Kipinäinduktorien ja influenssikoneiden tenhosointu

Nuorten kokeilijain ja keksijäin kirja teknologiasuhteen rakentajana

Authors

• Tiina Männistö-Funk

Abstract

The allure of induction coils and influence machines: Ilmari Jäämaa’s “The book of young experimenters and inventors” as a constructor of modern technology relationship in Finland 1919–1958Nuorten kokeilijain ja keksijäin kirja (The book of young experimenters and inventors) by Ilmari Jäämaa was a one of the first technological hobby books published in Finland. It formed into an immediate success that lasted decades. The book was reprinted 12 times between its first publishing year 1919 and 1958. This article argues that it was an influential and interesting part of the development reinforcing the role of technology in the Finnish society, building a modern relationship towards technology and providing education to future technology experts. The quest for modern technology was entwined with nationalistic goals and a central role of middle-class men in technological professions. Jäämaa’s book is a collection of instructions for diverse technical DYI-projects, ranging from kites and gyrostats to wireless telegraph and a movie projector. It was constantly updated when reprinted to include new information. Especially its instructions on building and operating ham radios proved influential to generations of hobbyists. Jäämaa’s book highlighted the nature of technological knowledge as applied and practical knowledge that rested on theoretical and systematical basis. Jäämaa was an influential figure among the young Finnish generation of the 1920s and 1930s, leading the Finlandwide hobby organization Nuori Voima until his death in 1934. Both in the organization and his books, Jäämaa supported self-education through good hobbies. In Finland, his guidebook was the first one to promote modern technological relationship to young boys interested in technology and to steer them in the direction of life-careers in engineering. Both formal education and hobbyist culture cemented technological knowledge as a middle-class male bastion. It was also strongly linked to nationalistic project of a modern, technologically capable and independent Finland that started to bear fruit especially after the Second World War. At the time of the first printings of Jäämaa’s book, Finnish technological expertise was still relatively limited, but the aim of making it internationally competitive was emerging, as Jäämaa’s book for its part can show.