The Haven Magazine Spring 2018

FROM THE ARCHIVES
Technology in the Age of Electricity: The Central
State Normal School in the 1890s
by Joby Topper, LHU Library Director
We live in the Computer
Age, a period of rapid
advancement in computer
miniaturization, digital
communications, robotics, and other
areas of high technology. It’s an exciting
time to be alive.
The “Age of Electricity”—the 1880s and
90s—was a similar time in our history. It
was the age of Edison, Tesla, and Bell,
among others. Their discoveries and
inventions brought about a revolution in
communications, power generation, and
transportation.
The catalogs of the former Central
State Normal School (now Lock Haven
University) draw attention to the various
electrical wonders that were available at
our school. These catalogs were, after all,
recruiting tools. They were disseminated
to high schools all across Pennsylvania.
They were meant to catch the attention
of prospective students and their parents.
Our school was one of the first in the
nation to be fully equipped with electric
lighting. This gave us a competitive
advantage over schools that were still lit
by oil and gas:
“At night the whole building is brilliantly
illuminated with the electric light. Four
hundred and fifty electric lamps are
distributed among two hundred rooms.
… There are no oil lamps to fill and trim.
The student needs only to touch a spring
and immediately he has splendid, clean,
and harmless electric light.”
Our catalog writers knew that prospective
students would likely be impressed by the
convenience of electric lighting, and that
parents would just as likely be impressed
by the relative safety of electric lighting
compared to oil and gas.
The catalog also includes a hook for the
curious student who needs to understand
how it all works—from the steam engine,
to the dynamo, to the light bulb.
“The school equipment includes one
40-horse power Ball automatic engine, …
one Edison dynamo with ampere metre,
volt metre, and all necessary appliances,
with many other interesting pieces of
machinery. The student is associated with
the teacher or engineer in the running
and caring for the several machines, and
is thus given the opportunity to become
thoroughly familiar with the details of
each.”
incentive to enroll at the Central State
Normal School.
The writer also mentions two of the
most popular devices of the time: an
“Edison Improved Phonograph, capable
of recording and reproducing every
form of sound” and a “Bell Telephone
complete with Blake Transmitter.” The
writer’s use of the words “improved”
and “complete with Blake Transmitter”
distinguishes these two inventions from
earlier, less successful versions of Edison’s
phonograph and Bell’s telephone and
thus reflects the school’s progressive
attitude. Although our school had just
one phonograph and one telephone,
many schools had neither. Our students
enjoyed “telephonic and telegraphic
communication with all parts of the
city and with the neighboring towns
and cities.” In 1890, this range of
communication was truly remarkable.
The Age of Electricity also produced
advances in transportation, notably
the electric street railway. Streetcars
connected the Normal School to
downtown Lock Haven, Flemington, and
Mill Hall. A student could ride downtown
and back for a nickel. The streetcar
service closed in 1930, but it lives on in
the university trolley, which was designed
to look like the old streetcars.
Sketch of the Dynamo Room and a Student’s Room, from
the CSNS Catalog of 1890-91
For a technophile of the 1890’s, the
prospect of hands-on instruction in
electrical engineering was a powerful
Sketch of a streetcar approaching the Normal School, ca. 1895
LOCK HAVEN UNIVERSITY THE HAVEN SPRING 2018
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