Industrialism: Fanny Kemble

In her Record of a Girlhood, Fanny Kemble describes her experience as the first woman to ride on a steam engine. Although she clearly struggles to accurately describe her experience with the appropriate verbiage, "the startling newness" of her adventure was certainly portrayed (490). Of those who witnessed the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, Fanny Kemble was one who took a positive approach on what Eric Hobsbawn claimed to be "the most fundamental transformation of human life in the history of the world" (487). Her writings exemplify the optimism associated with the Victorian age along with the enthusiasm and shock of such newness.

In the podcast, Fanny Kemble is described as having "confidence, exuberance, and security" during her exciting adventure on the steam engine. As she attempts to describe the journey to her reader, the most plausible analogy to the train she can conjure is that of a horse. Therefore, for most of the letter, Kemble continues to give the steam engine life-like qualities. As she describes the construction of the "wonderful beast" she equilibrates each feature to that of an anatomical part of a horse (491). I found her comparisons to be quite humorous, as she speaks of the train: "She goes up on two wheels, which are her feet, and are moved by bright steel legs called pistons... steam is applied to the upper extremities (the hip-joints I suppose) of these pistons..." (490). Kemble's association between a living-horse and the steam engine is so strong that she even goes as far to validate the gender of the machine when she claims, "She (for they make these curious little fire-horses all mares)"(490). Kemble even applies life-like needs to the machine when she says, "a barrel containing enough water to prevent her being thirsty"and when she addresses "the coals, which are it's oats" (490). Witnessing something so new and innovative that words to express it's characteristics and features were yet to be created must have been an excitedly frustrating adventure. To associate what is a common, almost outdated machine of travel to a "snorting little animal" would seem absurd to my generation. But I could only dream of the emotion and excitement associated with being one of the first to experience such a technological innovation. 

Kemble's struggle to find words continues as she describes the speed she experiences as the train accelerates. She continues stating phrases like: "You can't imagine how strange..." and "You cannot concieve..."(491).  The feelings accompanied by this foreign contraption were so unfamiliar that Kemble simply stated it was "strange beyond description" (491). She rants and raves of the train's acceleration as she closes her eyes and attains a "sensation of flying" and she even goes on to amount her experience up to a "fairy-tale" as she traveled "swifter than a bird flies"(491). 

To travel in such a way as to feel a speed you have never felt before is an unimaginable experience to me. I would have probably done a much poorer job at describing the journey than Fanny Kemble had done. As much as Kemble's feelings are foreign to her, experiencing such feelings seem even more foreign to me. Her enthusiasm and optimism were quite contagious and enjoyable. 

......I would love to put Fanny Kemble on a plane :)