Sunday, June 24, 2018
Tech timeline
Latest item at KSHS is a useful reminder of the technology timeline. It's an interior shot of a UP railroad office in Quinter, way out west on the high plains, dated 1912.
Which came first? Railroads were there because this is a railroad office. Photography was there because the picture is a photograph. Telephone is clearly visible in the left foreground. Telegraph is in the background in a sounding box. Typewriter next to the telegraph. Electric power? Nope. Oil lamps, no outlets, no switches.
We tend to think that 'tech stuff' is powered by electricity, so electric power must have come first, providing the foundation for all the other inventions. Makes sense, but it didn't happen that way. Telegraph and telephone had complete national networks of wiring by 1890. Electric power started in a few places around 1890, but wasn't fully national until 1940. (Thanks, FDR, as always.)
Question: Electric power came to most cities via the streetcar system, aided by amortizing poles and right-of-way. Why didn't Bell get there first, since it had a complete distribution system already in place? In fact Bell was already generating and distributing power to its customers. The phone line carried 48 volts DC with limited current. Bell had right-of-way and poles in residential neighborhoods and junction boxes on most houses. Add bigger wires to the poles, add isolation transformers for the AC component to phones.
Labels: Asked and unanswered
¶ 1:41 AM
