Summary of interview

Pre-war memories

To begin with we talked about the memories Mrs. Chew had of the household appliances her mother used when she was a child. In fact there were very few but one of Pam's earliest memories was of a brick built boiler in the kitchen. This had to be lit early in the morning so that the family had heated water for the rest of the day. Three years later a gas boiler was installed which was wonderful for the family but very messy.

Overall there were very few appliances. A dustpan and brush was used instead of a Hoover. Eventually gas washing machines were invented, however these were still worked by hand. In the early 30's Pam's family got their first radio; this was a big technological achievement.

War time technology

Prior to the war Pam had lived in a military naval town in Kent. Here she describes some of the air technology that she encountered: Piggyback planes- this was when a large plane took off with a smaller plane of fuel on its back. This in turn took off mid-flight from the larger plane. The correct name for these were the Mercury and Mayo. However these never caught on and after seeing them at the Seaplane works, Pam didn't ever see them again. The main achievement here was the V1s and V2s. These were the beginning of rockets and space transport. In landing these planes either dropped straight down or glided so people were always unsure as to where they were going to land.

Post war domestic appliances

In the 1950's Hoovers and electric washing machines became available, followed in in the late fifties by fridges; freezers came later. Changes caught on over a period of decades. Things were sometimes hard to afford but were bought if they had the money. Central heating came in the late 1960s whereas before that they had had a fire in the living room and a coal fire in their bedroom if they had been ill but otherwise nothing else.

The microchip was a wonderful invention and Pam remembers something her father once said to her" not in my lifetime and maybe not in yours but this is going to make such a difference to life in general because there won't be jobs going when the microchip takes the place of people"

They had a telephone after the war. This made a good deal of difference to communication as it was quicker to just give someone a ring rather than post a letter and wait a few days for it to get to it's destination.

Office life

Office life changed more in the 80's than any other period as they changed from manual typewriters to electric typewriters to word processors. It took three typists on the manual typewriters to do the work of two typists on the electric typewriters. The change from electric typewriters to word processors happened within about 18 month's of the former being produced and each time they had to re-train. It was harder for the older people to re-train than for the younger ones who seemed to take it all in their stride. The women who had been the fastest on the manual typewriters discovered they were the slowest on the word processors Previously the workload had been much more demanding as a letter had to be written out at least 3-4 times if 10 copies were to be made (even with carbon), whereas with the word processor all you had to do was to press a few buttons. Spell check made it easier for the less good spellers.

Finally Pam was asked how she felt about the changes in technology she had experienced

Do you feel the technological changes since you were a child are for the better?

Most of them, yes. Things are less time consuming now than they used to be. Changes have been especially good for the commercial world however it has meant a loss of jobs due to the increasing use of machinery.

Do you think people are more isolated as there is not as much interpersonal communication due to technology such as fax machines and E-mail?

Yes, especially as a lot of people work from home now. Fewer people commute because they work from home which must be very lonely. One advantage is that it saves on travelling although a lot of people do still commute.

Reflecting on the experience of talking to Pamela, Isabel commented:

I found the experience very enjoyable. I feel that I have learnt a lot from Mrs. Chew. I never really thought about how life was before such inventions as the refrigerator. It has made me appreciate this more. I am also aware of the unemployment that has been caused by the changes in technology which seems to be one of the few drawbacks to the developments in technology. There have been many positive advances such as managing to tackle a larger work load in the office and making cleaning homes far simpler.

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