IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - Fall 2014 - 28

manipulate complex mechanical systems would give rise
notes, this process led to confusion. Bulk goods were
to the professionalization of fields such as engineering;
favored over others and short hauls often cost more than
technological advancements would influence the orgalong hauls; thus, it might be cheaper to ship the same
nization of nascent labor organizations; and the ecosysgood halfway across the country rather than just a few
tems of the west would be thrown into flux by settlers
dozen miles down the line. As additional transcontinenwho arrived en masse by rail.
tals were built and began to compete against one another,
White points out that trained engineers "...reduced
this relationship between the value of time and distance
local knowledge [about the land and its particular charonly became more distorted.
acteristics] to numbers, a universal language of elevaThe second half of the 19th century - the height of
tions, grades, curves, and the power that a steam engine
the Industrial Revolution - is considered a great age of
could muster... [they] did this to create railroad space."
technological advancement. Large manufacturers such
This "railroad space" could be summarized succinctly
as the Baldwin Locomotive Works of Philadelphia were
in charts and tables that any professional could analyze
recognized as leaders in the development of engines
to understand the "connections between
and locomotives, which were composed
infrastructure, movement, and revenue" -
of hundreds of parts designed by skilled
As the rail
and therefore the railroads' bottom lines.
engineers who often had formally studied
network
Reducing the characteristics of the land
mechanics and other sciences.
extended
to convenient numbers laid down a founBut not all of the technological advancedation for what railroad boosters touted as
ments were executed by professionals.
westward, few
optimal growth. Depots would be spaced
Small changes made by those on the front
people fully
according to how far a farmer could realines - mechanics and others who learned
understood
sonably travel with his harvest in one day,
their skills on the job - could contribute
how the
while the locations of major stops with
to improved technologies and methods of
water towers and maintenance facilities
work. The author writes, "Mechanics tinrailroads would
were determined by how long a locomoaffect their lives kered with locomotives. They redesigned
tive could travel before it needed servicing.
them and on some roads manufactured
or those of their their own... Innovators collaborated and
Wherever the railroads established mainprogeny.
tenance facilities, which might include
disseminated along 'an informal but effecstructures for fuel storage and mechanical
tive network of technical experts.' Master
repair, towns developed quickly. Unfortunately, as witmechanics and the workers under them created a 'pool
nessed during the later introduction of diesel locomotives
of techniques' and innovation that the original builders
- less labor intensive than their steam predecessors -
of locomotives in eastern factories often tapped." This
many of these towns, as products of the railroad, would
informal system was eventually replaced as the ranks of
fade away just as quickly as they had been created.
professional engineers grew at the dawn of the 20th cenTranscontinental railroads purposely inserted themtury and patents were recognized and enforced.
selves into local markets in an attempt to run them more
The adoption of new technologies presented chalefficiently and therefore boost profits derived from carrylenges for the railroads, as exemplified by the introducing bulk goods. White cites the example of the Canadian
tion of automatic air brakes in the 1870s. Prior to air
Pacific and its influence on the wheat market of south
brakes, brakemen had to walk along the roofs of mulcentral Canada. As the principal means of shipping the
tiple cars to apply the manual brakes on each one. Tragrain to port, the railroad could mandate uniform proversing a moving train was dangerous at any time, but
duction and classification standards. Quality control
especially when the weather took a turn for the worse.
made the grain sought-after around the world, and it
George Westinghouse's invention of automatic airbrakes
commanded a higher price.
allowed the engineer to stop the entire train with the pull
To better organize this new world, the concept of stanof a lever from the locomotive.
dard time was established in 1883; no longer did local
While a great idea in theory and practice, the installaresidents have to rely on reliable yet imprecise measuretion of automatic air brakes was a financial burden. Since
ments based on the path of the sun-clocks now gave the
railroads interchanged cars, ideally all rolling stock
exact time to be observed by all in the region. Time that
would have to be retrofitted in order to function together.
could be precisely measured was also bound to take on
This would take decades to achieve, and in the interim,
more value, since its use could be accurately tallied. The
workers had to sort out the cars by brake system, using
telegraph, whose lines often followed the tracks, allowed
up time and money in the process. Automatic airbrakes
for quick, accurate communication and enabled the stanwould not become widely used until the federal governdardization of time.
ment mandated railroad safety standards in 1893. RailTime, distance, and cost were further quantified in the
road workers were also suspect of new technologies such
setting of tariffs for the movement of goods, but as White
as airbrakes and automatic couplers: they reduced the
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IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

fALL 2014

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