Ragtime Technology and Modernization Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

Exactly six minutes after the car had rolled down the ramp an identical car appeared at the top of the ramp, stood for a moment pointed at the cold early morning sun, then rolled down and crashed into the rear of the first one. (18.1)

This is the moment that Henry Ford successfully creates a car made by assembly line, which is of course how we make cars today. At that moment, his Model T becomes inexpensive enough for the average Joe to own a car.

Quote #5

Has it occurred to you that your assembly line is not merely a stroke of industrial genius but a projection of organic truth? (20.5)

J.P. Morgan recognizes the fact that the assembly line will change the world as we know it. He also thinks that it makes cars as naturally as organisms reproduce. Ironically enough, Ford came up with the idea of the assembly line by examining slaughterhouses: it's not reproduction that inspires him; it's death.

Quote #6

Physicists all over the world were discovering waves, the man told him. There was a tremendously important theory from abroad in which it was supposed matter and energy were but two aspects of the same primal force. (27.10)

Houdini is still searching for a way to the afterlife. Despite advances in technology, there are no answers to how to contact the dead. But they're still using pretty science-y phrases to talk about their magic tricks.