Nuts and Bolts of the Past: A History of American Technology, 1776-1860

In his introduction to Nuts and Bolts of the Past: A history of American technology, 1776-1860, David Freeman Hawke explains how undocumented the history of America’s transformation from an agricultural colony of England into a major manufacturing economy is. He still manages to present a good

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outline of how and why the transformation occurred by looking at what parts of the history are documented and presenting the varied factors in an integrated and understandable manner. He starts with a look at the first ‘mass merchandisers’ New England’s traveling peddlers. Their ability to sell the wooden clocks that were one of the products of the cottage industries of the time to people that had no need for a clock Hawke compares to the old saw of selling ice to Eskimos.
Going from wooden clocks to metal parts the story is developed through the quest for interchangeable parts, an idea introduced by Eli Whitney in 1798, popularized by Samuel Colt, but not achieved until the Long & West Co. exhibited their rifles at the Crystal Palace Exhibition in London in 1851.
Advancements in machining and manufacturing he attributes to the ‘open shop’ policy in American shops. A mechanic in England was sworn to secrecy and seldom changed job, keeping innovations hidden from competitors. In America mechanics moved from shop to shop looking for better pay and taking their knowledge with them. Shop owners did not object because they had learned their skills the same way, exposure to a variety of ideas and they benefited from the knowledge newly hired mechanics brought with them. From my experience is small shops not much has changed.
Even with the free exchange of ideas, innovations stayed local. In 1923 the Franklin Institute was founded in Philadelphia to encourage the education of mechanics and to help spread new ideas. The Institute slowly changed its focus to science but it did keep offering prizes for innovation that they saw a need for. The first cook stove to successfully burn Anthracite coal, a long burning, high output fuel that is notoriously hard to ignite, was developed through one of the Institute’s competitions.
The book feels choppy in spots as Hawke moves from one subject to the next, sometimes rapidly, but in the end it draws a clear picture of industrial development in the years covered and it offers occasional hints of what is to come by mentioning how a trend continues. My main interest is labor history and I feel this book gave me much needed background information. After all how can you know the worker without knowing the workplace?

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