jan 1, 1876 - Bell invents the telephone

Description:

As the United States industrialized and as divisions grew between rural and urban life and between the affluent and poor, the terms middle class and working class came widely into use. Americans adopted these broad identities not only in the workplace but also in their leisure time. In working-class families, wives and mothers generally took in boarders or worked for wages, as did older children, so they could contribute to the family income. In middle-class families that had access to well-paid employment for the husband and father, wives and mothers devoted themselves to domestic duties rather than to paid work, as couples sought to provide education and upward mobility for their children. At the top of the economic ladder, prosperous corporate managers and their families enjoyed rising incomes and an array of tempting ways to spend their dollars. They also generally hired household servants.

EXAM TIP
Analyze the differentiation of the middle class from the working class in American culture.

The changing technology of American homes reflected differences in class status. The rise of electricity, in particular, marked the gap between affluent urban consumers and rural and working-class families. In elite houses, domestic servants began to use — or find themselves replaced by — an array of new devices, from washing machines to vacuum cleaners. When Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876, entrepreneurs introduced the device for business use, but it soon found eager residential customers, especially among the affluent (Figure 17.1). Telephones changed etiquette and social relations for middle-class suburban women — while providing their working-class counterparts with new employment as operators or “hello girls.”

A line graph tracks the adoption of telephones in three California locations from 1900 to 1940.
FIGURE 17.1 Estimated Number of Residential Telephones in Three California Locations, 1900–1940

This graph tracks the adoption of telephones in three California locations. Palo Alto was an affluent university town; Antioch was a working-class city; and San Rafael had a mixed economy, including some manufacturing, but served increasingly as a bedroom community for San Francisco professionals. What does the chart suggest about telephone usage? Consider, from the narrative, the changes that were occurring in family size, especially among the middle class, and note that expensive rent often led to overcrowding in working-class homes and apartments. Based on per-capita telephone adoption rates, how likely do you think it was that a person in Palo Alto had access to a private phone? A person in Antioch?

Figure based on Claude S. Fischer, A Social History of the Telephone to 1940, copyright © 1992 by the Regents of the University of California. (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992). Figure 9. Reprinted by permission of the University of California Press.


Palo Alto was an affluent university town; Antioch was a working-class city; and San Rafael had a mixed economy, including some manufacturing, but served increasingly as a bedroom community for San Francisco professionals. On the x-axis are the years marked in increments of one-year. On the y-axis is Telephones per 1,000 residents from zero to 350 in increments of 50. Beginning in 1900, all cities have less than 50. Over the 40 year period, Antioch's number increases above 50 in 1910, but never surpasses 100 telephones over 40 years. San Rafael increases beyond 50 telephones in the year 1902 with a steady rise to 150 telephones by 1918. However, San Rafael never surpasses 200 telephones over the 40 year period. Palo Alto, on the other hand, surpasses 50 telephones in 1903 and make dramatic increases between 1910 to about 1925, when it reaches 250 telephones. After 1925 the number of telephones keeps rising to approximately 300 by 1940.

Celebrating the new technological wonders around them, Americans hailed inventors as heroes. The most famous, Thomas Edison, operated an independent laboratory rather than working for a corporation. Edison, like many of the era’s businessmen, was a shrewd entrepreneur who focused on commercial success. He and his colleagues helped introduce such lucrative products as the incandescent light bulb and the phonograph.

Even working-class Americans enjoyed cheaper products delivered by global trade and mass production, from bananas and cigarettes to colorful dime novels and magazines. Thomas Edison’s moving pictures, for example, first found popularity among the urban working class. Consumer culture appeared to be democratic: anyone could eat at a restaurant or buy a rail ticket for the “ladies’ car” — as long as she or he could pay. In practice, well-to-do Americans enjoyed new amenities at much higher rates. Consumer culture thus became a site of struggle over class inequality, race privilege, and proper male and female behavior.

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