Telephone and Automobile Diffusion in the United States, 1902-1937

Abstract

Although the telephone and automobile are two of the most significant technological developments of the modern era, we know little empirically about the conditions that encouraged their adoption. This paper attempts to explain their diffusion across the 48 contiguous states during the time of their initial popularization and fastest growth and examines which macrostructural attributes of states encouraged or discouraged their widespread adoption. It also examines whether these technologies stimulated or inhibited each other. The findings suggest that commercialization in urban centers spurred adoption of both the telephone and automobile. A more complex process occurred in rural America. States with many well-off, independent farmers were relatively quick adopters of both technologies. But states with many tenant farmers-primarily southern-were slow to adopt. The data also point to an important historical watershed, World War I: many of the accelerating factors before the war were less critical after the war, and, perhaps more important, the interaction between the technologies changed around the time of the war.

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