IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2019 - 13

as interaction with other humans:
bookstores where we can touch,
weigh, maybe even smell the product and talk with someone browsing
the same section; stores where we
might make an unexpected discovery of a book, much as we do in
a library.
But another leitmotiv, not mentioned by the author, tempts me
to call the book The Revenge of the
Rich. We are treated to a world of
expensive ana log watches (the
Shinola at $550), expensive blank
notebooks - the Moleskine, an overpriced simple camera (the Lomo),
and a device-free summer camp that
currently costs $8900 for 7 weeks.
To participate in the author's revenge
and to reject analog you typically
need some disposable income. As
always, the au courant consumer has
some extra money. Such examples of
revenge will always belong to a niche
market - and their buyers want that;
it makes them feel discerning.
The book does suffer from a lack
of historical perspective that might
have helped tie together the vari-

ous revenge chapters. Even before
the so-called digital age there has
been a yearning by some segment
of the population for technologies
that are more transparent or tactile
than those in general use. In the
age of the typewriter, many writers
preferred the experience of placing a pen on the paper. I've had
decades of electrical engineering
students who claimed that the sound
obtained from a vacuum tube amplifier is superior to that produced by
one with transistors. Both are analog devices, but the warm glowing
vacuum tubes suggest to their user a
stream of electrons being amplified
or modulated. And surely much of
the appeal of a long-playing record
is in watching the needle move
through the grooves - something
you don't get from an CD or an MP3
file. The photographer's romance
with cheap plastic cameras producing unpredictable results preceded
the Lomo. The popular, Chinese
made, Diana camera dates from the
early 1960s, and was famous for
light leaks and its bad plastic lens. It

was the antithesis of the handsome,
complicated Nikons and Canons
that were becoming very popular in
that period. The Diana was of sufficient importance in serious photography to have figured in an essay
by Janet Malcolm in her 1980 book
Diana and Nikon - she remarks
that photos taken with the Diana
have the look "of avant-garde art."
The popular steampunk movement,
now over a generation old, also has
its roots in transparent technologies: the steam engines, balloons,
and high wheel bikes of the Victorian era. Open the hood of a modern
car and you are hard put to figure
out how the engine functions. Look
at a steam engine and the workings
become clear.

Reviewer Information
A. David Wunsch is Book Review Editor of this magazine. He is Professor
Emeritus in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the
University of Massachusetts Lowell,
Lowell, MA. Email: A_Wunsch@
uml.edu.

A. David Wunsch

American Illuminations
American Illuminations: Urban Lighting, 1800-1920.
By David E. Nye. M.I.T. Press, 2018, 280 pages.

f you ever visit the
city of Boston, and
have ac c e s s t o a
ca r, tr y this some
evening: Drive westbound along Storrow Drive which

is on the south side of the Charles
River and take note of the buildings of the Back Bay section of the
city, which will be on your left. This
is a lovely collection of harmonious
brownstones dating from the 19th
century. Just as you are nearing their
west border you cannot help noticing what we locals call "The Citgo

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/MTS.2019.2915177
Date of publication: 30 May 2019

JUNE 2019

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IEEE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY MAGAZINE

Sign." This is an electronic billboard
that blinks out the triangular logo of
the Cities Service gasoline company.
Comprising 3600 square feet it is
so beloved that the City of Boston's
Landmark Commission considered
giving it protected status. Following
much pressure, the current owner of
the underlying building has pledged

IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2019

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