General Events
General historical events.
Control Revolution
The Control Revolution is a complex of rapid changes in the technological and economic arrangements by which information is collected, stored, processed, and communicated, and through which formal or pro-grammed decisions might effect societal control.
Control Crises
The Control Crisis is a period in which innovations in information-processing and communication technologies lag behind those of energy and its application to manufacturing and transportation.
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution is a period in which a society's entire material and energy processing system speeds up and thereby precipitates a crisis of control.
1939 - 1945 : WWII
1914 - 1918 : WWI
1861 - 1865 : American Civil War
1929 - 1940 : Great Depression
1851 : Telegraph
Telegraph used by railroad (Erie)
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1853 : Hierarchy of Information
Trunk-line railroad (Erie) institutes a hierarchical system of information gathering, processing, and telegraphic communication to centralize control in the superintendent's office.
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1857 : Weighing Scale
Weighing scale for use on railroad tracks introduced.
1860s : Modern Bureaucracy
Modern bureaucracies, organizational structures with a halfdozen or more operating departments controlled by a hierarchy of salaried managers, emerge in large wholesale houses.
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1867 : Railroad Cars Standardized
Railroad cars standardized. Control of material flows (at first largely a matter of bureaucratic coordination) increasingly came to be built into the transportation infrastructure itself, followed by automatic signals(1867) and switches(1874), standardization of cars (1867) and track (1886).
1873 : QWERTY Typewriter
Typewriter with modern "QWERTY" keyboard marketed. This modern keyboard typewriter was to improve the generation of information within bureaucracy.
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1884 : Long-Distance Telephone Service
Long-distance telephone service begins.
1886 : Desk Telephone
Desk telephone introduced.
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1891 : Billboards
Standardised billboards are introduced
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1898 : Advertising Law
Advertising law passed by state (New York) "to prevent misleading and dishonest representations."
1940s : Wristwatches
Use of wristwatches, awareness of mechanical time becomes widespread, used to synchronize movement and process
1903 : Automotive Works Streamline Production
Automotive works (Packard Detroit) arranged so that materials flow from one end to the other with minimum of hauling, carrying.(auto plant designed for processing)
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1886 : Linotype Machine
Linotype machine used commercially by the New York Tribune. This enabled daily circulations to stay ahead of population growth in fastest growing urban areas.
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1889 : Typewriter Popularization
Typewriters come into common use in U.S. offices.
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1889 : Punch-Cards
Punch-card tabulating machine (Hollerith) introduced. Applied to the modern office, it improved the generation of information within bureaucracy.
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1887 : Time Recorders
Time recorders ("autograph type") introduced in production.
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1888 : Employee Time Recorders
Employee time recorder (paper tape) introduced.
1902 : Air-Conditioned Factory
Air-conditioned factory (Brooklyn printing company) established with automatic temperature and humidity control.
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1905 : Air Filtering in Factories
New factory built that changes air five times per hour, automatically filtering and washing it and controlling humidity.
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1906 : Factory Control
Factory control by line-and-staff.
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1929 : High-Speed Telegraph
High-speed telegraph ticker (500 characters per minute) installed.
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1922 : Distant Supervisory Control
Electric power line commercial carrier placed in operation by Utica (N.Y.) Gas and Electric; transmission lines carry both voices and power, enable distant supervisory control.
1930s : Windowless Factory
Windowless factory erected, has ultraviolet lighting, soundproofed cork walls, temperature and humidity control.
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1924 : Transcontinental Air Mail
Regular transcontinental air mail established with daily flights (14 stops en route) between New York and San Francisco.
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1917 : Precancelled Stamps
Precancelled Stamps Issued. The use of precancelled stamps saved a postal system time and effort by having the stamped mails ready for sorting.
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1926 : Transatlantic Radio Facsimile
Transatlantic radio facsimile service begun commercially. All the transcontinental communication technologies so far were brought in response to the increasing control of the international distribution system.
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1925 : Transcontinental Facsimile Service
Radio facsimile service for transcontinental transmission of photographs begun commercially.
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1927 : US Radio Commission
US Radio Commission created to license broadcasting stations, fix wavelengths and hours of operation.
1879 : Cash Register
Cash register was demonstrated and patented. During the following 1880s, cash registers were introduced to record and control sales.
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1914 : Traffic Signals and Road Map
Electric traffic signals and automobile road map introduced.
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1925 : National Highway Route Numbering System
National highway routes are systematized by numbering.
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1841 : Railroad Collision
Western Railroad collision kills two, injures seventeen
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1849 : Freight Processing
Freight must be processed through nine transshipments between Philadelphia and Chicago, impeding distributional networks
1870s : Railroad Expansion Delayed
Railroad companies (except the Pennsylvania) delay building large systems because they lack means to control them.
1880s : Continuous Processing (Consumption Deficit)
Producers of flour, soap, cigarettes, matches, canned foods, and film adopt continuous-processing technologies, confront needs to create new markets and to stimulate and control consumption.
1880s : Growing Speed of Information Processing
Growing scope, complexity and speed of information processing-inventory, billing, sales analysis-needed to run large business begins to strain capacity of manual handling systems
1850s : Growing Network of Warehouses
With the growing network of grain elevators and warehouses, and the mounting demand for mass storage and shipment, transporters have increasing difficulty keeping track of individual shipments of grain and cotton.
1860s : Rail Mills Increase Production
Rail mills adopting Bessemer Process struggle to control increased speeds of steel production
1880s : Crisis of Consumer Demand
Crisis in the control of consumer demand did not arise until the early 1880s, when new continuous-process technologies began to be applied within a short span of years to a wide range of industries
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1913 : More Vehicles, Faster Traffic
As the number of vehicles and speed of traffic increased, problems of control were mounting up; highway fatalities in 1913 was 4,200 and steadily increased to nearly 40,000 in 1937.
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1915 : Transcontinental Telephone
Transcontinental telephone communication demonstrated, commercial service inaugurated.
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1913 : AT&T Long-Distance Networks
AT&T agrees to allow interconnection to its long-distance network. Increase in long-distance communication.
1920s : Supermarket and Mail Order
Introduction of supermarkets and mail-order chains.
1903 : Pacific Cable
Pacific cable completed from San Francisco to Manila via Honolulu.
1939 : Commercial Television
Commercial television begins on a limited basis but soon expands to 23 channels.
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1855 : Mercantile Firms Overwhelmed
Mercantile firms are increasingly unable to control the growing commerce in wheat, com, and cotton.
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1890 : First "staff" employees
Timekeepers and special clerks, first "staff" employees in many factories, introduced to fill out shop orders, routing slips.
1840s : Safety Issues
Crisis starts with safety issues emerging from the use of Railways.
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1856 : McCallum Detects Control Crisis
As early as 1856, the Erie's superintendent, Daniel C. McCallum, saw the problem arising not from increasing scale per se but rather from the resulting decrease in ability to control operations efficiently.
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1923 : The Rise of Supermarkets and Shopping Centers
One of the first supermarkets (Crystal Palace, San Francisco) opens with 68,000 square feet of space, parking for 4,350 cars. This rise of supermarkets and shopping centers in the 1920s and 1930s was an organized opposition too the government's systematic and complete control of market and retail distribution
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1933 : The Highest Death Rate on Highway
For the period from 1933 to 1937, the average death rate remained the highest ever recorded in U.S. history.
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1830 : Freight Trains Begin Operations
Wagon lines carrying freight between rural towns and ports begin to operate on regular schedules.
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1839 : Mass Production of Envelopes
Mass-produced envelopes introduced and office communication improved.
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1853 : Paper-Folding Machine
Paper folding machine introduced; enables 3 workers to produce 2,500 envelopes per hour.
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1856 : Paper-Folding Machine for Books
Machine to fold paper for books, newspapers installed. This, along with the prior technologies such as the electric press (1839), rotary printing (1846), wood pulp and rag paper (1845) reduced costs and speeded printing.
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1870 : Continuous Processing of Materials
Producers of basic materials-iron, copper, zinc, glass-adopt continuous-processing technologies, increase speed of throughputs. (continuous processing of materials)
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1880 : Cheap Paper Bags
Cheap paper bags speed up retail sales, especially of groceries.
1897 : Vending Machines
Fully automatic vending machines introduced to dispense gum.
1913 : Ford: Moving Assembly Line
Ford introduces moving assembly line at its Highland Park factory, reduces time required to make a magneto from 20 to 13 minutes.
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1924 : Continuous sheet steel plant
Passing sheets through a series of mills in a tandem train at high speed-begins operations.
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1839 : Electricity and the Printing Press
Printing press begins running on electricity.
1846 : Double Cylinder Rotary Printing Press
Double cylinder rotary printing press (Hoe) adopted by Philadelphia Ledger, produces 8,000 sheets per hour.
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1854 : Wood Pulp and Rag paper
Wood pulp and rag paper introduced for printing.
1875 : Carnegie Edgar Thomson Steel Works
Plant (Carnegie's Edgar Thomson Steel Works) was explicitly designed to facilitate throughputs.
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1829 : Locomotives From England Arrive in U.S.
Two locomotives arrive from England; too heavy for U.S. tracks.
1830 : Steam Power Further Adopted for Railways
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad adopts steam power after Peter Cooper successfully tests Tom Thumb.
Control