Machinal

Recently, in the theatre department I work in, we have had to throw away all but a precious few of our props.  In doing so I was forced to make some very difficult decision about what to keep and what to throw away.  Of the literal handful of things that were kept there was an old, mechanical typewriter.  I find myself entranced with these miracles of yesterday's modern technology.  Before electricity and computers, before microchips or even transistors, wasn't it amazing what we were able to accomplish?  In my mind it was almost more amazing than what we are able to do with computers.

I take this typewriter as an example.  I can do everything on it that I could do on a modern word processor (except delete, of course).  The machine itself is heavy, unwieldy and ridiculously complicated.  I took it upon myself to try and clean this old machine and oil it to see if I could get it into a better working condition.  As I removed the pieces that made up the sides and back I quickly realized that there would be no way that I could dismantle this device with any hope of reassembling it.  This archaic device was so beyond me I was almost ashamed.  I, who routinely repair lighting instruments, electrical equipment, work out computer programs and settings, develop new ideas for projections, etc., could not even begin to consider the mind that came up with a "useless" contraption like that typewriter.  Marvelous.

Another example is an old phonograph we have in stock.  Not the electric record players that we are semi familiar with, but rather a mechanical wonder.  As I explained to my fascinated students how this "victrola" worked I began to realize just how amazing it was.  Many of them had never even seen a record player, much less one of these.  This became apparent when one of them asked where the power cord was.  

"There is no power chord.  It's not electric."

"How does it work, then?"

Remarkably simply, yet inconceivably complex.  A spring is wound tight to set the turn table in motion.  A needle (literally a piece of pointed steel) is placed on a "wax" record with grooves cast into it.  As the needle bumps along these grooves it transfers these percussions to a diaphragm it is attached to.  This diaphragm changes the bumps of the needle into changes in air pressure.  These changes in air pressure are then sent through gradually larger tubes until they reach a horn of some sort and are expelled.  Naturally we perceive these changes in air pressure as sound.  Beautiful music.  Wanna make it even more simple, you can actually get music out of the records by wrapping a paper funnel around one of the steel needles and placing this homemade speaker onto the record.  This is absolutely amazing!  What do we have today to compare with it?

I am not arguing against technology, after all it has done some wonderful things that mechanics simply would not be able to accomplish.  However, perhaps we have too quickly moved on from the miracle of mechanics.  Look at what we accomplished in the past with the know how of physics.  What could we accomplish today?  Just some thoughts I have.  Is it possible that we moved on too quickly from these machines?  Did we, maybe, not give them the one hundred or two hundred years to mature that so many other ages had.  Did we allow the computer age to come on too quickly and dilute the advances of the mechanical age?  I have no idea, and we will never know.  As for me, though, I think I will continue to recognize the wonderful advances of the past while trying to keep up with the present.  It gets harder and harder, however.  Today moves so quickly into tomorrow.  As one of my students made clear to me, I know how to operate a mechanical typewriter, but I have no clue how to make a bluetooth device serve me.  This may be problematic.