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Rube Goldberg and the Electrification of America

Posted by samzenpus on from the start-of-something-great dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "Alexis Madrigal has an interesting essay in the Atlantic about the popular response of people in the 19th century to the development of the electric power industry in America. Before electricity, basically every factory had to run a bit like a Rube Goldberg machine, transmitting power from a water wheel or a steam engine to the machines of a manufactory but with the development of electric turbines and motors the public believed engineers were tapping mysterious, invisible forces with almost supernatural powers for mischief. 'Think about it,' writes Madrigal. 'You've got a wire and you've got a magnet. Switch on the current — which you can't see and have no intuitive way to know exists — and suddenly the wire begins to rotate around the magnet. You can reverse the process, too. Rotate the magnet around the wire and it generates a current that can be turned into light, heat, or power.' And that brings us back to Rube Goldberg, a cartoonist who was was shockingly popular in his heyday and whose popularity closely parallels the rise of electrification in America. 'I think Goldberg's drawings reminded his contemporaries of a time when they could understand the world's industrial processes just by looking. No matter how absurd his work was, anyone could trace the reactions involved,' writes Madrigal. 'People like to complain that they can't understand modern cars because of all the fancy parts and electronic doo-dads in them now, but we lost that ability for most things long ago.'"

5 of 207 comments (clear)

  1. most people still don't understand electricity now by roman_mir · · Score: 4, Funny

    Most people today likely couldn't explain what electricity is even if they remotely understand what it does... sort of.

    I think it only makes sense to build a religion around electricity.

    There could be a stone with some writings on it, like:

    1. Thou shalt not touch naked electrical wires with bare hands, etc.

    There could be real 'magic' performed, with things shining and flying and moving and doing some other work, even moving the dead carcasses of animals!

    It'd be wonderful.

    --
    You can't handle the truth.
  2. I'm glad modern OS's aren't Goldberg machines! by pigiron · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh wait...

  3. Sign me up!!!!!! by Twinbee · · Score: 4, Funny

    Can I subscribe to your newsletter - I am going through a difficult time with my faith in the FSM atm, so I am desperately seeking the real truth. Someone sent me this as a present, and I still have nightmares that these things will haunt and eat me. Please help - I am at my wits end. :(
    http://www.venganza.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/cupcake1.jpg

    --
    Why OpalCalc is the best Windows calc
  4. Re:most people still don't understand electricity by TheTurtlesMoves · · Score: 4, Funny

    Might want to brush up on your physics. No way in hell it would hold a Farad (ie 1 coulomb per volt). Only very recently can you get 1 farad caps, and they have a peek voltage on the order of 10V or less.

    --
    The Grey Goo disaster happened 3 billion years ago. This rock is covered in self replicating machines!
  5. O RLY? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    My 1990 MB W124 diesel has ABS, yet it doesn't have a single computer anywhere on board, no ECUs, nothing.

    Shame. Did it break, or did it get stolen? Either way, this guy seems to have your missing part:

    http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190370303982&crlp=1_263602_263622&ff4=263602_263622&viewitem=&guid=a3ca01141280a0b58f929422fff4b052&rvr_id=149029369801&ua=M*S%3F&itemid=190370303982#ht_1039wt_736

    Cheers!