COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00002 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	\input jmclet
C00005 ENDMK
C⊗;
\input jmclet
\jmclet
\address
Letter to the Editor
American Heritage of Invention and Technology
Forbes Bldg.
60 Fifth Ave.
New York, NY 10011
\body

Sirs:

	Melvin Kranzberg's success in convincing social historians
that the history of technology is important has had a 
side-effect which I suppose he would regret.  It is
 exemplified by Edward Tanner's article ``Pantheons of
Nuts and Bolts''.  Tanner's article gleefully informs us that the
great museums of technology all over the Free World have been
conquered by his ilk, the social historians, who are busy throwing
out the inventions to make room for exhibits of the pseudo-issues
they think the public should consider more important.  

	A few points.

	1. Tanner's own attitude to technology is indicated by the
title of his article, which accurately reflects its contents.
The social historians don't like the inventors and feel culturally
superior to them.

	2. The exhibits on social issues are far less interesting
to the actual attendees of technology museums
 than the real machinery, however badly
maintained.  The machinery made the world prosperous, while the
social exhibits are just boring propaganda that won't improve the
world at all.

	3. There is probably no way to correct this situation.
Getting institutional power is a profession, and professionals
will beat amateurs every time.

	4. Every so often, an industrialist gets the good idea of
commemorating the technology on which his success is based.
Unless he is ashamed of his own accomplishments, he needs to be
very careful to avoid his museum getting into the hands of
the social historians, the public policy community, the museum
community or the educationists.

\closing
Sincerely,
John McCarthy
\endletter
\end