IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB273654052

"Mr. Phonograph, Are You There?": Mechanical Failure and Technological Determinism, 1877–1900 (2023)

Vest, J. Martin (Author)

Technology and Culture
Volume: 64
Issue: 1
Pages: 172-201
Publication date: 2023
Language: English

DOI: 10.1353/tech.2023.0006

URI: https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/879586

Outside Links

WorldCat

JSTOR

Historical method Technology and society Technological determinism Failure in science, technology, and medicine Technological innovation Phonograph 19th century United States Edison, Thomas Alva

When Thomas Edison handed over his 1877 invention of the phonograph—the new sound recording technology—to a group of investors to market across the U.S, the company lacked the proper expertise, manufacturing, and supply networks to do so. This article traces one company's struggle in dealing with the recurring malfunction of exhibition phonographs, which impacted how audiences came to view the innovation. In doing so, the article revisits the issue of technological determinism as parsed by scholars such as Bruno Latour, Robert Heilbroner, Thomas Hughes, Donald MacKenzie, and Judy Wajcman. Investigating under what circumstances one innovation enjoys more (or less) autonomy vis-à-vis social forces, the case study suggests that scholars should make more granular assessments of how technology and society impact each other.

...More

Citation URI

data.isiscb.org/p/isis/citation/CBB273654052

This citation is part of the Isis database.

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Book Ian Wills; (2019)
Thomas Edison: Success and Innovation through Failure (/p/isis/citation/CBB235875861/)

Article Martensen, Karin; (2018)
Mensch und Maschine in den Laboratorien Thomas Alva Edisons. Ein Beitrag zur Technikhistorie aus musikwissenschaftlicher Sicht. (Man and machine in the laboratories of Thomas Alva Edison. A contribution to the history of technology from a musicological point of view.) (/p/isis/citation/CBB084582039/)

Thesis Kelleher, Kevin Daniel; (2013)
The Contributions of Thomas Alva Edison to Music Education (/p/isis/citation/CBB001567450/)

Book Branko Milanovic; (2016)
Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization (/p/isis/citation/CBB248946476/)

Book Kerim Yasar; (2018)
Electrified Voices: How the Telephone, Phonograph, and Radio Shaped Modern Japan, 1868–1945 (/p/isis/citation/CBB990144338/)

Book Shaoling Ma; (2021)
The Stone and the Wireless: Mediating China, 1861–1906 (/p/isis/citation/CBB089452995/)

Chapter James Emmott; (2017)
Performing Phonographic Physiology (/p/isis/citation/CBB376634824/)

Article Yafeng Wang; (2022)
Feature dependence: A method for reconstructing actual causes in engineering failure investigations (/p/isis/citation/CBB692477247/)

Book Lipsey, Richard G; Carlaw, Kenneth; Bekar, Clifford; (2005)
Economic transformations: General purpose technologies and long-term economic growth (/p/isis/citation/CBB001180076/)

Book White, Richard; (2012)
Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America (/p/isis/citation/CBB001212445/)

Thesis Sneddon, Matthew T.; (2009)
Representing Tradition in an Age of Progress: Technology and American Identity in Exhibitions and Museums, 1824--1952 (/p/isis/citation/CBB001562862/)

Book Davis, L. J.; (2012)
Fleet Fire: Thomas Edison and the Pioneers of the Electric Revolution (/p/isis/citation/CBB001213218/)

Book Stross, Randall E.; (2007)
The Wizard of Menlo Park: How Thomas Alva Edison Invented the Modern World (/p/isis/citation/CBB000950851/)

Chapter Palm, Michael; (2021)
Carry That Weight: The Costs of Delivery and the Ecology of Vinyl Records’ Revival (/p/isis/citation/CBB750359600/)

Article Thomas J. Misa; (2019)
Dominance of the Digital (1990–2016) (/p/isis/citation/CBB686040323/)

Book Diane E. Bailey; Paul M. Leonardi; (2015)
Technology choices: Why occupations differ in their embrace of new technology (/p/isis/citation/CBB321994922/)

Book Edward Jones-Imhotep; (2017)
The Unreliable Nation: Hostile Nature and Technological Failure in the Cold War (/p/isis/citation/CBB834356100/)

Article Harald Engler; (December 2020)
Social movement and the failure of car-friendly city projects: East and West Berlin (1970s and 1980s) (/p/isis/citation/CBB072777198/)

Article Chandler, Jennifer A.; (2012)
“Obligatory Technologies”: Explaining Why People Feel Compelled to Use Certain Technologies (/p/isis/citation/CBB001253148/)

Article Aaron Kerr; (2015)
The Use of Drones: An Argument Against Optimistic Technological Determinism Featuring the Work of Albert Borgmann and an Extended Analogy (/p/isis/citation/CBB456026076/)