t get sick because exposed

=> vaccines for typhus, typhoid, diphtheria, and yellow fever follow quickly

- Darwinianism and genetics

-> Darwin shows the process of natural selection

=> those best adapted survive

+> not necessarily “the strong”

=> brings human exceptionality into question

=> raises massive religious questions

=> quickly transferred into racist logic

=> also transferred into economic logic

+> the rich are the “strong” who will rule

-> scientific study of inheritance yields regularity

=> fruit fly studies hint at genes to be discovered later

=> a new more chemical view of life

=> again with racist and religious impacts

- Psychology

-> various studies of the “insane” and brain chemistry

-> Pavlov’s studies show behavior mechanisms

=> behaviorism hinted at

=> proves there are mental mechanics

-> Freud invents/identifies the unconscious

=> dreams and sub-surfaces impulses as important as conscious thought

=> childhood becomes infinitely more important

=> the very meaning of the self in question