Cheap steel and electromagnetism together ignited the Second Industrial Revolution from 1870

Evidence

From the glacial speeds of the Bronze Age, humanity had been propelled to the breathless developments of the Iron Age. But for a long time, iron and steel remained too difficult to produce, too expensive. Even after the Industrial Revolution, the first steamships were mostly wooden, with steel providing only the essential components (boiler, chimney, joints). Enter another one of my father’s great heroes, Henry Bessemer, who invented a technique for producing large quantities of steel cheaply by blowing air through molten pig iron to burn off the impurities. It was then, according to Dad, that history accelerated to speeds with which we are familiar today. Coupled with the taming of electromagnetism, which we owe to another Victorian, James Maxwell, Bessemer’s technique gave us the Second Industrial Revolution – the period of rapid technological innovation from 1870 onwards, as distinct from the arrival of the factories earlier that century in the First Industrial Revolution – its wonders and horrors wrapped tightly together. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 46

Categorization

• XREF: Sets up the historical-materialist frame that will later analyze platform technology the same way; connects to Marx’s own writing on the steam engine and the general intellect. — connects to: Bessemer’s cheap steel and Maxwell’s electromagnetism triggered the Second Industrial Revolution’s acceleration. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 46; Electromagnetic grids forced the creation of big banks and big finance — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 135; Electromagnetism, not thrift, enabled the modern ad-agency form of capitalism — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 134

Broader Connections

• Bessemer’s cheap steel and Maxwell’s electromagnetism triggered the Second Industrial Revolution’s acceleration. #corroborates (0.95) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 46
• Electromagnetic grids forced the creation of big banks and big finance #expands (0.75) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 135
• Electromagnetism, not thrift, enabled the modern ad-agency form of capitalism #expands (0.75) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 134