TECHNOLOGY IN 1920'S BY VIVIANE AND GRACE

THE BEGINNING  Canada's technological advancements after World War 1 led to the production of many items that made life easier for Canadians. The 1920s were known as “The Roaring Twenties" in Canada. The end of the war caused instability and labor unrest as the country transitioned from war to peace time economies. Canadians had enough income to participate in the good life, and many people started buying the new technology.

SIGNIFICANCE OF TECHNOLOGY Technological advancements in the 1920s had a positive impact on Canadians...  Technology eliminated isolation, and let Canadians communicate more effectively. Technology improved household items.  Technology also improved medical care and helped Canadians live longer.

1. ELIMINATED ISOLATION Many technological items were invented that helped eliminate isolation for many Canadians. These items helped people communicate between each other and understand the news around the world more easily. Some technologies invented or improved were the television, the radio, and telephone.

INVENTION OF RADIO The radio was invented by  Guglielmo Marconi in 1900. But many radio broadcasting began in 1920 with the historic broadcast of KDKA. Radio became the essential device of homes. After that radios started getting better quality and sound. Radio helped eliminate isolation because it was the first time people were able to listen to music and the news in their own home. But radios also raised a serious issue. Should the airwaves be free to everyone? The radio was a changing technology for many Canadians.

PRIMARY SOURCE OF RADIO This is a primary source of a newspaper ad of an "all electric radio“. It shows a cabinet radio. This article describes how easy and great it was. “Just plug this Randolph Radio into the electric light socket- and tune in.”

INVENTION OF TELEPHONE The first telephone was invented by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876, but only the very rich were able to afford it. But in the 1920s, more and more people were able to afford it. This had also eliminated isolation for Canadians because before telephones, people could only write letters, which took very long. Telephones helped people communicate instantly, especially in an emergency, and it kept people connected. It was also good for businesses to work more efficiently.

PRIMARY SOURCE OF TELEPHONE This is a primary source of an ad for the telephone in a newspaper. It is promoting you to buy a wall mounted telephone. In the ad it gives us a short skit of how a farmer’s life was, and how the telephone benefitted their lives. For examples, it saved them less trips to town. This also explained at the beginning that men used them too. And they weren't just for women to use as “gossiping”. This ad also shows that telephones were so in style, even farmers had them! And because everyone had so much more money, even farmers were able to afford telephones, and that it was very useful and beneficial to get one.

2. IMPROVE HOUSEHOLD ITEMS Technology also impacted household items, and improved them. Household items were made to use easier so you have to do less work, and so you would be able to do the work quicker too. Some examples of technologies were the refrigerator, the dishwasher, and the vacuum.

INVENTION OF REFRIGERATOR The first refrigerator for home use were invented by Fred W. Wolf in 1913. In 1923 frigidaire introduced the first self-contained unit expanding the market and introducing Canadians to domestic refrigerator and freezers for food storage. Before refrigerators people had ice boxes, which were just a tub with ice, which was a big industry.

PRIMARY SOURCE OF REGRIGERATOR This is another ad in a newspaper that shows the new electrical refrigerator, which says “ you can barely hear it!” This ad makes the new refrigerator looks appealing and better by saying that. This is also advertising a different refrigerator than others, by placing the unit on top of the fridge, which makes it possible to close all the machinery. These new refrigerators were a much better way for keeping food cold, and diminished labor, because you didn’t need to always bring in ice.

3. IMPROVED MEDICAL CARE Technology was also invented to improve Canadians health. Laboratories were build and technology was invented to cure and find solutions for some diseases. Some examples were, they invented insulin, penicillin and vitamin E.

INVENTION OF INSULIN It was in 1921 that Canadian physician Frederick Banting and medical student Charles Best would be credited with discovering the hormone insulin in the pancreatic extracts of dogs, and soon in cows. The first medical success was with a 14 year old boy with type 1 diabetes, and was successfully treated in 1922. Diabetes in its severe form used to be a death sentence as patients either starved from the prescribed low-calorie glucose-free diet, or died of the disease’s complications. The discovery of insulin provided a boost to medical research in Canada. The discovery of insulin completely transformed the treatment of diabetes, saving millions of lives worldwide.

PRIMARY SOURCE OF THE MAKING OF INSULIN This picture shows Frederick Banting and medical student Charles Best conducting experiences at the University of Toronto. In the 1920s, more technology was being invented, which helped for the invention of insulin. Many laboratories were built to invent other things, such as penicillin.

HOW DOES IT IMPACT PEOPLE TODAY? Today, our technology has changed a lot. For example, now we have phones that can reach across the world in a couple seconds and the internet gives us all the information that we need. But all of these inventions we have now were influenced by the first ones, that were made in the 1920s. If there wasn’t these inventions in 1920s, we wouldn’t be as far as we are right now. And soon we will have new technologies that will have been influenced, such as flying cars. The technology from today has only been improved from the 1920s, and the inventions from the 1920s have pushed us to make better and newer things. 

CREDITS http://xroads.virginia.edu/~ug00/3on1/radioshow/1920radio.htm https://prezi.com/zkljgpf_hslj/telephone-in-1920s/ http://www.american-historama.org/1913-1928-ww1-prohibition-era/inventions-in-the-1920s.htm http://1920newtechnologyhanyoung.weebly.com/appliances.html https://prezi.com/77kphcdcb9zv/technology-in-canada-1920s/ http://public.media.smithsonianmag.com/legacy_blog/1922-June-Radio-Broadcast-magazine-ad- sm.jpg https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/the-discovery-of-insulin