Technology in Context: The Television - Essay Sample

Introduction

The path to electrical televisions started with early 19th-century technology of scanning and transmitting static images onto a screen which is attributed to the German inventor Paul Gottlieb Nipkow(Abramson,1987). In 1907 the Boris Rosing and Campbell-Swinton combined the use of a cathode ray tube with Nipkow's mechanical scanning system. The work of these two inventors led to the invention of the first mechanical television in the 1920s by John Logie Baird and Charles Francis Jenkins(Abramson 1987). The world's first electronic television was a result of the work of Philo Taylor Farnsworth.

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While in high school in Utah, he had started thinking of a system that could use electricity to capture moving images, change them into a code, then transmit the code using radio waves to different devices(Abramson,1987). By the time he was 21 years old, Farnsworth had developed an electronic television system that captured moving images using beams of electrons. The first image he ever transmitted was a simple line before subsequently transmitting a dollar sign into his electronic television prototype after being challenged about the commercial viability of his invention by a prospective investor asked. By1934, Farnsworth's electronic television system had completely replaced mechanical television units. The collaborative efforts by different inventors which resulted in the electronic television occurred from the 1800s to the 1920s. During this period, America went through the gilded age before transitioning into the progressive era.

Historical Context Surrounding the Invention of the Television

Historians derived the term 'gilded age' from the process of covering cheap metals with a coat of gold to make things made out of the former look more valuable than they actually are. This implies that Historians may agree it was a good thing that the United States underwent massive industrialization because it made America one of the world's richest nations, there were bad consequences from the rise of American big business. Existing historical texts showed that leaders of industry used unfair business practices to eliminate competition and create monopolies in order to maximize profits. In the process, the welfare of workers was severely undermined by suppressed wages and difficult working conditions in American factories.

For example, Andrew Carnegie, a child immigrant from Scotland, rose to become one of the richest men in the world as an owner of several steel mills in Pittsburgh. His massive personal wealth was accumulated from taking advantage of the lack of government regulations preventing him from creating a steel monopoly and maximize profits by suppressing wages. At his Pennsylvania steel mill, he endorsed the use of violence to break a strike by union workers who wanted better wages and working conditions. He supported his factory manager's decision to use Pinkerton armed guards to protect the plant and replacements hired to work after union workers left. The Pinkertons killed union workers trying to stop the factory from re-opening for business. Carnegie went on to use his considerable influence to ensure that union leaders were arrested. He also used his political cronies to effectively kill the emerging trade union movement in the Pittsburgh area where he had steel mills.

The gilded age resulted in the great migration of African Americans North for work. Prior to the outbreak of the first world war, the vast majority of African Americans lived below the cotton curtain in America's South. There were several reasons which pushed African Americans North. Historians point to firstly, the 1898 tiny boll weevil epidemic which destroyed the cotton harvest and the losses made sharecroppers homeless. Secondly, World War I stopped the mass immigration of European industrial workers to satisfy the need for labor in American factories. This end to European immigration created labor shortages at a time when it was extremely profitable for American industries to sell armaments and other supplies to both sides of the conflict.

The third reason was that African Americans were politically and socially disenfranchised in the South. The abrupt end to Reconstruction came with a loss of their political rights. Recorded history shows that the first Black members of Congress were Republicans who got elected during the period the South was undergoing Reconstruction. When federal troops were abruptly removed from the South, it marked the end of Reconstruction. The Democratic party systematically passed laws which attached the right to vote for African Americans to restrictions such literacy tests when the State was not providing its back inhabitants with an adequate education.

Furthermore, Democratic state legislatures in the South inserted what the historical literature refers to as the "grandfather clause" which limited the vote to African Americans whose grandfathers were registered voters in the process disqualifying many who were entitled to vote after the abolition of slavery through the 15th Amendment. Socially, the Southern Democrats passed laws that segregated inhabitants on the basis of race. These laws referred to as "Jim Crow" in American history books. The enforcement of Jim Crow laws was supplemented by the Klux Klux Klan (KKK)as the extra-judicial way to keep in line almost eight million black inhabitants living in the South

The Great Migration North massively increased the number of African-American communities in northern cities. For example, Detroit experienced 611 percent rise in its black population that enticed Henry Ford to test and see if black workers could be used on his assembly lines. His experiment was a success.The number of black workers on Ford assembly lines rose from 600 in 1910 to 25,000 by 1929. This increase in black workers who were willing to work at lower wages created the very same racial animosity they thought they were leaving in the South. Almost twenty-five million white Europeans had emigrated to America between 1871 to 1915. They went on to become a source of unskilled labor in the North. In many industries black migrants were trying to get access into such as steel mills and slaughterhouses, they were a clear majority.

Black migrants became easy scapegoats for the challenges faced by poor whites in the North's crowded cities. The trade unions in the North caught flat-footed by the influx of thousands of cheap unskilled workers from the South who created a labor surplus which made it possible for employers not to negotiate with trade unions over wages. The racial tension which ensued manifested itself as white mob violence aimed at blacks. For example, in July 1917, there was an outbreak of white mob violence in Illinois in the town East St. Louis after black workers were hired to keep an aluminum plant operational during a strike. The local chapter of trade unionist went to petition the mayor to stop black migration into the town. At the end of the meeting, an unsubstantiated story started that a black man had accidentally shot a white man during a robbery. As the rumor spread, it changed to say that the shooting was intentional and involved an insulted white woman. White mobs took to the streets attacking any blacks they could find. Local police made no attempt to stop these attacks. When the mob violence ended, 48 blacks were dead, hundreds more were injured, and black homes lay in ruins.

Four years later, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the white mob violence broke out in the same way after a young black man was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting a white woman in an elevator. The Tulsa Tribune published a fake story that he had violently tried to rape his alleged victim. An angry mob of white people surrounded the jail holding the black suspect ready to lynch him. An attempt by a group of blacks to go help the sheriff prevent the lynching triggered the Tulsa Riot in which white mobs attacked blacks and black-owned properties. White mob violence in Tulsa was responsible for the deaths of 300 black people and the displacement of almost two thousand blacks most of whom never returned to the city.

The progressive movement emerged pushing for changes to address the perceived bad consequences on life in American society created during the gilded age. The progressive movement is, therefore, an alternative system to pure capitalism in which the wealth of the nation is used to improve the quality of life in American society. For example, progressive politicians believed that the federal government needs to play a central role in addressing securing positive changes to American society. Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Theodore Roosevelt, expanded the powers of the federal government to allow the federal government to regulate the private sector, protect consumers, as well as protect the natural environment. The progressive movement also succeeded in making changes to the US Constitution to serve their objectives. The 16th Amendment created a federal income tax to fund the public welfare programs they envisioned, the 17th Amendment to allow for the direct election of Senators, and the 19th Amendment to give women the right to vote.

Opinion

The television was the result of a collaborative effort by several inventors who progressively improved the technology.

In my opinion, television has an important role in American history because it became more than just a tool for entertainment. It is a medium for communication. In this way, television stations have become important in how public opinion is shaped in regards to matters of great public importance such as the abortion debate, same-sex marriages, immigration, foreign policy and the right person for an elective post. The development of television happened when America went through the gilded and progressive era. Historians say that the gilded age was good because economic prosperity during this time laid the foundations for America's role as a world power in from the 19th century onwards. Existing literature shows that the progressive movement emerged to secure a more equitable American society. This progressive movement fuelled the emergence of the American Civil Rights movement in the wake of hardening race attitudes in both the South and North. The television became an important tool for highlighting the plight of black people in America. In this way, it was a useful tool in moving American society forward in terms of race relations as civil rights leaders were able to plead their case directly to white American as televisions became a feature of American life.

References

Abramson, A. (1987). The history of television, 1880 to 1941. Jefferson(NC): McFarland.

McWhirter, C. (2011). Red summer: The summer of 1919 and the awakening of Black America. Atlanta(Ga): Henry Holt and Company.