The Industrial Age

The Industrial Age

The evolution of commercial and consumer technology has been on an accelerated trajectory. From the 1860’s to the 1960’s, a mere century in the span of humanity, we went from horse-drawn carriages to steam locomotion to flight to landing on the moon.  The activities that define the Industrial Age were investments and advancements lent to the mass production and distribution of common items, initially crude elements like coal, oil and lumber and later packaged goods and prefabricated products, including automobiles.

But alongside these manufacturing improvements came process improvements, communications capabilities and many of the other attributes that we now take for granted in our personal and work lives.  The single-most impactful of these inventions was the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell’s invention created the first component of the Intelligence Age: Communication.

Prior to the telephone, social communication was conducted through formal correspondence – letters, memorandum and telegraphs – that conveyed specific intents, actions and consequences.  That formality even drove our personal interactions, which even the most spontaneous of included the etiquette of the day.

The telephone changed all that, providing a channel for individuals to connect with each other to interact, inform and communicate on a whim.  In the early 1900’s, the telephone evolved from a business device to a household device. Today it’s almost a fashion accessory where nearly every individual in modern societies has one for all types of fluid communications.