hope that technology would mean more wealth and
less work
the 8 hour day became standard during WWI
mass production and economies of scale were
recognized
switch from manual work to machine work
the term assembly line did not catch on until later
but Ford promoted the technology and offered factory tours
the public was excited about the progress of mass production
products like Q-tips were advertised as untouched
by human hands
factory tours were available until recently at BMW
Ford's 1920 River Rouge plant was built for the
assembly line
Ford kept focusing on lower cost production,
other companies developed fancier, higher cost cars
mass production was adopted by many other
industries
1919-1929 the number of factory workers declined by 1.8%
large increases in production needed fewer workers
how did workers react?
they felt a part of something exciting, new, and powerful
they didn't complain about being turned into machines in this
period
the ideas of factory uniformity and speed
influenced the arts
chorus
line
1934
Machine Art exhibition
shows how pervasive these ideas were culturally
standardization was good