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January 5th, 2021 by: Manuel, Jeffrey T.

Technical Literature and the Text-Searchable: The History of Technology and the Digitized Turn

Technology’s Stories vol. 8, no. 3 – DOI: https://doi.org/10.15763/jou.ts.2021.01.05.04 Manuel We historians of technology are constantly assessing technology and placing it in historical context. But from time to time, it is useful to consider how the technologies we rely on shape the stories we tell about technology. Specifically, how has the so-called digitized turn within…

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September 28th, 2020 by: Yovanna Pineda

Ways of Seeing Maintenance and Repair, Argentina

 Technology’s Stories v. 8, no. 2 – DOI: 10.15763/jou.ts.2020.09.28.01 Pineda_Ways of Seeing Maintenance   Introduction: Representation of Machinery Use in Argentine Culture and Film  In this technology story, I use ethnographic material from my original documentary film, Stories of the Harvester (https://vimeo.com/395115057), to discuss how the camera evokes spectators’ feelings about the subculture of farm…

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September 28th, 2020 by: Christiane Berth

Fear, Curiosity and New Social Rules: Representations of Early Telephone Use in Latin America, 1880-1935

 Technology’s Stories v. 8, no. 2 – DOI: 10.15763/jou.ts.2020.09.28.02 Berth_Fear Curiosity and New Social Rules In the late nineteenth century, local governments began to install telephone lines in Latin American cities. Among the first countries to introduce telephone service were Cuba, Chile, and Mexico, all of whom did so in the 1880s. At first, the…

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September 28th, 2020 by: Jethron Ayumbah Akallah

Technologies from Below: Water and Sanitation Supply in Nairobi’s Informal Settlements

 Technology’s Stories v. 8, no. 2 – DOI: 10.15763/jou.ts.2020.09.28.03 Akallah_Technologies From Below In a study on water vending in Tanzania, Marianne Kjellén points out that in most developing countries, a piped water supply in the city is the norm for the richer households, while poorer households struggle to access water by other means.[1] Most of…

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September 28th, 2020 by: Robert Heinze

Le Gyrobus: an electric bus in colonial Kinshasa

 Technology’s Stories v. 8, no. 2 – DOI: 10.15763/jou.ts.2020.09.28.04 Heinze_Le Gyrobus In the history of technology, there is no shortage of artefacts that, once propagated as supremely modern and useful, quickly disappeared and were forgotten as more practicable standards, simpler technological solutions for the same problem or just a company with better market coverage brought…

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September 28th, 2020 by: Fon L. Gordon

 Driving “Jim Crow”: Cars and Race in the United States

 Technology’s Stories v. 8, no. 2 – DOI: 10.15763/jou.ts.2020.09.28.05 Gordon_Driving Jim Crow The twentieth century saw the rise of the automobile as the most important consumer product and economic lever in the United States. Driving became a required expression of American nationalism and citizenship. Yet American car culture was also inextricably intertwined with race. The…

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