The Victorian Internet and Other Technologies of the Past

Ann Parker here, every-other-Thursday LadyKiller.

Inserting modern technology into a story line is fun when you're working in the past. For one thing, the "latest greatest" isn't a moving target: you pick your time, do your research, and that's that.

If I were writing something set present-day with a tech-saavy protagonist, I might have her pull out an iPhone 4. But, guess what? Before that book is finished and published, the reader will have access to iPhone 5 and beyond. It's just impossible to keep up.

But, pick a year like 1880, do your homework, and you can write without fear.

So, if you were living in 1880, what would you consider were the cutting-edge inventions ? (It's not a bad idea to back up a few years, because inventions sometimes move slowly into general knowledge.) Here are a few:

 1877: Refrigerator car (for trains, of course), the microphone, the phonograph, electric welding (these are just some samples; 1877 was a prolific year for inventors, apparently)

1878: Cream separator, cathode ray tube

1879: Cash register (ka-ching!), incandescent filament lamp, automobile enginer (two-cycle), arc lamp

1880: Linotype

But don't have your character pull out her fountain pen in 1880: it wasn't invented until 1884.

Edison and his phonograph: 1877

So, I can safely have my protagonist Inez gape in astonishment at an early phonograph in Mercury's Rise. Thomas Edison's invention received its patent in 1878, and was considered a "novelty." It was difficult to operate, except by experts, and the tin foil used to record voices  only lasted a few playings. (Recording music was part of Edison's vision for the machine, but wasn't attempted until much later.)

It's fun to research (and imagine) how characters would react to the newest technologies of the day... along that line, I have a book to recommend, which happens to have the same title as this post (titles are not copyrighted, after all): The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage. And what was the Victorian Internet? It was ... the telegraph! It allowed people to communicate over great distances almost instantly, revolutionized business practice, gave rise to new forms of crime, and inundated users with a flood of information. You can read more about it in Standage's own words on his website here.

It's strange to think that today's cutting-edge innovations are tomorrow's antiquities. I wonder what future generations (say, three or four out from the present) will think of iPhones, iPads, Kindles, Priuses, contact lenses, etc. Will they be impressed with our ingenuity, or see our attempts as crude and backwards?

I suppose only time will tell...

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Sunday, July 31, on the Poisoned Pen Press Authors' blog, Ann reveals yet another technology of the past that grabbed her attention (and ate up her time with yet more research and with hanging around bidding on eBay) while writing Mercury's Rise. Drop in and see what 19th century invention captivated her imagination and her bank account this Sunday in her post on "Techno-Lust."

Comments

[Priscilla]

I remember my mother telling me how she felt when penicillin was discovered and her immense relief when the polio vaccine came out. Thank you for including character reaction to inventions in your books, Ann. Not only is it interesting to read but it reminds us just how lucky we are.

[Ann]

Hi Priscilla! I recall my dad (an old-time doctor, housecalls and all), talking about being a child during the polio epidemics of the early '30s (I'd guess). How scary to be a parent back before the time of vaccines.

[Staci]

I think most people take certain inventions for granted these days, such as refrigerators, lights, indoor plumbing. No one thinks about how convenient they make life.
As for the latest iPhone or Kindle, future generations will probably see them as quaint or amusing, much like people view 8-tracks and cassette tapes now.

[Ann]

Hi STaci! ... or like vinyl records or typewriters, maybe they'll go full circle and be "trendy" again, sometime in the distant future. Then, our grandchildren will say, "You had an iPhone?? And you threw it away?? Grandma, how *could* you??" ;-)

[Camille Minichino]

You make it sound so easy, Ann!

But I doubt it! How many sources do you need before you feel comfortable with the "facts" of an invention?

[I'm glad I write about technology that I'm actually using or have used so no one can say, oops you got the wrong year for polyester![

[Ann]

Hi Camille! Well, the number of sources I consult depends on a lot of things: how central the technology is to the story, if there's uncertainty in when it was invented/when it would have been widely known, stuff like that. Luckily, if a patent was filed, I can go to the USPTO (US Patent Office) website and do a patent search for patents issued from 1790 on. Of course, one can become extremely distracted by the patent search function, and emerge hours later, with plenty of ancillary data that has no bearing on the story at hand! Such are the dangers of research (online research, especially.)