Bridgework
Here's something to chew on
January 3 has been, in a way, a day of bridges. One significant bridge — this would be a metaphorical one — was introduced on January 3, 1957 when the Hamilton Watch Company introduced the first electric watch, the “Electric 500.” It’s not clear what the 500 really referred to, other than being a number the marketing guys thought sounded cool.
The first generation of electric watches were not electronic watches at all — they were still mechanical watches, but instead of winding the mainspring, there was a battery-powered mechanism to keep it running. The “battery-powered mechanism”, by the way, was not a motor. it was a solenoid, which acts more like a sort of electric pendulum. The innovative inside of the watches was matched (or so they hoped) by innovative external designs — one of the models, the “Ventura”, had an asymmetrical design that looked like the 1950s idea of the future. Elvis Presley wore one of those — he probably got it in an attempt at product placement — and wore it in the movie Blue Hawaii. (It didn’t help; sales weren’t very robust.)
Apple didn’t have any notion of getting into the watch business.
The electric watch design was just a bridge between the entirely mechanical era and the digital era, which was ushered in by the quartz watch introduced by Seiko in 1969. In a sad development — well, it’s only sad for today’s entry — the Seiko Astron wasn’t introduced on January 3. Instead, it arrived on December 25, just a bit late for Christmas shopping. Besides, the first ones cost as much as a car. If you didn’t jump at the opportunity to buy one, that was probably a good idea. Electronic watches based on the same technology are now a commodity, and you can get one for less than $20. Just try to find a car for anywhere near that price!
The next bridge in the world of watches is probably from quartz watches like the ones Seiko (and everybody else, now) produces to the fully-digital watch with a touch screen and sensors that monitor your health, where you are, and to some extent what you’re doing. The quintessential watch of this type is probably the Apple Watch, which is pretty appropriate because today is the anniversary of the day Apple, which was in those days “Apple Computer,” was incorporated in 1977. Apple didn’t have any notion at first of getting into the watch business, but at least the watch business existed at the time. The mobile phone business, which is what propelled the company to its current position as the most valuable company in the world, didn’t even exist at the time. Nevertheless, when mobile phones did arrive, nobody expected Apple to get involved in that either.
If you compare the world of 1977, when Apple was incorporated, to today, there are a ridiculous number of differences. One huge one, though, is what we’re facing in climate change. Huge corporations like Apple (and multitudes of others) issue plenty of press releases and plans about what they’re doing — or at least planning to do — about climate change, but most of what they claim ignores their own participation in the whole problem. What we need is a way to bridge the current culture of lip service to a climate of more robust action (see what I did there?). One of the leading voices in trying to create this bridge is Greta Thunberg, who’s become a powerful voice for climate change action in spite of her young age. And one thing about her age, by the way: it’s her birthday today; she’s all of 19. Happy Birthday, Greta!
Go ahead, ask me if I knew about Bitcoin back then, and if I installed the software to generate my own.
Another bridge we might be slowly crossing is the bridge from regular old money, issued by a government, to new kinds of currency (or at least media of exchange) based on a computerized list, or ledger, that’s shared by all the connected and participating computers in the world. The ledger is called a “blockchain”, and although there’s a ton of complicated explanation available all over the place, it’s really just a list. It lists all the transactions made in a digital currency, and records the value, time, and date — and nobody can change it (OK, that’s a bit of hyperbole, but it’s reasonably secure, at least). The original blockchain-based digital currency is Bitcoin, which was invented by Satoshi Nakamoto — nobody seems to know whether that’s a real person — and the very first “block” in the Bitcoin blockchain was created on January 3, 2009. Back in those days it took far less computing power or time (and hence actual electrical power) to create a block, so anybody with a personal computer could do it if they wanted to. And if they did, each Bitcoin they created out of simply running a program on their computer is now worth nearly $50,000 in US dollars. Go ahead, ask me if I knew about Bitcoin back then (I was) and then ask me if I installed the software and created my own (sigh. I didn’t - don’t remind me).
I’ve talked about various kinds of metaphorical bridges connected with January 3, so it’s probably time to bring up an actual bridge. I’ve got a great one: the Brooklyn Bridge that connects Manhattan to Brooklyn across the East River in New York City. There are five lanes of cars driving across it all day and night, and in the past both trolleys and elevated trains used it as well. Not bad for a bridge proposed in the 1850s and built starting on January 3, 1870.
At the time of its opening, in 1883, the Brooklyn Bridge was the longest suspension bridge in the world. It was designed by John Roebling, who was surveying the site in 1869, injured his foot, and contracted tetanus, which killed him. His son Washington , who had been an army officer in the Civil War, for crying out loud, became the chief engineer. It’s hard to conceive that the bridge that’s supporting traffic including things like Teslas can be traced back to the Civil War era. The Brooklyn Bridge, besides being, you know, a bridge, also bridges eras, engineering practices (it used steel in time when iron was much more common) and even diversity — Washington Roebling was also injured during the construction and his wife Emily filled in for him. She became, in effect, the (self-taught) chief engineer of the project.
So there we have it; from a metaphorical bridge to a real bridge that’s also a metaphorical bridge. All for a day that bridges us from January second to tomorrow, January fourth. And if you think today’s history was interesting, just wait! The story builds like, I dunno, The Hobbit leads to Lord of the Rings. Oh, that’s one other thing about today. It’s J.R.R. Tolkien’s birthday.
