Technology and Culture

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 611 This work is valuable to historians of technology for a number of reasons. Perhaps the most important is that it examines the adoption of technical developments and documents the immediate, and more far-reaching, effects of the technology on society as a whole. In addition, the author investigates the nature and impact of conflict in the coal industry. Finally, the roles of women as activists and in the traditional domestic roles are explored. Contrary to many historical accounts, Long has made a conscious effort to document the growth and development of the industry as seen through the eyes of those who played a major role in its development. Long’s writing style in the first section is somewhat distracting, but the reader is compensated by the comprehensive bibliography and notes section, where primary and secondary sources—books, articles, periodicals, manuscript collections, government and state docu­ ments, unpublished manuscripts, and reports and proceedings—are identified. Gay Bindocci Dr. Bindocci is an assistant professor in the College of Mineral and Energy Resources at West Virginia University. She is currently working on an annotated bibliography on women and technology (with Kathleen Ochs) to be published by Garland. Vertical Transportation in Old Back Bay: A Museum Case Study—the Acquisition of a Small Residential Hydraulic Elevator. By Robert M. Vogel. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1988. Pp. iii + 41; illustrations, notes, bibliography, appendix. Paper. Robert Vogel gave his booklet Vertical Transportation in Old Back Bay an accurate and descriptive subtitle. The case study began with the receipt of an unsolicited offer of an old elevator in Boston’s Back Bay. As curator of heavy machinery and civil engineering at the National Museum of American History (since retired), Vogel approached the elevator in question as a historical artifact. In this important booklet, he tells the history of the acquisition and of the elevator. He summarizes the donor relations, appraisal considerations, on-site activities, removal of the elevator to the museum, and historical documentation. Any elevator, Vogel explains from his curator’s perspective, is “less a conventional ‘object’ than a ‘system’ ” (p. 1). A historian of technol­ ogy would readily agree that the elevator car, motor, control and safety mechanisms, and hoisting apparatus constitute a technological system. Vogel also considered the size of the system offered and how representative it is of the type. He concluded that the elevator in question is a small, residential version of the larger hydraulic elevators in commercial production and use during the late 19th century. The 612 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE commercial systems, too large for acquisition by a museum, went into the earliest tall buildings, skyscrapers, and thus have obvious historical significance. Vogel decided to accept the “tiny exemplar of the late 19th century’s primary elevator technology” (p. 9). In operation from 1902 to 1942, the hydraulic elevator had been installed in an existing five-story brick house. Building permit files at the Boston Public Library and architectural records at various histor­ ical agencies yielded no information on the elevator. Because a street main provided water under pressure to power the elevator motor, water became a clue. The identity of the company that installed the elevator was found in records of Boston’s Water Department, records now kept by the Boston Water & Sewerage Commission (not in a historical repository). The Elevator Service Application of 1902 listed E. Brewer & Company. Elias Brewer built the elevator with equipment made by others. His company is one of twenty-one elevator firms listed in the Boston city directory of 1877—the first year Brewer appeared under the category “elevators.” Brewer conducted a “generally modest level” of elevator business into the early 20th century (p. 35). Historians other than Vogel have published little on the history of elevators. In this booklet, as well as in his earlier Elevator Systems ofthe Eiffel Tower, 1889 (1961), Vogel provides clear and technical descrip­ tions of elevator systems, historical narratives about specific installa­ tions, and informative notes on primary source material. He ap­ proaches his topic from the perspectives of history of technology, industrial archaeology, and museum studies. Preservationists have a narrower approach to the subject, as illustrated by...