Inventing a Network: American Telecommunications Infrastructure (1843-1893), on Tuesday, February 24, at 12:45pm EDT.

Location: GT Library Dissertation Defense Room, Price Gilbert 4222

Virtual: https://gatech.zoom.us/j/98429644153?pwd=PDPFi7qFgHEZ1yojcRHbGlFkTcyICN.1

Abstract

Inventing a Network reframes nineteenth-century American telecommunications history by focusing on the physical network that enabled rapid communications at a distance. This network approach contrasts with those that focus on the invention or uses of telecommunications devices but largely disregard the physical connections that enabled the devices to function. This approach also shows that the historical significance of network development extended well beyond its enabling role. As a vast infrastructure encompassing multiple material components, the network catalyzed major technological changes, stimulated voluminous patenting, and triggered the emergence of enduring manufacturing industries, including the wire and cable industries emphasized here.

This network focus also shows that neglecting the physical network distorts scholarly understanding of telecommunications history and obscures important sources of technical change. Recentering scholarly investigation on the network shifts attention away from heroic inventors of user instruments and from monopolistic service providers or their heroic executives. Instead, network history incorporates supplier businesses, core industries, and transnational communities of interest. The network further connects telecommunications developments with other important themes in American history, such as child labor, industrial safety, and the urban environment. Finally, and most importantly, this analysis challenges the dominant narrative of technological change for nineteenth-century telecommunications. It demonstrates that the leading sources of wire and cable innovation were not independent inventors but rather were principals or production employees in firms that manufactured these essential network components.

Primary sources for this study include nearly 1,000 US utility patents related to telecommunications wires or cables and issued from 1843 through 1893. These patents have several significant implications. First, they demonstrate that the independent inventors of the era were not the main source of network-related technological change. They further show that the network was not simply the product of an anonymous process of collective invention. Rather, these patents reflect the work of hundreds of named individuals with identifiable occupations and business affiliations. Biographical details of these patentees also reveal that network development relied far more on empirical methods and practical experience than on the deductive application of cutting-edge electrical science. Practical experience not only shaped manufacturing developments but also influenced network construction and maintenance, as manufacturers often supplied trained personnel for these tasks.

More broadly, the interrelationships between network infrastructure and manufacturing industries have current policy implications as well as historical relevance. The nineteenth-century telecommunications network induced extensive industrial innovation; it also led wire and cable manufacturers to develop the production capacity needed to supply massive quantities of these network components. With Americans now seeking both to rebuild aging infrastructure and to reinvigorate domestic manufacturing, Inventing a Network offers a timely reminder of the symbiotic nature of their historical development.

The Committee Members are:

Dr. Eric Schatzberg (Advisor), School of History and Sociology, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Steven Usselman (Co-Advisor), School of History and Sociology, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Todd Michney,  School of History and Sociology, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Daniel Amsterdam, School of History and Sociology, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Helen Curry, School of History and Sociology, Georgia Institute of Technology

Dr. Paul Isreal, Thomas A. Edison Papers, Rutgers University