Age of Crisis

Introduction
First world war
o Technology that had promised peace were the reason for mass killings
o Great depression worst economic depression after WW tech enterprises went
bankrupt
Technology dehumanized men and women
Tech was involved in WW2, holocaust and the atomic bomb
It was known as the 30 year crisis
Technology was supposed to bring peace, prosperity etc but the opp happened in this age

Society
Chevaliers railroads were seen as a tool for war
o Transferring troops, ammunition, food, fresh supplies to the warfront in WW1
Technology was used as weapons in WW1
Science based technology nightmare used for war
o Electrical fence at the trenches
o Chemical production production of explosives
Chemical warfare
o 1913 Victor Grignard poison gas shells
o 1918 Fritz Haber poison gas
Fritz Haber 1918 Haber Process
o Promise use as a fertilizer to solve food shortages
o Crisis Poisonous gases for war
o Supported gas as a way of killing quick death more humane
Otto Hahn Atomic Bomb
o Didnt support
o Shocked on the use of nuclear fission as a bomb
Were scientists protecting society/contributing to a nightmare?

Economic Depression and Technological Nationalism

The great depression 1930s

Technologys economic promise economic nightmare

First
o Money from banks, reserves Military technologies
o Reserves empty
o Printing more money high unemployment and inflation
Second
o State governments reacted defensively trade barriers, support for domestic industries
 o Local power generation
o Increased control of national communications and mobility
o Central planning to produce optimal technological efficiency at the level of national
economy
o New problems
No international industrial collaboration
No international cooperation
Third
o Failure of large-scale tech systems brought suffering
o Modern tech-refrigeration, railroad distribution, large scale production
o Food output spiked but bad weather destroyed harvests resulting in starvation

Liberty and Enslavement

Modern technology threatened human individuality and freedom

o Eg: Walter Rathenau endorsed modern technology and observed that people lost their
human individuality
Major theme: Fear that humans became slaves to modern technology
o Intellectual and cultural standards deteriorated rapidly
o Loss of creativity
Emergence of science fiction books that showed the thread to human lives by technology

Enterprise
Age of crisis Business opportunity and dream to business failure and bankruptcy
Eg of Railways
o Success earlier lucrative business with high returns on investment
o Age of crisis expenses rose and incomes fell everything fell apart
o Income reduction collapse of international trade, increasing local competition from
automobiles and other railway firms
o Growth of expenses Building of railways in difficult terrain more difficult
Railway companies went bankrupt. Some merged and some taken over by state
Sectors depending on import/exports were hit hard due to no international cooperation
Farmers went bankrupt
Crisis for beer industry as well
After WW1, everyone created chemicals of the organic chemical industry overcapacity
o Solution: Setup international cartels to regulate markets as an alternative to state
regulation

Patent Wars

Big firms (largest and most successful) had the best research labs. They set up patent
departments and patented lab ideas.
Large firms legally started suing little inventors for infringement wherever they could. It worked
because big firms could hire expensive law firms, little inventors had no choice but to give up
little/new inventors disappeared.
 General Bakelite Company made it impossible for any new company to enter the plastics market
with patent infringement cases.
Public institutes would make research labs available for small companies increase their
competitiveness.

Worker Nightmares

Factory managers used scientific management to cut labour costs

o In mass production firms factory floor would be redesigned around an assembly line
with workers doing routinized tasks
o Workers were required to register their presence. Managers eliminated workers if
necessary and hence pressured the remaining to work faster.
Result unhappy workers strikes, labour union formation
Mass unemployment criticism for scientific management
Mechanization problem for workers
Philips
o Successful diversification strategy light bulbs electronic vacuum tubes, x-ray tunes
and radio sets
o Later production of incandescent lamps collapsed over half the workers were
dismissed
o Later expanded its market share of radio sets by accepting lower profits and increased
labour productivity
o Introduced the assembly line
o Not very pleasurable for some workers in the radio output part
o Dutch labour inspectors saw no problems even though workers were actually crying

Users
Modern Technology accidents and liability

Nightmare 1 issue of liability

o Electrocutions and heat burns due to access of electricity
Accident reports blamed users they didnt know how to deal with it
Consumer organizations tried getting govt. sponsored consumer protection

Users vs Mis-Users

Some users dreams were other users nightmares

Accidents sky rocketed when cars entered the street because all pedestrians walked on the
street
Motorists were misusers of the street
Later street regulation licenses, speed limits and laws for violation
Automotive lobby
o Engineering interventions for laws
o Speed lanes only for automobiles
o Pushed pedestrians and cyclists to the side
 o Children were not allowed to run, they should cross the street properly - laws for
pedestrians
Upper-class automobile users formed organizations and became activists lobbied for new
infrastructure for roads
Non motoring majorities had organizations too
o Result conflict on how streets were to be used
Conflict on individual vs Public Transit
o Automobile users wanted the former
o Fight on the use of state funds for public transit/road infrastructure.

Engineers
William E Wickenden
o Important spokesperson for the engineering profession in the US. He noted that:
o Engineers moved from the backstage to the center scene making them scape goats in
the times of crisis
o People could blame the crisis on the engineers
o Rejected this negative stereotype himself
o Reputation of engineers had taken a hit
o Even though engineers were blamed, they were turned to for solutions to problems

Collabroation, Persecution and Faustian bargains

Powerful engineers demanded services and loyalty from engineers now that they were in the
center stage
Engineers were under the influence of politics and hence had to work with the regime. They had
to make decisions even if they were harsh. Or else they would get executed
Some engineers supported the ideology of the totalitarian regime and initiated projects
themselves
Some engineers became targets of totalitarian regime
o Eg: Soviet engineer Peter Palchinsky worked closely with the soviet Union but
criticized their works
o Later was arrested for treason and executed
During War times, being an engineer was a problem Invaders saw the scientific experts and
engineers as potential rebels
o Eg: Nazi Germany invaded Poland and shut down the Warsaw university of Technology
Scientists and engineers simply forced themselves to work for the regimes in return for safety
and possibility to do engineering