Technology and Culture

Until the end of the twentieth century, the history of technology was largely uninformed about and disinterested in the household. Recognizing this deficit, however, the field has since made up for some of its omissions. The processes of work organization and mechanization in the kitchen and house are now much better researched in regional and comparative studies, as well as in the diversity of their social implications. Only the development of the mechanization of domestic body washing has been neglected so far. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the bathroom and personal hygiene are difficult to explore methodically because of the intimacy of the activities performed there. Perhaps it is also because, as Nina Lorkowski speculates, the appliances themselves have never been considered worthy of closer research. At first glance, the design of water heaters "seems to follow exclusively the principles of their technical construction and their practical function" (pp. 213–14). Lorkowski questions this and examines the phenomenon of the mechanization of domestic body washing more closely.

Lorkowski's analysis focuses on the equipment to prepare and supply hot water, i.e., the instantaneous water heater and storage devices. In the early phase of the period under study, the common energy sources were still wood, coal, spirit, and paraffin. Lorkowski pays special attention to the transition to the supply of gas and electricity provided by municipal grid operators. She is not only concerned with the technical aspects of this transition, but also wants to sharpen understanding of how the new forms of energy and the technical devices that became established with them "were integrated into the private household … and how consumption habits in the household changed" (p. 7). However, as the bathroom is a space where washing one's body usually takes place behind closed doors, this is a tall order. Lorkowski has tried to solve this by analyzing personal accounts that are kept in the Dokumentation lebensgeschichtlicher Aufzeichnungen [Documentation of life history recordings] in Vienna. These records come from people who were born and grew up in Austria; Lorkowski, however, is concerned with the situation in Germany and in particular in Berlin. But in view of the scanty source material, such vagueness seems legitimate. It is a clear sign that life history records are not collected and archived as systematically as they might be, for [End Page 1258] it is these records that give color to Lorkowski's work and bring an initially prosaic subject to life. Unfortunately, the everyday reports are almost exclusively limited to Baden ohne Bad (bathing without a bathroom; pp. 63–81), i.e., routines that did not take place behind the bathroom door because the bathroom was not yet considered a natural part of the home. There is also a chapter on "public bathing facilities" (pp. 71–81), which have been relevant in urban areas for a relatively long time. Even in the period between the wars, it was often questioned whether it makes sense at all to include bathrooms in mass housing. It is one of the strengths of the book that it meticulously traces the steps from the self-evident need for bathrooms to the almost self-evident need for wet room areas. And despite the difficult source situation, Lorkowski always pursues the question of how much the standards of personal hygiene and the associated everyday routines have changed.

This question is developed strictly along the framework within which this change takes place. With remarkable expertise, the author explains even the smallest steps in technical development that water heating devices have undergone. These have been continuously adapted in a process of negotiation between the usage habits and economic capacities of consumers, the wishes and macrostructural prerequisites of network operators, as well as safety specifications and market interests. In addition, there are also design issues, which Lorkowski traces with a look at...