Volume 19 (2013)

Toys were, and still are, pre-eminent Christmas gifts for the young. This paper focuses on the period where this connection was established. It is argued that, in the same period, a transformation occurred in the meaning of a ‘toy’, in Christmas rituals as well as in advertising and consumption patterns.This conclusion is based
on a meticulous, qualitative study of the occurrence of ‘toys’ and ‘presents’ in the London newspaper, The Morning Chronicle, from 1800 through 1827. Juvenile libraries and publishers took rational toys, which referred to knowledge and/or scientific developments, on board, initially emphasising their moral virtues, but increasingly underlining their merits for instruction and amusement. Specific attention is drawn to (1) a change in the gender connotations of rational and technological toys, (2) the appeal to visual spectacle of many new toys, and (3) the impact of titles of specific toys for the establishment of a consumption and commodity culture.

Hobbies in the United States and Britain co-evolved with twentieth-century living spaces, especially single-family residences. Scientific hobbies associated primarily with men and boys, such as photography, amateur chemistry, junior rocketry, model railroading, automobile mechanics and carpentry tended to create domestic disamenities in the form of loud noises, penetrating and sometimes poisonous stenches, fire hazards and ever-expanding clutters of tools, materials and projects finished and unfinished. In cities, basements and attics were pressed into service as retreats for amateur scientists; in suburbs and rural areas male hobbyists insulated family members from their ‘stinks and bangs’ by colonising garages, sheds, barns, and even former chicken coops as recreational work spaces. Gendering of leisure activities and work spaces has persisted into the twenty-first century.

This article traces the development of critical thought about the socio-political impact of  technology in the Netherlands between the 1920s and the 1960s, from the perspective of thinkers and movements that developed theories about play and put these into practice. The historian Johan Huizinga, the painter Constant Nieuwenhuys and the Provo youth movement shared the conviction that play was a crucial element in society. In the late 1930s, Huizinga argued that play, which he believed was at the basis of all culture, was gradually suppressed in modern societies, as a consequence of the ascendancy of utility and technological efficiency as dominant goals. A much more optimistic view of the future of play and technology was developed after World War II, first in the utopian designs of Nieuwenhuys and then, from the middle of the 1960s, in more practical proposals developed by the Provo youth movement and its successor, the Kabouter Partij. This article describes an intellectual trajectory from deep cultural pessimism and technological determinism towards a utopian constructivist view, issuing in what was later called ‘appropriate technology’.

During the nineteenth century American entrepreneurs, engineers and inventors combined to transform the European pleasure garden into an increasingly industrialized Fun Factory, filled with mechanical ‘rides’ which drew upon modern life to entertain the masses of working class thrill seekers delivered from urban centres by equally modern forms of transportation. Play was created by combining the capacity of amusement parks to produce fun with the (often young) homosocial crowd’s desire, as consumers, to partake of the intimacy and commodified risk on offer. Underpinning both the production and consumption of play were the many mechanical rides provided, some modified from much older European forms, such as the carousel and Ferris wheel, and others, like the bumper cars, modified versions of emerging and exciting technologies drawn from everyday life. The result was what some observers called an ‘industrial saturnalia’.

In the decades between the beginning of the twentieth century and the start of World War II, American-style amusement parks were established on every continent except Antarctica. This article explores how and why this happened. It argues that global industrialisation and urbanisation provided the context for new forms of technological entertainment, including amusement parks. Park owners looked to the United States, not just for models of how to recreate well-known parks such as Coney Island’s Luna Park, but also for expert advice in the building and operation of mechanised rides such as roller coasters and tilt-a-whirls. Some American companies also provided entire rides, boxed and shipped.This article also places the transfer of amusement park technology in the larger context of early twentieth-century globalisation and technology transfer, thus inviting historians to consider the histories of entertainment technologies when researching the spread of western industries and technological cultures.

This article on ‘chess by cable’ explores the intricate relationship between sports and technology set within the enormous societal, economic and technological changes entailed in the making of the modern world. It shows how telegraphic chess playing epitomised these developments – in its global reach, its emphasis on speed and time-keeping and the incorporation of the middle-class. For both inventors of telegraphy as well as players of chess, the merger secured publicity and served media-marketisation of their respective products. The peculiar match of telegraphy and chess, however, was grounded in their intricate relationships with notions of scientific and economic progress as well as civilisation, peace and supremacy of the Euro-American world. The article opens up new avenues in the history of Victorian sports and its intricate relationship with industrialisation and modernity.

Although maritime technology is a widely studied field, sailing as a leisure activity largely has been ignored by historians. Before 1900, sailboats of all sizes were primarily workboats, technologies of production, and only the wealthy participated in sport sailing. As industrialisation created a middle class of businessmen, bankers, merchants and managers, members of this new class joined the sport and organised sailing or yacht clubs, each of which launched little fleets of sailing canoes or other small sailboats. During the first part of the twentieth century, sailing aficionados and professional boat builders designed scores of small boats for recreational sailing, and with a greatly expanding middle class after World War II, the market for recreational sailboats (both small and large) grew explosively.  Technological innovation played an essential role in the evolution and growth of sailing as play, from the introduction of fibreglass (GRP) boats and stitch-and-glue wood construction, to changes in rigging, hardware, electronics and other sailing paraphernalia. This essay, with a focus on the U.S., examines the growth of sailing as a recreational activity since the mid-nineteenth century and its transition from a craft-based to an industrial technology. It also suggests two aspects of consumer interaction with technology that are evident in sailing-based technology as play. First, the point of interaction between leisure sailors and boat builders – what the historian Ruth Schwartz Cowan might call the ‘consumption junction’ – played an important role in determining the success or failure of boats. Second, sailing boats and much boat building progressively became what historian Rachel Maines calls a ‘hedonised’ technology; put simply, the engagement with sailing of most sailors as well as small, amateur and, sometimes, semi-professional boat builders is no longer a practical matter, one focused on efficient production and work, but a leisure activity focused
on pleasure.

After World War II, a newly affluent middle class America enjoyed a rapidly growing pastime: sports car racing. The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) began to sanction road racing in 1948. They wanted to galvanise the surge of enthusiasm for European two-seater performance cars. By 1952, sports car racing in the
United States outgrew the original street courses, especially in regard to providing a safe environment for spectators. U.S. Air Force Gen. Curtis E. LeMay offered the use of the runways of Strategic Air Command (SAC) air bases to the SCCA, which reflected his own enthusiasm and would raise money to improve living conditions for his personnel. Soon, sports cars raced down the same runways used by SAC bombers and fighters. LeMay and SAC provided the venue for sports car racing to grow. A case study of the SAC sports car racing program illustrates how deeply play, sports, and leisure were interwoven with the automobile and American culture in the 1950s.

There can be no doubt that the scientification process of soccer has been underway for some time. But what about soccer tactics? This article focuses on three concepts and their impact on soccer tactics: Taylorism and Arsenal (London) in the 1920s and 1930s, cybernetics and ‘scientific socialism’ and Dinamo Kyiv in the 1970s and 1980s and geometric figures and FC Barcelona since the late 1980s, particularly since the early twenty-first century. It shows that, especially in the cases of Herbert Chapman and Arsenal and of Valeriy Lobanovskyi and Dinamo Kyiv, Taylorism , cybernetics and ‘scientific socialism’ acted as a source of inspiration for developing formations and tactical schemes. However, soccer is such a complex game that it is difficult or even impossible to assess the exact importance of these concepts for the overall success of the teams. As to the general topic of science and soccer tactics, the scientific investigation of soccer tactics can provide testable explanations, but its predictive power is weak.

Research in the field ‘Playing with Technology’ ought to contribute to the development of theory in the history of technology: both technology and play have crucial functions in human life.They have strongly influenced the development of societies. Therefore, research in this field might open new perspectives on the question how and why people deal with technology. During the last decades, technology-based play has become more and more important: (1) the so-called leisure society has begun to take shape. Supply of and demand for games has increased, and the leisure industry is still growing. (2) Elements of play can be found in fields of work, and applications of play in working processes (as in programming computers) are growing as well. (3) Simulations and virtual worlds – which are close to play in some way – are becoming more important. Thus, the aim of this article is to analyse mutual influences of technology and play.