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U.S. History 1877-Present Videos 173 videos
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U.S. History 1877-Present 7: New Technology of the 1920s 210 Views
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Description:
Believe it or not, people used to be suspicious of refrigerators. Not in the taking over the world sense, though. That's preposterous. It's not like they've...infiltrated all of our homes already. Oh no.
Transcript
- 00:04
The 20s are often called a boon time this was not because the
- 00:08
country suddenly exploded but what did explode with American business and [Country explodes]
- 00:12
banking not quite as exciting there we know but stick with us
- 00:16
new technologies fueled new businesses and new industries and electricity made [Cogs turning and dollar symbols fall]
- 00:21
almost all these new technologies possible appliances like washing
Full Transcript
- 00:24
machines radios vacuum cleaners record players toasters clocks refrigerators [Appliances appear]
- 00:28
coffee makers and more all ran on electricity except with a few prototypes
- 00:33
that ran on campster power but that really wasn't practical the other thing [Hamster running in a wheel]
- 00:37
all these new devices had in common is that they all became available to
- 00:41
middle-class Americans in the 1920s every item on this list is also an item [New technology list appears]
- 00:46
you probably have in your homes today well except for record players unless
- 00:49
you're one of those hipsters who only collect vinyl all right point is that [Man with a vinyl record player]
- 00:54
when we look back on the 1920s it's a decade when American life becomes much
- 00:58
more familiar to us 21st century types it was the first real high-tech decade [Boy listening to music in headphones]
- 01:03
what with all the new technology created and built by American manufacturers and
- 01:07
for every new appliance there was a new company Frigidaire made
- 01:11
yes refrigerators RCA the Radio Corporation of America made radios
- 01:17
Hoover made hoverboard a vacuum cleaners now they suck new companies hired tens [Man using hoverboard]
- 01:24
of thousands of workers across the country and new businesses sprang up to
- 01:28
support those new companies how by supplying them with specialized parts or
- 01:33
customer service this was the invention of service with a smile advertising [Man speaking over telephone]
- 01:38
companies were also created to sell the new products and make the new companies
- 01:42
a household name it was all grow grow grow in the world of business and
- 01:46
manufacturing but new products did not take off automatically new items like
- 01:50
refrigerators faced a lot of hurdles the biggest one being that people were [Woman stood beside a refrigerator]
- 01:54
suspicious of these newfangled contraptions and what about the IceMen
- 01:59
did they cometh or did the union of iseman strike it sure the old-school way [People working on old wooden wagon]
- 02:04
wasn't so great putting food in a wooden box with a
- 02:07
chunk of ice didn't ever keep food for very long also made a wet neck but [Ice appears in a cupboard]
- 02:13
most people didn't want to spend money on some weird new product that might not
- 02:16
work so what if the meet went bad yeah so manufacturing companies of
- 02:20
refrigerators like GE had to hire advertising companies to make the [People watching advert at the movie theater]
- 02:25
product seem irresistible to weary consumers and you have to leave it or
- 02:29
not in Disneyland in 1960 there were all kinds of ads as you walk through the [Woman wearing minnie mouse ears in DisneyLand]
- 02:33
park for this newfangled thing called the washing machine some companies
- 02:37
created their own internal marketing and public relations departments to do the
- 02:40
job it's all about communicating with your customers once the product became
- 02:44
popular the manufacturer had to design and build new models and then advertise
- 02:48
up and the cycle continues today like a never-ending SoulCycle session.... [People in a cue]
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