Review: Men, Machines and Modern Times

Sometimes (often?) it’s worth looking back to see what is going to happen going forward. Or maybe not ‘see what is going to happen’, but give a better guide/idea of just what is more likely to occur.

For me, it started with a link to a book, “A Thread across the Ocean”. Here, the author, XYZ, does a magnificent job of introducing and talking through history of the first telegraph cable between the USA and Ireland. I picked this book up for its historical interest on the topic of the telegraph cable and its implications: that the transfer of knowledge from Europe to the USA went from taking 10 WEEKS to be being measured in minutes. In doing so, an epic tale of figuring out how to create and drop a cable across the Atlantic Ocean came to being and the astounding vision of Cyrus Wright is shown in believing that it was possible, but also pulling together the correct skillsets, financiers and tools to create such a cable. The impact of this cable – which failed within a few minutes on the first occasion, requiring a completely new cable to be relaid – cannot be understated, removing countless barriers to the development of world markets and the breakneck development of the nascent American economy.

However, it was another industry that was further along its disruption trail that I couldn’t shake from my interests when reading the book: that of the shipping industry. Whereas now, the telephony industry is about to disappear to be replaced by the Internet/digital industry (choose your name of preference), the same had occurred with boats with the transition from sail to steam-power, enabling a revolution in capabilities and opportunities. In the case of the first telegraph cable, luck was to have it that the ‘Great Eastern’ was to join the story. I’ve talked about it elsewhere, but in short, a hybrid of sail and steam power, built in the middle of the transition, it turned out to be the perfect vessel for laying a telegraph cable.

In ‘Men, machines and modern times’, the author XYZ talks through various historical examples of transitions and its impact on human society. One such story is the Wampoang, further along the transition to steam: in this case a completely fresh design built to the sole considerations of steam: capable of much higher speeds for longer distances, it was 40 years ahead of all other designs in the end!

The book is an interesting one, written in 1966 that leads to numerous interesting ideas. Firstly, I’m reading the 50th anniversary edition which kindly highlights just what a different era it is now – if you were to read only this book, you would imagine men were the only people on the planet….