Machine Age

Metalworking machinery

A freight locomotive

Bonneville Dam (1933-37)

The Machine Age^[1][2][3] is an era that includes the early 20th century, sometimes also including the late 19th century. An approximate dating would be about 1880 to 1945. Considered to be at a peak in the time between the first and second world wars, it forms a late part of the Second Industrial Revolution. By the mid to late 1940s, the atom bomb,^[4] the first computers,^[5] and the transistor came into being,^[6] beginning the contemporary era of Digital Revolution and thus ending the intellectual model of the machine age founded in the mechanical and heralding a new more complex model of high technology.

Universal chronology

Developments

Artifacts of the Machine Age include:

• Mass production of high-volume goods on moving assembly lines, particularly of the automobile^[7]
• Gigantic production machinery, especially for producing and working metal, such as steel rolling mills, bridge component fabrication, and automobile body presses
• Powerful earthmoving equipment
• Steel framed buildings of great height (the skyscraper^[8])
• Radio and phonograph technology
• High speed printing presses, enabling the production of low cost newspapers and mass market magazines
• Large hydroelectric and thermal electric power production plants and distribution systems
• Low cost appliances for the mass market that employ fractional horsepower electric motors, such as the vacuum cleaner and the washing machine
• Fast and comfortable long distance travel by railroad, automobile, and aircraft
• Development and employment of modern war machines such as tanks, aircraft, submarines and the modern battleship
• Streamline designs in automobiles and trains, influenced by aircraft design

Social influence

• The rise of mass market advertising and consumerism
• Nationwide branding and distribution of goods, replacing local arts and crafts
• Nationwide cultural leveling due to exposure to movies and network broadcasting
• Replacement of skilled crafts with low skilled labor
• Growth of strong corporations through their abilities to exploit economies of scale in materials and equipment acquisition, manufacturing, and distribution
• Corporate exploitation of labor leading to the creation of strong trade unions as a countervailing force

Environmental influence

• Exploitation of natural resources with little concern for the ecological consequences; a continuation of 19th century practices but at a larger scale.
• Release of synthetic dyes, artificial flavorings, and toxic materials into the consumption stream without testing for adverse health effects.

International relations

• Conflicts between nations regarding access to energy sources (particularly oil) and material resources (particularly iron and various metals with which it is alloyed) required to ensure national self-sufficiency. Such conflicts were contributory to two devastating world wars.

Arts and architecture

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (1912) by Marcel Duchamp displays Cubist and Futurist characteristics

The Machine Age is considered to have influenced:

• Dystopian movies including Chaplin's Modern Times and Lang's Metropolis
• Streamline Moderne appliance design and architecture
• Bauhaus style
• Steampunk
• Modern art
  • Cubism
  • Art Deco decorative style
  • Futurism
  • Music

See also

• Second Industrial Revolution

References