- I think that they should be afraid of air pumps and electrical machines because in that time period they were very dangerous. They were dangerous, expensive, and they were new. People then were scared or skeptical of new things. Not only that, but since it was new, people didn’t know how to wire things right and people would get electrocuted. There were many risks with the new technology that it made sense to be scared of it.
2. Yes, I think he does. In the book, The Invention of Air, Johnson talks about inventions and new technology and how it scared people. He explained how Priestly tried to incorporate religion and technology, because religion was very important to people in that time period. Even though he did a good job of incorporating the two but there was still lots of skepticism.
I get what you are saying about being scared of something new, but do you think that the only scary thing about new technology is that it is new? You do not believe that governments should be afraid of the uses of this new technology? The fact that the new machines are giving more and more people the ability to employ it against the government and threaten them is another reason for the governments to fear. I would disagree with your assessment on why the government should fear technology.
I agree that there was a lot of skepticism, at the time, the church and science were closely knitted and if something didn’t fall into what the church said, it was a problem. The idea of the pump was scary to some being that it’s a new technology. I don’t know if they were concerned about the price, but rather the idea of power and control getting away from people who weren’t sure how these new machines worked or if they could control them. But I agree that they were new and dangerous if it’s in a literal sense.