Kline 9
some consumer resistance--rural people created their own
version of modernity
The postwar program to increase electricity use
- more co-ops hired electrification advisers
than had hired project-utilization specialists before the
war
- more electricity was used in the house than
for farming purposes in many areas, so women were often
hired
- they still tended to promote families using
more electricity, but there was more emphasis on using it
efficiently rather than simply load building (trying to
get people to use more electricity)
- Willie
Wiredhand
- Bob
Marshall Comes Home (film)
Consumer reactions
- resistance to the new technology--people were
leary of changing their way of doing things
- farmers wanted some uses of electricity,
others were put off as too expensive
- electric ranges (what we would call an
electric stove) were particularly expensive
- higher voltage wires had to be installed
- more expensive than propane
- wood stoves last a long time and the fuel
is probably free
- electricity seems more dangerous and
unreliable
- wood stove might be your primary source of
heat and even hot water
- many more farms had electricity than running
water
- natural gas (delivered to a home tank or in
bottles taken to a dealer to refill) was cheaper for
cooking and heating
- some people saw bottled gas as progress
- radio continued to be very popular
technologies were assimilated into existing social patterns