Domesticating physics

Abstract

One hundred years ago, the average American house- hold was a very different place from what it is now. Gas for lighting and heating was still fairly common, particularly in rural homes. Few households had electric coffee makers, toasters, vacuum cleaners, or refrigerators. The ubiquity of those items in American homes today is a testament to a decades-long campaign not just by manufacturers but also by scientists. Beginning in the 1910s, people in business, government agencies, and university departments reached out to housewives to encourage them to learn about, try, and buy new technologies. Housewives, however, were not easily won over; supporters of the new technologies found that their potential customers were budget conscious, skeptical, and even fearful of the unfamiliar devices. To overcome those concerns, American physics teachers, in cooperation with home economics departments, created a new field of education: household physics.