Abstracts 2007

Interaction between technology and fashion: The modernization of hairdressing profession in Finland in the 1920s

Elise Laiho-Suominen

Changes in the Finnish society and culture during the 1920s mirrored to the hairdressing profession in many ways. Women’s shortening hairstyle multiplied the demand of hairdressing services within a short period of time, as women of all social classes started to follow continental fashion trends. The amount of technology used in the profession increased, and it can be said that the hairdressing profession was mechanized in the 1920s.
Variation in coiffures increased along with the short hairstyle, as it enabled several different ways of cutting, curving, and curling the hair. At the same time, the number of instruments, methods, and products increased in hairdressing saloons.
Information on hygiene and health increased in the media in the 1920s, and awareness on the risks of bacteria led to emphasizing hygiene also in the barber and hairdressing profession. Stressing expertise based on the information yielded by the new technology and scientific research was also characteristic for the period. White working coats, promotion of hygiene, marketing of different technological novelties, and emphasis on the hairdresser’s creative contribution associated with the professionalist ambitions of the hairdressing profession emerging in the 1920s.

Facing uncertainty: Engineers’ and laics’ views on power failures

Antti Silvast

Power failures have recently aroused a great deal of public and political discussion. Still, the consequences of power failures on human experience have not been effectively studied. Debate on how distribution of electricity has become problematic is only in the beginning.
Information on consumers’ and power suppliers’ behaviour during power failures has not gone beyond technical descriptions, newspaper articles, or cost-benefit analyses. The article is based on interviews of seven specialists of electricity supply and nine urban consumers whom the writer interviewed during 2004 and 2005.
The article deals with the question of how the controllability of electrical infrastructure, supporting everyday life, has become a problematic issue. On its theoretical frame, the article turns to Ulrich Beck’s and Niklas Luhmann’s ideas about risks, or uncertainties of the future. The ideas of these theoreticians have not effectively been studied within the sociology of distribution of electricity.

Composite bow in the Eurasian military history – Part 2: Performance and use in warfare

Juho Wilskman

The composite bow was one of the most used and the most efficient weapons before the 19th century. The first part of this article was published in Tekniikan Waiheita 4/2006, and it dealt with its invention and construction. This part concentrates on its performance, geographical diffusion, and use in war.
The composite bow apparently spread along with the diffusion of chariots. This can be seen the most clearly in Egypt. The first signs of cavalrymen can be seen only in the 14th century BCE, and evidence of actual cavalry appears from the mid-9th century BCE. Even the earliest images depict cavalrymen with bows. The Romans did not feel comfortable with bows, and so the majority of Roman archers came from the eastern Mediterranean.
The generalization of firearms led to the composite bow becoming obsolete. By the middle of the 19th century, firearms had become superior to composite bows. The military use of the composite bow seems to have continued for the longest time in China, where there is some record from the beginning of the 20th century.

From "visual radio" to mobile television: The socio-cultural history of TV-technologies

Jukka Kortti

The article examines socio-culturally the Finnish television as a changing consumer technology. It focuses particularly on the domestication process of television and its accessories as an information and communication technology. The examples of different TV-technologies cover the whole half-a-century history of the Finnish television: The arrival of TV, VCR, remote control and digital TV. The article also discusses the failures and possibilities of interactive television, mobile TV and technological convergence. The study uses oral history, to be exact written reminiscences, to explore the changing role of television in the life of the Finns.

Office Suitcase: Laptop computer as a symbol of mobility and freedom

Petri Saarikoski

The article studies the history of the laptop computer, focusing especially on its image, visualisation and operating situations. The starting point for this study is that the concepts of mobility and freedom emergenced long before the developement of modern laptop. Especially mobility was publicized as a quality of many innovative machines, from "dumb terminals" to the first transportable heavy-weight computers. The article shows how the symbolic values of the laptop computer slowly started to change. At first, business-oriented masculine imagery was very strong, especially before 1990s, then slowly this imagery started to elaborate when laptops entered the consumer markets. Today the laptop is publicized as a fashionable multimedia center of the modern household. New technology can be seen as a part of individual lifestyles with the concepts of mobility and freedom.

Online lifewriting: Diaries on the Web

Sari Östman

The article studies the Finnish history of personal diaries on the Web. The tradition of published diaries and letters – especially those of well-known people – goes far back to the times before the Internet. However, the general appropriation of the Web and the emerge of userfriendly publishing services have made public lifewriting a popular activity. Blogs and online diaries are part of the social and interactive aspect of the Internet – Web 2.0.
Possibly the oldest still active Finnish Web diary was established in 1995. Since then, many technological and cultural changes have taken place around Internet lifewriting practices. These changes mostly have an American origin and they usually reach Finland with a few years’ delay.
The mentioned changes in Internet technologies and cultural practices as well as the changing profile of life-writer women are analyzed through the texts and interviews of Finnish female bloggers and online diary writers.

BBS activity in Finland between 1993 and 1999

Mikko Hirvonen

The BBS (Bulleting Board System) activity – that had emerged out of need for communication between microcomputer enthusiasts – landed in Finland at the beginning of the 1980s. At first, the BBS was an activity of a marginal group, but at the beginning of the 1990s it gained popularity at a larger scale. For many computer amateurs the BBS was their first step into the world of information networks. Towards the end of the 90s, the popularity of BBSes declined rapidly with the rise of the Internet.

The importance of local microcomputer clubs in establishing information technology at schools in the 1980s

Jari Kettunen

The first microcomputer clubs in Satakunta province in the 1970s and 1980s were at an important role when information technology was being established at schools. Information technology spread between schools, homes, and freetime activities. Pupils, teachers, and pioneers of technology, as well as schools, homes, and microcomputer clubs all had their role in the development and establishment of ADP skills and technologies on the local level.

Power from the River Vuoksi

Kristiina Korjonen-Kuusipuro

In the history of the River Vuoksi a most interesting period has been the construction of power plants. The potential power of the river was the primary reason for the interest of the industrial sector. Ownership questions as well as new technological solutions, of which the longdistance transfer of electricity was the most important, were central issues. The harnessing of Vuoksi also touched Finland’s national development: even though Finland was an autonomous part of the Russian empire, the Finns were not ready to transfer the possession of their rapids to the Russians or other foreign investors or industrial tycoons. A new era came with the independence of Finland, as the new country wanted to be autarchic regarding electric supply. Among the rapids of Vuoksi, Imatra rose to a central role in the plans of the government. During 1900–1944 five power plants were constructed along the river Vuoksi, but one of them (the Linnankoski plant) was submerged when the water level was elevated after the construction of the Imatra plant. In 1937, the capacity of the Vuoksi power plants was 347 000 kW in all. Still today, these four power plants are in operation. Two of them, Imatra and Tainionkoski, are owned by Fortum (former Imatran Voima). The power plants of Svetogorsk (Enso) and Lesogorsk (Rouhiala) are situated in the Russian side of the border. The maximal capacity of the Vuoksi power plants in all is 432 MW. It is interesting to note that the construction of the power plants of Vuoksi seems to have been, according to references, a process that has been practically without dissonance, advocationg strongly industrialization and progress, even though the harnessing of Vuoksi ruined its untouched rapids.

Arthur H. Borgström’s model dairy

Yngve Malmén

Exporter of butter Arthur H. Borgström carried on dairy business during 1891-1904 on Hangöudd (Hankoniemi). The interesting feature with his dairy was that its primary aim was not to produce dairy products but to train staff from other dairies around Finland and in this way to improve the quality of exported butter. The dairy was equipped with the most modern machines and instruments which, at those times, were under intense development. Even though the dairy did not live long, it played an important role in ameliorating dairy processes. For instance, it promoted the idea that cream could be separated from milk already by the milk producers, and only the cream would be sent to dairies for butter production.

Artist, art, and industry

Tiina Huokuna

Tapio Wirkkala (1915–1985), acknowledged Finnish designer, made products of industrial art, but was also interested in the machines they were made with. His interest in machines and instruments was motivated by several factors. The increase of consumer industry in the 1950s and 1960s changed the size, the number, and operational possibilities of factory machines. Industrial art and consumer industry formed an important junction, where artists’ ideas were gathered, where they were processed, and from where they came out to be forged by machines into real objects. In the process from an idea to a complete product Wirkkala was able to understand and to study thoroughly the technical methods. When an artist understands and is interested in technology, he probably already knows in the sketching stage what is realizable and what is not. Wirkkala’s interest in technology was certainly one of the secrets of his versatility, and it is manifested e.g. in the lamps and light bulbs that he designed.