Faster, Cheaper, Newer, More: The Revolutions of 1848
https://www-6.collection.cooperhewitt.org/objects/18177287/
- pewter
- Gift of Mrs. William H. Bliss
Edith Wetmore, a close friend of the Hewitt sisters, provided this radiator from her family’s New York house. As a utilitarian object and an architectural sculpture with references to classical antiquity, its design enabled the oversize heat source to be featured openly in the increasingly lavish and comfortable interiors of the 19th century.
Vulcanization, a process developed in the 19th century to improve the working qualities of natural rubber, produced a material stiff enough to be drilled into this open decorative pattern. The rubber was also heat-molded to create the raised ornament on the handle, which is stamped “Lambertville Goodyear Patent.”
With an ingenious new Jacquard mechanism added to a standard treadle loom, silks could be woven with intricate imagery by a single weaver, who would painstakingly record, as here, crucial details of the complicated "interface" between his machine and his art. Previously, such work obliged a weaver to employ several helpers. Thus the Jacquard technology drove down prices for consumers in the new middle class, and eliminated jobs in the working class, helping to inspire various socialist and Luddite rebellions. "Faster, Cheaper, Newer, More: Revolutions of 1848" 6/4/2004 ---1/9/2005
