The Magnificent Gears [Scroll 6]
David Sobel, Brown
![[The gears]](https://library.brown.edu/jpegs/123205720862500.jpg)
The sixth panel of the scroll focused on the American exhibition of its technological achievements, in this case, gears for mechanization and the telegraph for communication. The Americans brought not only these displays as awe-inspiring gifts, but also as examples of the innovation, progress, and success the United States had achieved.
This panel presented an outdoor setting where the thatched buildings obscure any sense of natural landscape. Above the clearing, a wire descended towards the tallest thatched roof. This was one end of the telegraph that Perry hoped would secure Japanese trust.1 Even though the telegraph played only a small role in this panel, the artist emphasized its importance by dedicating the entire fifth panel to this invention.
A blue and white banner surrounded the group of people, most likely set up to conceal this clearing's contents from peasant onlookers. Off to the side, an American band played. A set of two distinct gears that appeared to occupy most individuals' interest dominated the scene. Although a single Samurai seemed to ask the American with the distinguished black hat about the gears, there was little of the mingling between the Americans and Japanese, as seen in the third panel.
The Japanese were intrigued by American technology, and, as can be seen in this panel, looked for every opportunity to learn more about their mechanisms and purposes. This learning process, however, was not mutual, for Perry observed, "The Japanese are remarkable for their inordinate curiosity, [but] they are by no means communicative when information is required of them, [for] their laws forbid them..."2
The Americans were more than willing to explain their culture and inventions in order to impress and convince the Japanese out of their isolation. The Americans attempted to show the Japanese the benefits of being part of the civilized world through the technological gifts. Although Americans might have considered the Japanese barbaric, the Americans hoped to impress on the Japanese the advantageous nature of trade with the United States.
References
- Steven Lubar, "In the Footsteps of Perry: The Smithsonian Goes to Japan," The Public Historian 17 no. 3 (1995), 38.
- Peter Duus, ed., The Japanese Discovery of America: A Brief History with Documents (Boston: Bedford Books, 1997), 95.