Age of Systems Flashcards
What was the American System of Manufacture?
A manufacturing technique involving producing parts exactly interchangeable with each other.
Why was “Armory Practice” advantageous?
1) It allowed parts muskets to be exactly interchangeable, rather than the traditional process of adjusting and fitting each part to the individual muskets. This expedited both production and repairs.
2) It was dramatically cheaper to produce, and required less skilled workers
Where was “Armory Practice” pioneered. When did this development take place?
The Springfield Armoury, from roughly 1802-1822.
What techniques informed the “Armoury Practice” model?
1) Division of labour
2) Piece rates rather than hourly rates
3) Special machinery to cut or verify parts uniformly
What was the “putting out” system?
In the 18th century; manufacturing was done in a person’s home, and a merchant made the rounds of his operators’ homes to gather the finished product
What was the “factory system?”
Gathering machines and operators under one roof, close to the system of power needed to move the machines
Why was the factory system advantageous for the employer?
1) Cut on transportation cost of supplies between individual homes
2) Allowed the employer to keep a close watch on the employees
What was the major geographical limitation for early factories?
They had to be located near a source of power flowing (water, a steam engine)
Why were British factories initially urban while American factories rural?
In Britain, rich with coal cities were often the easiest supplied. In the United States, there was a lot of available waterfront along the eastern seaboard, as well as rivers running from the Appalachians.
Why did American factories switch to coal?
1) Coal transported by rail became more available
2) River sources became unstable as the ecosystems were damaged by settlement
How did the American factory workforce change in the early 19th Century?
Initially, the workforce was largely children. The level of mechanization increased and mills were designated to professional managers, and the workforce was delegated to young unmarried women.
However, by 1850 demands on workers increased, and factories shifted to hiring more pliable Irish and French-Canadian immigrants
How did the timing of transportation change during the early 19th century?
It increasingly followed a schedule. New modes of travel (steamship, trains), were faster and more reliable than previous methods, relying on wind or muscle power. This allowed predicting both departure and arrival times.
How did new transportation change traditional postage networks?
The volume and speed of steamships and rail made postage more affordable, where it had traditionally been reserved to the rich. By the middle of the 19th century, postage stamps were introduced, and by the end, an international postage union was set up.
How did Prince Edward order insubordinate soldiers flogged?
By telegraph
How did the telegraph modify the experience of presence?
It made it increasingly intangible, replacing it with “telepresence.”
What were methods of distance communication before the telegraph?
Sound (bells, whistling, drums)
Transportation (runners, riders, birds)
Visual signals (Smoke, beacons, flags)
What was the aerial telegraph?
A land-based equivalent of naval flags built in 1794 in France. The system relied on a series of towers equipped with signal masts and staffed by dedicated men.
When was the first aerial telegraph line built in Canada? What did it link?
- It linked the British base in Halifax, to a lighthouse on Sambro Island, as well as Fredericton (a shuttle carried the messages across the Bay of Fundy)
What was a major limitation of the aerial telegraph?
It cost a lot to build the towers and permanently man the towers.
Why did Quebec City merchants help maintain the city’s aerial telegraph network?
It helped them learn of ship arrivals ahead of time
In what century did electricity begin to be intensely studied?
18th century
What was the British Admiralty’s response to Francis Ronald’s experimental electric telegraph in 1816?
The admiralty dismissed it as unnecessary
What types of electric telegraph systems had been developed by the 1830s?
1) Needle system
2) Armature system
What was the needle system of telegraph?
The needle system employed the deflections of small magnetic needles placed at the receiving ends of the wires through which a current was sent
What was the armature system of telegraph?
the armature system placed an electromagnet at the end of the wire, so that the current put through the electromagnet might produce a mechanical effect
What was conceived by Samuel Morse in 1832? How did it work?
A code that used only dots and dashes, produced by a single key. This would be come known as morse code.
Who partnered with Samuel Morse? Why did the two work together?
Alfred Vail. They worked together from 1837 to perfect their code and market it.
What form of Morse code was adopted for international use in the radio? What was the change in the code??
The standard for radio use was the code adopted by the Austro-Germanic Telegraph Union in 1851. Morse and Vail originally assigned the simplest code to the most common letters in English. However, German telegraphers assigned the simplest code to the most common letters in German;
Until what years was railway morse used in Canada?
It was used until 1972 in Canadian National Railway offices as a backup to the phone system
What was the drawback of building tracks in two directions?
It was expensive. Single-tracks were preferred if hey could be made safe
When was telegraph technology fully adopted for use in synchronizing trains?
Second half of the 19th century
What advantage did rail lines have for telegraph wires?
They occupied continuous parcels of land between cities
What finally compelled the adoption of the telegraph for directing railway traffic
Many railroad companies were skeptical and resisted adopting the telegraph, until the rising toll of accidents compelled them to rely on telegraphs to direct traffic.
How did the use of telegraph initially affect rail accidents?
Once train stations started to use the telegraph, the small differences in local time became significant. Some train mishaps of the 19th century were caused by misunderstandings and discrepant times. This motivated the growth of railroad time, then eventually world time.
When did the electric telegraph begin to be widely adopted in the United States and Canada
Mid 1840s
When was the first Transatlantic telegraph cable laid?
1850s
What utopian ideal was hoped to be achieved with the electric telegraph?
Help the world’s people become brothers and result in such amity and harmony that it would help civilization advance and improve the material welfare of Christian countries
What was a non-message application of the telegraph?
The electric telegraph was applied to a fire alarm network, collecting alarm boxes to fire halls.
Which two inventors worked on the telephone separately? Which won the patent by a span of three hours?
Alexander Graham Bell narrowly beat Elisha Gray
Demand to develop what technology overshadowed the early development of the telephone?
Western Union and other large companies wanted to develop the multiple telegraph, which was capable of sending multiple messages on the same line at the same time. There seemed no need for another device which could only send one message on one line at a time
