DISCOVERY ‘67:

[Music] this is an abt color presentation in the early 1900s if you were really up to date you peeled an apple like this and if you wanted to crack a nut all you had to do was this we'll see more of how the good life came to america including the hottest sports car of 1909 today when discovery goes to greenfield village in dearborn michigan for a look at the age of mechanical marvels [Music] discovery 67 the award-winning program for young people with bill owen and virginia gibson brought to you by hi welcome to discovery if you had grown up in the period just after the 20th century began say from 1900 to 1915. you'd have thought that you lived in an era of unbelievable scientific and mechanical progress and in a way you would have been right oh there were still horses around and still bicycles and even an occasional ox cart but in most of the cities and towns across the country the fruits of the industrial revolution had finally come to the people life was going to be better easier and of course faster one of the most significant changes took place in transportation the country already had railroads and steamboats and trolley cars but now for the first time man could also have the most up-to-date personal transportation his own automobile and if your dad had had a new 1909 model t touring car like this one he would have been the envy of the neighborhood after all it could beat a horse for speed it could reach a top speed of 45 miles per hour if you pushed it hard and it was much easier stopping for gas than going into the barn to feed old daubin every evening this model t was quite simple to operate to go forward all you had to do was release the handbrake to press the clutch push this lever ahead then give it the gas which was up here in the steering post then to stop you just depress the brake pedal put this lever in neutral every time you want to get going again you have to set the spark set the throttle and then go out in front turn the crank handle to start the engine running again once you had started you were off and running of course there were faster things on the road like that 1909 sports car that could reach a top speed of 70 miles an hour and set a record by going from new york to seattle in only 21 days the automobile was the crowning achievement of the era man was finally free from his shackles and mother from her drudgery that is if mother had all the latest technological wonders inside the house to match the car father had outside in the driveway we'll take a look at some of those wonders and we'll see you in costume in just a minute [Music] if you had lived in the early 1900s you might have had to take piano lessons if you had a conventional piano or you might have had a piano that played by itself this is a player panel all you had to do was put in whatever role of music you liked and then pump the pedals up and down like this [Music] it wasn't quite like television which hadn't even been thought of yet but you could watch the keys and listen to the music at the same time and as the 20th century began it was a favorite way to spend a few leisure moments at home except that mother was finding out a strange thing with all of the latest mechanical marvels at her disposal all designed to make life easier and simpler she suddenly found herself working around the clock for example instead of taking the rugs out in the backyard and beating them once a month she now had the latest most advanced vacuum cleaner which she could use every day the only problem with this vacuum cleaner was that mother had to supply the vacuum herself the vacuum was created by pulling this handle up and down the more furiously you pumped the more vacuum if you had a 9x12 rug you could be pretty worn out by the time you were finished another labor-saving device that became popular at the turn of the century was a sewing machine no longer did mother have to sit and sew by hand now she had a machine that would do the work for her so everyone in the family had all sorts of clothing they wanted made the only problem was mother had to supply the power but not all of the modern new devices to make mother's life easier were in the living room or the parlor many of them found their way into the kitchen where long hours could be spent taking advantage of progress and invention of course no house would be up to date without an icebox so every day or two the iceman came and put a big hunk of ice in the top of the box and it kept the food nice and cool the only problem was that the ice melted so every day or two mother had to reach under the box pull out the pan that had filled with water and dump it into the sink [Applause] but at least the icebox kept the food from spoiling so mother was able to lay in a bigger supply of everything her family needed including butter which she could now make in the most modern butter churn and even mother had to admit that the new churn was a big improvement over the old-fashioned one which he now used as a decorative antique in the corner in the old days she had to pump up and down for hours at a time in order to make a satisfactory batch of butter now she still had to pump up and down but modern science had applied the lever principle to the churn handle and theoretically at least it was a lot easier anyway her family thought so and it made butter at about the same time inventors and manufacturers can drive many other labor-saving devices for the busy housewife for example instead of stuffing her sausage by hand the way she used to she now had a machine that would do it in half the time all she had to do was place the sausage meat inside the tubing and put the empty sausage casing over the nozzle making sure it was knotted then she'd press down as hard as she could it was slow work maybe it was easier except mother discovered that her family was eating more sausage then of course there was the matter of peeling and slicing apples for pies puddings and applesauce in the old days mother had to use a paring knife at best a slow process that often resulted in a cut finger but now she had a machine to do the work for her all she had to do was put the apple here place the blade in position and then turn the handle something like sharpening a pencil [Applause] it worked pretty well sometimes a good dessert often needed nuts too and this is where this automatic nutcracker came in handy all you did was put the nut in the dog's mouth and push down on the dog's tail cracking the nut after cracking nuts and stuffing sausages and pairing apples you think that mother's day might have been finished but with all of the new labor-saving devices at her disposal it was a shame not to take full advantage of them for instance father had just bought her the latest automatic washing machine in the old days she had to use a wash tub and a scrub board but now she had a machine to do the work for her or so everyone thought all she had to do was flake the bar soap into the machine pour in bucket after bucket of hot water [Applause] throw the clothes into the machine close the lid and turn the agitator furiously until the clothes were clean or she was tired but mother wasn't the only one who could take advantage of progress that too could also reap some of the rewards especially if it was still light out after supper [Applause] before the turn of the century if you wanted to keep your front lawn cut there was no more efficient machine than the family goat or sheep all you had to do was tie him to a stake in one part of the lawn and when he finished that section he moved him to another part of the lawn where he started eating again now though the age of invention had taken hold dad no longer had to depend on the family pet to mow the lawn now he could use a mechanical lawnmower like this one of course he still had to supply the power himself but at least he was taking advantage of the latest that science and technology had to offer the lucky man though was the one who still kept the goat around for an emergency that way if he wanted to sit down for a few minutes or take the time to polish the family car there was still someone around to do the work both inside and outside the house we'll be back in just a minute [Music] all the exciting mechanical innovations at the turn of the century none changed the face of america or the way its people live more than the automobile the roads still weren't too good in those days but now with cars like this model t you could get around far easier than you ever could have with a bicycle or a horse and buggy there still weren't any supermarkets in those days or any huge department stores so you usually drove into the main street of town parked your car and then went from store to store to get the things you needed each shop had its own specialty this was a leather goods store and this one sold only millinery ladies hats [Applause] mother didn't think this hat was quite right the first one never seemed to be [Music] this wasn't quite right either but this one turned out to be exactly what she was looking for so the shoe shop was also a pleasant place for mother to spend a few minutes trying on the latest fashions of the day selecting just the right pair of shoes was a bit more of a problem with all the new styles that were out what looked good in the window didn't look quite as good when she was inside these weren't exactly what she wanted these weren't quite right either close but not quite after the shoe shop mother could also patronize the local comb shop the locksmith shop the wood carver shop the hardware store the tin smith the candle maker and the pewter one important stop was the drugstore it was the days before penicillin eye shadow and shaving cream in aerosol cans but you could buy a variety of things that were absolutely necessary around the house i need some face powder please some three flowers face powder and some dr dillingham's plant juice some dr pedro's sarsaparilla syrup oh and yes i need a sponge a large one [Music] uh how much would that be two dollars [Music] thank you very much my mother was making the essential purchases dad could usually be found in stores or more to his liking he didn't need the local blacksmith anymore now that he had his fancy red touring car but he did take a great interest in some of the new electronic devices that were bringing culture to the heartland of [Music] america here too it was changed the old handmade play-it-yourself musical instruments were still around but the mechanical age was beginning to take over [Applause] there weren't any commercial radio stations around at that time but you can buy yourself a brand new crystal set with a pair of earphones to listen to the dots and dashes of distant transmitters a tiny crystal was used in tuning this coil was used for fine tuning there was no volume control and no tubes or transistors of any kind this tiny wire touching the crystal was called a cat's whisker these crystal sets eventually led to today's modern radios you could also buy the latest phonograph invented by thomas alva edison the records didn't look like ours there were round cylinders which you slipped on like this to play the phonograph you just had to wind it a little and drop the needle in place lock it and start it up [Applause] but the one thing that really caught dad's eye was the forerunner of today's automatic record players there were 12 large discs inside the cabinet each with a different tune all you had to do was start the machine and the disks would change automatically [Applause] [Music] you can listen either on piano or banjo just by moving a lever on the side of the cabinet [Music] soon it was time to go home so dad and mother met back at the car compared notes in their purchases and then set off across the countryside convinced more than ever after a day in town that they were living in an age of unbelievable progress and scientific [Music] [Applause] development [Music] [Applause] [Music] well ginny how'd you like the ride a bit bumpy by our standards compared with today's cars i guess it was yet there were many people living in the early 1900s who thought that they had the most modern up-to-date mechanical devices imaginable and to many it seemed incredible that anything newer better or more advanced would ever be developed and yet each new device led to something better and as unbelievable as it may seem to us now the cars airplanes television sets and modern home appliances that are the very latest thing today will probably look just as strange and awkward and old-fashioned to people 50 years from now as these devices of the early 1900s seem to us now they probably will we'll be back in just a minute we hope you've enjoyed discoveries looking to the past today all of the mechanical marvels that we looked at can be seen right here in greenfield village and in the henry ford museum in dearborn michigan we hope that you get a chance to come out here sometime and see many of them for yourselves i think it's especially appropriate that we use this house for our kitchen and living room scenes today jenny because it's the actual boyhood home of two men who contributed as much to the progress of the 20th century as anyone who ever lived wilbur and orville wright who made man's first heavier than air flights that were to change our entire concepts of time and distance within this century this house was actually moved intact from dayton ohio where wilbur and orville wright grew up if you'd like to find out more about life in the early 1900s or about the scientific discoveries at the beginning of the century then ask your librarian for any of these books little britches by ralph moody sky pioneers by jean lamonier gardner and this book a lemon and a star by e.c spikeman see you next week bye bye bye the discovery production units domestic transportation arrangements and production consideration provided by united airlines [Music] so [Music] lazy [Music] hey [Music] this has been a jewels power production in association with abc news and public affairs discoveries