History 50:512:480 Prof. Scranton Monday and Wednesday, 2:50-4:10
History Research Seminar: Experiencing Technological Change, 1930-1970s
This course is intended to offer History majors and others an opportunity to develop, accomplish, and present, orally and in writing, original research in American history, focusing on technology. The seminar is animated by a deceptively simple question: how were novel technologies welcomed by various publics in the U.S., roughly since the late 1920s?
At least two publics will be your targets - first, professionals in science, technology, engineering, and business; second, the wider public of citizens, politicians, technology users, etc. To reach the professional responses, you will need to probe the huge industrial and business journal collection which the Rutgers library system holds. To assess the general public's reactions, you will look to key newspapers (NYTimes), mass market journals (Popular Mechanics) and narrower focus
magazines (Saturday Review, PCMonthly) held at Rutgers and in the Camden County library system or Free Library of Philadelphia The plan of work is detailed below.
Course requirements:
1) Research and write a report on a particular technological innovation selected from the master list (attached). First draft of paper due November 29 (the Monday after the Thanksgiving break). Oral presentations in the week of December 6. Revised (final) draft of paper due Friday December 17 or earlier. The finished paper should include c. 18-20 double spaced pages of text, plus citation notes and any illustrations thought useful. (Pages for notes and visuals do not count towards the required 18-20 pp.)
2) Select three initial technology candidates for researching by second class meeting (Sept. 8th).
On the 8th, we will adjust the set of choices to eliminate duplications. On Sept. 15th and 20th, meet with librarian Julie Still at Robeson during class time for research workshops. Before and after these two sessions, you should do preliminary searches for sources on your choices, using the results to select one for your project. We will finalize the set of semester projects on Sept. 22.
3) Meet each week, beginning October 18th, with Prof. Scranton for research progress reports. These meetings will be scheduled during class times, in my office, 440 Armitage Hall. You'll each have a designated meeting time during the weeks of 10/18, 10/25, 11/1, 11/8, 11/15, and 11/22.
4) Complete first draft of paper and submit for comments on November 29. I will return the drafts with my comments on Wednesday December 1, in a set of individual meetings in my office (between 2:50 pm and 4:30 pm).
4) Read and discuss in class two monographs on the introduction of technical change. One is available in the bookstore; the other is currently out of print, so photocopies of it will be distributed at the cost of copying ($5.00). I will provide study sheets of discussion questions for each of the monographs, both to assist you in your reading and to help focus our discussions.
5) Read, discuss in class, and use as reference: Booth, et al., The Craft of Research. We will divide Booth into as many sections as there are members of the seminar. I'll assign each of you one section and ask that you prepare an outline of the "big, important stuff" in your section, photocopy it and distribute copies to your colleagues at the Craft of Research classes on October 4 and 11. You'll each then walk us through your outline so we can all appreciate the main points each section of the book offers for research guidance.
There are no exams in this course.
Grades will be calculated on the following proportions:
Reading, discussion, and research progress 25%
Timely submission of first draft of paper 10%
Oral presentation of research findings 15%
Final, revised paper 50%
Graded final papers will be mailed to seminar members if they are submitted with a self-addressed, large-format envelope, with sufficient postage attached (about $2.00, in my experience). Those not mailed will be available in the history office on Armitage Hall's third floor after December 20th.
Course Readings:
Wolfgang Schivelbusch, Disenchanted Night
Booth, Colomb, and Williams, The Craft of Research
(Both are paperbacks and have been ordered at the main campus bookstore.)
Carolyn Marvin, When Old Technologies Were New (photocopied for distribution)
Note: I also ordered Joel D. Howell, Technology in the Hospital, for this course, but have decided not to use it. So even though it's likely on the bookstore shelf, don't buy it unless it interests you and you have some spare cash.
Office Hours: My office is 440 Armitage Hall. I will be available for student questions and assistance on Monday and Wednesday, 12 noon til 1:20 pm, or by special arrangement.
Research process guidelines: see separate sheets.
Class and discussions schedule:
September 1 - Introduction
Selection of three "candidate" innovations for first stage bibliographic/Internet searching.
Distribution of study questions for Schivelbusch book.
September 8 - Read Disenchanted Night (1-114) for discussion Wednesday.
Do preliminary access search for innovation options;
September 13 - Read rest of DisNight (114-221) for discussion. Distribution of photocopied Marvin book, plus study question sheets.
September 15 - Library workshop I - meet at reference desk, first floor of Robeson.
Begin work to select one of the three technological innovations as the theme for your semester research project.
September 20 - Library workshop II - same location.
September 22- Read Marvin, Intro through p. 85, for discussion.
Roundtable for research topic selections; reports thus far on problems, finds, etc.
September 27 - Read Marvin book (pp 85-151) for discussion.
Division of labor regarding Craft of Research book.
September 29 - Read rest of Marvin book (pp. 152-235) for discussion.
October 4 and October 11 - All students read/skim CR in its entirety. Focused review on
"your" section. (Note: No class Wednesday Oct. 6th)
1)According to division of labor, each student brings a sheet outlining at least 10 key points,
derived from close review of the CR section assigned, with enough copies for all in the class.
2)Seminar will work through CR, based on these key point summaries, so that all of us have a clear sense of the tasks ahead as research develops, comes to a close and writing begins.
October 13 - Roundtable on research projects' status thus far. Arrange individual meeting schedules for weeks from October 18 through November 22. Block schedule will be made available so that students can establish a regular meeting time during class hours, Monday or Wednesday, each week.
October 18 through November 24 - Weekly research, conceptualization, and writing consults with me, as scheduled, in Armitage 440.
November 29 - First draft text of paper due at my office, 440 Armitage, by 5:00 pm. (Notes may be sketchy at this stage, but text must be typed or word-processed, double spaced. If you use illustrations, please include numbered photocopies, numbered in sequence, and insert the illustration number at the appropriate point in the text.)
December 1 - Comments and suggestions on first draft papers returned to students at consult times. (My office, 2:50-4:30 pm.)
December 6 and 8 - Oral presentations of research findings. Fifteen minutes available for each overview. All students will be responsible for framing questions about one another's reports. Presenters should be prepared to respond to such questions.
December 17 - Final drafts of research papers due, Scranton mailbox, History office, Armitage Hall, by 5:00 p.m.
Reference list of technological innovations:
1928 - Electric razor (Joseph Schick)
1929 - Synchronized auto gear box (General Motors)
1930 - polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic (Waldo Semon, BF Goodrich Co.)
1931 - Freon refrigeration gas (chloroflourocarbon, DuPont)
1935 - Kodachrome color photography (Kodak, Rochester NY)
also- Heart-lung machine, prototype; developed practically, 1951 (John H. Gibbon)
- Prontosil (sulfa anti-streptococcal drug), later sulfanilamide, sulfamyridine, and sulfathiozole added.
- Lockheed DC3 passenger plane
1936 - paperback books (Penguin, UK; earlier versions in 1880s/90s)
1937 - Waring Blender introduced (Frank Ossius, National Restaurant Show, Chicago)
1937- Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco
1938 - Flourescent lamps (General Electric, Westinghouse)
also-Nylon commercialized (Wallace H. Carrothers, Dupont), invented 1934, yarn available for women's hosiery, 1940
1939 - Transatlantic commercial flights begin (Pan American)
- mass production helicopter designed (Igor Sikorsky)
1940 - Color television broadcast (CBS, NYCity, Peter Goldmark); commercial use,
1953 (NBC, CBS)
1941 - Aerosol containers ("bug bombs" - L.D. Goodhue, W. N. Sullivan)
also- Jeeps manufactured for US Army (Willys-Overland Co.); civilian production, 1945
1943 - antibiotic streptomycin (Selman Waksman-Rutgers scientist)
1946 - Fender solid body electric guitar (Fender Guitar Co.)
1947 - "Instant" picture system in photography (Edwin C. Land, later Polaroid), color
version, 1963.
1948 - Long-playing (LP) records (Peter Goldmark)
also- Audio tape recorder (Ampex)
1951 - Automobile power steering (Chrysler)
1952-54 - Polio vaccine (killed virus, Jonas Salk); oral vaccine (Albert Sabin, 1957-61)
1954 - Frozen TV dinners (Swanson Co. and others)
1954-55 - Nautilus nuclear powered submarine
1955 - Microwave oven for home use (Tappan)
1956 - Video tape recorder (Ampex)
also- IBM Model 305 business computer (20 meg storage)
also- Birth control pills tested (John Rock and Gregory Pincus; note that Dr. Margaret Marsh, RUC academic dean is doing a book-length research project on this topic)
1957 - Shippingport (PA) Atomic Power Station
also- Smith-Corona portable electric typewriter
1958 - Stereo LP records, commercial introduction
also- Aluminum cans for beverages (Kaiser Aluminum): adopted by Coors, 1959; major brands, 1963; pull tab top, 1963 (Dayton Reliable Tool Co., Ermal Freze patent).
1960- IBM 360 project; Digital PDP-1 computer
1961 - IBM Selectric typewriter
1963 - Nuclear Ship Savannah (built at NYShip Co, Camden, NJ; decommissioned 1971)
1964 - IBM 360 computer introduced
1965 - DEC PDP-8 minicomputer (business and educational uses)
also- Astroturf installed (Astrodome, Houston, TX)
1967 - Heart transplant surgery (Christiaan Barnard, South Africa)
1968 - Crude oil supertankers
1969 - Artificial heart (Denton Cooley, Texas)
1971 - DDT ban in US (Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, 1962)
1975 - Altair 8800 personal computer kit (Edward Roberts)
also- plastic soda bottles (Nathaniel Wyeth, DuPont)
1976 - Kevlar plastic, bulletproof (Stephanie Kwolek)
1977 - Apple II Computer (Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak)
1978 - Freons banned in US (ozone damage)
1979 - Videodisk marketed (Sony, Philips)
Three Mile Island nuclear plant, core meltdown (PA)