Abstracts 2011

The AIV Method - A Finnish Technological System

Jarmo Pulkkinen

The article examines the invention, adoption, and diffusion of the AIV method with the help of Thomas P. Hughes’ technological system model. The AIV method was a fodder preservation method based on an artificial acidification of fresh fodder below pH 4. It was invented in 1928 by Finnish biochemist Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (1895-1973). This invention earned Virtanen the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1945. However, the diffusion of the AIV method was slow due to several reasons. For example, it required the creation of a large supportive infrastructure. Although its use increased considerably after the Second World War, the method was never able to revolutionise the cultivation of fodder and the feeding of cattle as originally envisioned by Virtanen. Virtanen and his collaborators also attempted to spread the method outside Finland. It did have some early success most notably in Scandinavia and the Netherlands in the 1930s and 1940s, but after the Second World War, the use of AIV silage outside Finland was mostly replaced by molassed silage.

On the verge of the new: BBS users and the adoption of Internet

Mikko Hirvonen

The Internet has become part of everyday life. However, the Net did not settle down to homes without conflicts – it happened through different negotiations and long-lasting processes. The article studies how the enthusiasts who used pre-Internet computer networks adopted the Internet in the mid-1990’s. The study explains how the deeply rooted characteristics of BBS-culture affected the initialization of different programs and services of the web. The article focuses on both macro and micro context, examining the mentioned themes through changes in technology, culture and user groups.

Painter’s work at the Pirtinniemi shipyard in Varkaus in the 1910s and 1920s

Leena Rossi

In my paper I study painters’ work and working culture in the Pirtinniemi shipyard in Varkaus in the 1910s and 1920s. I look at the topic through the experiences of painter Frans Lind (1903–1985), who had worked at the shipyard since he was 13 years old. Using 13 interviews with the old master as my main material I discuss hiring the apprentice and initiation rites among painters, the workshops and working conditions, as well as the painters’ tools, materials and working clothes. Furthermore, I describe certain projects the young talented painter participated in and the special methods he mastered. To let the narrator’s voice be heard I use numerous quotations. The study is thus research of workers and manual labour: it is history of the human side of technology. From a scholarly point of view the study places between realistic or explanatory and interpretive or appreciative research of oral history.

Stereoscopic X-ray fluoroscope and anoptral contrast microscope as examples of early Finnish research technology

Sampsa Kaataja & Timo Vilén

Since the dawn of modern science, scientific research has been highly dependent on specially manufactured instruments. Yet despite the close relationship between particular apparatus and major advances in science, instruments have been largely neglected in the literature on the history of science and technology in Finland. Drawing on the examples of stereoscopic X-ray fluoroscope and anoptral contrast microscope, two instruments constructed by the Finnish inventor and scientist Alvar Wilska (1911–1987), our article discusses the early stages of scientific instrument making in Finland. In particular, our article is concerned with the creation of stereoscopic X-ray fluoroscope and anoptral contrast microscope, as well as the local and international context within which these two instruments were developed and put to use.

Catharina Elisabeth Kijk: Chatelaine and iron manufacturer

Niina Lehmusjärvi

When Catharina Elisabeth Kijk (1721–1788) inherited her husband, mining councillor Johan Jacob Kijk (1706–1777), she became the wealthiest person in Finland, then belonging to the Kingdom of Sweden. Her property included the ironworks of Teijo, in Perniö, which she ran successfully until her death.

At the time, as a rule, women were not allowed to own any property or to run a business. Widows, however, were an exception. This gave Catharina Elisabeth Kijk the possibility to manage the ironworks, as well as the other family assets, which included e.g. a copper mine, a sawmill, a tobacco factory, a brick works, a sugar mill, a shop in Turku, and investments in shipping.

During her time in Teijo, she rebuilt the most important parts of the ironworks. The blast furnace was built in 1784 and the forge in 1782. She also improved the quality of forgings and metal castings. As a result, the ironworks was economically successful, and it provided half of the forgings needed in Turku.

In her will she was able to leave to her children at least as big a heritage as she had received herself. She also founded a trust to organise a school for the factory workers’ children of Teijo.

The social structure of bicycle users in a Finnish small town from 1904 to 1928

Mikko Kylliäinen

In Finland, some cities and towns required that all bicycles should be registered. The oldest of the registers were started in the 1890s, and in some places they were kept still in the 1950s. There was no common practice in the registration, but the towns decided about the registration by themselves. Usually the following information was included in the registers: name of the bicycle user, his or her profession and address, and often the make of the bicycle and frame number. On the basis of this information, it is possible to study how the diffusion of the bicycle progressed and who where the people who owned or used a bicycle.

The aim of the article is to study the social structure of bicycle users in the Finnish small town Hämeenlinna located in the southern Finland, 100 kilometres north from Helsinki. The police office in Hämeenlinna registered the bicycle users between the years 1904 and 1928. The article answers the following questions: how many bicycles were registered per year; was bicycle a common vehicle i.e. what was the proportion of the bicycle owners; what was the social status of the bicycle owners?

Scent of a Machine: An Olfactory History of Information Technology

Jaakko Suominen

The article analyses olfactory recollections of information technologies and their use. The primary material of the study is based on an online survey data, collected in 2002–2003. The article introduces ways of how those olfactory experiences and recollections can be classified based on variations in narration and causes of odors. In addition, the article deals with the question of age and gender in olfactory recollections and in their representations. The aim of the study is to introduce possibilities and new paths for studying cultural history of technology, collecting research material as well as exhibiting history of information technologies by examining historical, cultural, political and economic dimensions of sensations and senses.

Dream Machines: Stories of Dreaming and Domestication of Information Technology

Petri Saarikoski

Information technology clearly affects our dreams, and these experiences can produce very emotional dream memories. Negative side effects of computer usage have been studied widely, but so far, very little research has been done from the point of view of cultural history of information technology and dreams. The article examines what kind of experiences and emotions can be found in recollections of computer related dreams, and why. The main source of data consists of the results of an inquiry executed during 2002–2003. The study of the data shows that dream stories can be regarded as a part of a person’s ‘computer biography’, and thus, they form an interesting source for the history of information technology in Finland before the emergence of social media.

C-cassettes in the sensory memories of their Finnish users

Kaarina Kilpiö

Of all the big changes in music listening during 1970s, the easy, mobile compact cassette technology was the biggest innovation from the viewpoint of the so-called general listener. Among music listening formats, c-cassette technology has a mass-produced, low status image. Cassettes as artefacts are thus remembered for the material they contain and the often socially significant activities they hark back to, and not so much for their intrinsic value, as vinyls or cd’s. The article analyses written memories of Finnish c-cassette users, focusing on their sensory-related features. Sensory and emotionally charged expressions are frequent within the written data and they help to build an understanding of a Finnish cassette culture on the individual user’s level.