In this article, we turn back to the 1918 influenza pandemic to throw light on the alliances of information communication technologies and technologies of mobility (such as the car) during the pandemic. We examine newspaper articles, technical publications, and other historical texts to demonstrate that, despite the fact that mobile technologies—such as cellular phones—did not exist during the 1918 pandemic, the telephone and mobility technology nonetheless formed alliances as networks in motion, or social moments in which risk and reward are calculated not simply by the ability to move, but rather the ability to move, while remaining connected, revealing insight into early cultural formations that share similarities and differences with the use of modern mobile media and mobility technologies during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Autos to carry nurses needed.” (1918, October 18). Worcester Evening Post, 6.
7.
BoneaA. (2021). “Contagion by telephone”: Print media and knowledge about infectious diseases in Britain, 1880s–1914. Technology and Culture, 62(4), 1063–1086. https://doi.org/10.1353/tech.2021.0154
8.
Car travel falling off during epidemic of flu. (1918, October 18). Spokane Daily Chronicle. via the Influenza Encyclopedia, University of Michigan Center for the History of Medicine, and the University of Michigan Library: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.0100flu.0011.010
9.
CassonH. N. (1910). The history of the telephone. A.C. McClurg & Co.
10.
“City prohibits crowded cars.” (1918, October 20). The Courier-Journal, 1–3.
11.
“Claims wire photos are practical: Le Roy J. Leishman says he is able to telegraph pictures any distance and he will begin regular service on first of July.” (1919, May 1). Editor & Publisher, 32.
12.
“Company to disinfect street cars daily.” (1918, October 11). Dallas Evening Journal, 7.
13.
CrosbyA. W. (2003). America’s forgotten pandemic: The influenza of 1918 (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
14.
DalrympleD. (1918, October 22). “If anybody who is behind on anything hasn’t caught up since the influenza quarantine and these dull rainy days, then they are hopeless and impossible.” Birmingham Age-Herald, 6.
De Souza e SilvaA. (2006). From cyber to hybrid: Mobile technologies as interfaces of hybrid spaces. Space and Culture, 9(3), 261–278. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331206289022
“During the influenza epidemic Aunt Trudy Smyzer chased poor old Uncle Ben Simmons off the car for sneezing.” (1918, November 8). Oakland Tribune, 18. http://hdl.handle.net /2027/spo.5550flu.0007.555
19.
“Elks need automobiles.” (1918, October 19). New Orleans Times-Picayune, 1.
20.
“Epidemic brings mercy problem.” (1918, November 17). St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1.
FischerC. S. (1992). America calling: A social history of the telephone to 1940. University of California Press.
23.
FischerC. S.CarrollG. R. (1988). Telephone and automobile diffusion in the United States, 1902–1937. American Journal of Sociology, 93(5), 1153–1178. https://doi.org/10.1086/228867
24.
FossK. (2020). Constructing the outbreak: Epidemics in media and collective memory. University of Massachusetts Press.
“Hospitals in police zones.” (1918, October 13). Philadelphia Inquirer, 13.
30.
“Influenza hits railroads hard: Total of 272 employes [sic] affected on four lines reported to Spokane offices.” (1918, October 31). The Spokesman-Review, 6.
31.
“Influenza relief work disrupted as result of telephone strike.” (1918, November 16). St. Paul Pioneer Press, 1.
32.
JansonM. A.YooC. S. (2013). The wires go to war: The US experiment with government ownership of the telephone system during World War I. Texas Law Review, 91(5), 983–1050. https://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/faculty_scholarship/467
33.
KolawoleB. (2010). Nursing and the 1918/1919 Spanish influenza pandemic. Journal of Community Nursing, 24(6), 30–34.
34.
KoszarksiR. (2005). Flu season: “Moving Picture World’’ reports on pandemic influenza, 1918–19. Film History,17(4), 466–485. https://doi.org/10.1353/fih.2005.0029
35.
LatourB. (2007). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oxford University Press.
36.
“Library hours.” (1918, October 9). Victoria Daily Times, 15.
37.
LiuL.MillerH. J.ScheffJ. (2020). The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on public transit demand in the United States. PloS ONE, 15(11), e0242476.
38.
“Loaned cars aid fight against influenza.” (1918, October 15). The Evening Star, 10.
39.
MacDougallR. (2014). The people’s network: The political economy of the telephone in the Gilded Age. University of Pennsylvania Press.
MarkelH.LipmanH. B.NavarroJ. A.SloanA.MichalsenJ. R.SternA. M.CetronM. S. (2007). Nonpharmaceutical interventions implemented by US cities during the 1918–1919 influenza pandemic. Journal of the American Medical Association, 298(6), 644–654. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.298.6.644
42.
MarvinC. (1988). When old technologies were new: Thinking about electric communication in the late nineteenth century. Oxford University Press.
43.
NavarroJ. A.MarkelH. (Eds.) (2016). Influenza encyclopedia 2.0. University of Michigan Library. https://www.influenzaarchive.org
44.
NouvelletP.BhatiaS.CoriA.AinslieK. E.BaguelinM.BhattS., … DonnellyC. A. (2021). Reduction in mobility and COVID-19 transmission. Nature Communications, 12(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21358-2
45.
“Official order stops crowding on street cars.” (1918, October 13). New Orleans Times-Picayune, 1–4.
46.
“Pastors keep in touch with flocks.” (1918, October 27). The Vancouver Daily Sun, 21.
ReyesG. M. (2021). The horizons of judgment in mathematical discourse: Copulas, economics, and subprime mortgages. In WynnJ.ReyesG. M. (Eds.), Arguing with numbers: The intersections of rhetoric and mathematics (pp. 82–121). The Pennsylvania University Press.
51.
SchlabachE. (2019). The influenza epidemic and Jim Crow public health policies and practices in Chicago, 1917–1921. The Journal of African American History, 104(1), 31–58. https://doi.org/10.1086/701105
52.
“Seattle ordered to wear masks to prevent malady.” (1918, October 28). Seattle Daily Times, 1.
53.
“Service much improved.” (1918, September 27). Boston Globe, 6.
54.
“Stay at home; shop by phone.” (1918, November 26). Los Angeles Times, 1.
55.
“Street car And railroad traffic shows decrease.” (1918, October 15). Dallas Morning News, 15.
56.
“Telephone calls almost doubled by ‘flu’ epidemic.” (1918, December 9). Salt Lake Tribune, 12.
57.
“Telephone campaign.” (1918, October 11). Los Angeles Evening Herald, 11.
58.
“Telephone mouthpieces need to be Disinfected Regularly.” (1918, October 20). Rochester Democrat Chronicle, 32.
59.
The New York Telephone Company. (1918, October 10). “Influenza and your telephone.” Newark Evening News, 5.
60.
The Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company. (1918, October 23). “An urgent appeal to the public.” Seattle Daily Times, 21.
“Walking is best preventative.” (1918, October 8). Kansas City Star, 2.
63.
WelkeB. Y. (1995). When all the women were white, and all the blacks were men: Gender, class, race, and the road to Plessy, 1855–1914. Law and History Review, 13(2), 261–316. https://doi.org/10.2307/743861
64.
WhiteR. (2012). Railroaded: The transcontinentals and the making of modern America. Norton.
65.
WinstonB. (1998). Media, technology and society – a history: From the telegraph to the Internet. Routledge.
66.
“Women appeal for cars to transport doctors, nurses.” (1918, October 23). New York American, 11.
67.
“You can’t smoke on street cars till ‘flu’ ends.” (1918, October 13). Chicago Tribune, 1.
