Frederick Dalzell
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- August 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780262042567
- eISBN:
- 9780262258708
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- The MIT Press
- DOI:
- 10.7551/mitpress/9780262042567.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Innovation
Over the course of a little less than twenty years, inventor Frank J. Sprague (1857–1934) achieved an astonishing series of technological breakthroughs—from pioneering work in self-governing motors ...
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Over the course of a little less than twenty years, inventor Frank J. Sprague (1857–1934) achieved an astonishing series of technological breakthroughs—from pioneering work in self-governing motors to developing the first full-scale operational electric railway system—all while commercializing his inventions and promoting them (and himself as their inventor) to financial backers and the public. This book tells his story, setting it against the backdrop of one of the most dynamic periods in the history of technology. In a burst of innovation during these years, Sprague and his contemporaries—Thomas Edison, Nicolas Tesla, Elmer Sperry, George Westinghouse, and others—transformed the technologies of electricity and reshaped modern life. After working briefly for Edison, Sprague started the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company; designed and built an electric railroad system for Richmond, Virginia; sold his company to Edison and went into the field of electric elevators; almost accidentally discovered a multiple-control system that could equip electric train systems for mass transit; started a third company to commercialize this; then sold this company to Edison and retired (temporarily). Throughout his career, the author tells us, Sprague framed technology as invention, cast himself as hero, and staged his technologies as dramas. He toiled against the odds, scraped together resources to found companies, bet those companies on technical feats—and pulled it off, multiple times. The idea of the “heroic inventor” is not, of course, the only way to frame the history of technology.Less
Over the course of a little less than twenty years, inventor Frank J. Sprague (1857–1934) achieved an astonishing series of technological breakthroughs—from pioneering work in self-governing motors to developing the first full-scale operational electric railway system—all while commercializing his inventions and promoting them (and himself as their inventor) to financial backers and the public. This book tells his story, setting it against the backdrop of one of the most dynamic periods in the history of technology. In a burst of innovation during these years, Sprague and his contemporaries—Thomas Edison, Nicolas Tesla, Elmer Sperry, George Westinghouse, and others—transformed the technologies of electricity and reshaped modern life. After working briefly for Edison, Sprague started the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company; designed and built an electric railroad system for Richmond, Virginia; sold his company to Edison and went into the field of electric elevators; almost accidentally discovered a multiple-control system that could equip electric train systems for mass transit; started a third company to commercialize this; then sold this company to Edison and retired (temporarily). Throughout his career, the author tells us, Sprague framed technology as invention, cast himself as hero, and staged his technologies as dramas. He toiled against the odds, scraped together resources to found companies, bet those companies on technical feats—and pulled it off, multiple times. The idea of the “heroic inventor” is not, of course, the only way to frame the history of technology.
James Wolfinger
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501702402
- eISBN:
- 9781501704239
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501702402.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This chapter considers Philadelphia's transit workers: their daily work, their relations with the system's owners, and their early efforts at unionization. Transit workers faced harsh conditions on ...
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This chapter considers Philadelphia's transit workers: their daily work, their relations with the system's owners, and their early efforts at unionization. Transit workers faced harsh conditions on the job and for their efforts received low pay and little respect. To improve their lot, they turned to organized labor, first with the Knights of Labor and then the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees—“the Amalgamated,” a member of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Overall, Philadelphia's transit workers found strong support among working-class residents of the city, but they lived in a difficult era marked by widespread class conflict, state repression, and organized corporate power embodied most conspicuously by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).Less
This chapter considers Philadelphia's transit workers: their daily work, their relations with the system's owners, and their early efforts at unionization. Transit workers faced harsh conditions on the job and for their efforts received low pay and little respect. To improve their lot, they turned to organized labor, first with the Knights of Labor and then the Amalgamated Association of Street and Electric Railway Employees—“the Amalgamated,” a member of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Overall, Philadelphia's transit workers found strong support among working-class residents of the city, but they lived in a difficult era marked by widespread class conflict, state repression, and organized corporate power embodied most conspicuously by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).
