Black Corporation: Joseon [EN]: Chapter 42

Extracurricular 42. Imperial Scenery (7)

Following the invention of the phonograph, the release of the sound cylinder—the radio—transformed popular culture into a true ‘mass culture.’

And this mass culture was no longer limited to the Empire.

Since around the time of the Italian Unification War, Imperial culture had already established itself as a culture enjoyed by the upper classes in Europe and the Middle East.

As time passed, even those outside the upper class began to embrace Imperial culture.

Consequently, it became common for renowned Imperial entertainers to be invited to tour and perform throughout Europe and the Middle East.

As mentioned before, this proved very useful for the Secret Guard.

In this environment, the emergence of the phonograph and the sound cylinder revolutionized the world.

Of course, this also spurred other countries to develop their own popular cultures, firmly establishing themselves.

However, the Empire remained the gold standard for evaluation.

As an aside, the emergence of the phonograph and the sound cylinder created an entirely new market.

This was the ‘home appliance market.’

The telephone marked the beginning of this market.

* * *

As telegraph lines were laid across the Empire, the government established telegraph offices to manage them.

Soon, the duties of the telegraph offices expanded to include postal services.

In some ways, this was the reverse of what happened elsewhere.

In other countries, postal services were usually supplemented with telegraph services.

However, this was a butterfly effect caused by Hyang’s MSG [likely referring to a method of communication or technology developed by Hyang].

The light-emitting communicators created by artisans due to Hyang were recognized for their usefulness, and a communication network was built throughout Joseon [historical Korean kingdom].

As a stable communication network was established, the Sadaebu [scholar-officials] and merchants also recognized its value.

-The light-emitting network is perfect for quickly sending and receiving urgent messages containing only a few sentences!

As petitions began to be submitted, Kim Jeom smelled an opportunity.

“Wait… this could be profitable? Let’s see…”

As Kim Jeom pondered, he soon encountered a significant obstacle.

“It’s military, and the messages are fixed, so assigning symbols is no problem, but the words used by commoners are several times, no, several dozen times more numerous… How do I handle this? I’ll be searching for symbol tables all night… This isn’t fun.”

After considering various options, Kim Jeom suddenly brightened.

“Hunminjeongeum [Korean alphabet] is bringing good fortune! With this, I don’t have to search for symbol tables one by one, saving me a lot of time! Hooray, good! I can hear the sound of money coming in!”

Kim Jeom quickly drafted a proposal and submitted it to Sejong [King Sejong the Great, creator of Hunminjeongeum].

“This is a truly good idea! Indeed!”

Satisfied with Kim Jeom’s proposal, Sejong soon put it into action.

Afterward, the Joseon army operated two types of light-emitting communicators.

Although they were called two types, they weren’t completely separate devices; they simply had different colored glass placed in front of the lamp.

Through the color of the lamp, the signal corps could immediately recognize whether it was for military or civilian use.

Because of this history, the telegraph took hold before the postal service, followed by the addition of postal services.

Although much later than the iron horse [railroad], as automobiles using internal combustion engines became widespread, the Imperial Court began to handle letter delivery as well.

Until then, people relied on peddlers traveling along the markets across the country or villagers heading out on journeys to deliver letters.

However, as more people left their birthplaces to settle in other regions, this became difficult.

Merchants who smelled an opportunity in this situation started companies to provide this service, but bankruptcies occurred frequently.

This was due to issues of trust and inconsistent pricing structures.

Therefore, the Imperial Court stepped in to conduct a systematic business.

Accordingly, the Imperial Court expanded and reorganized the telegraph office into the ‘Postal Administration Office.’

Consequently, words such as ‘ucho’ (郵鈔, postage stamp) and ‘uche’ (郵遞, postal service) were newly created.

This was an interesting coincidence.

In the history before Hyang’s intervention, the Korean Empire created an office to handle postal services and named it.

At that time, Hong Yeong-sik, who was in charge of this task, created names such as uche, ucho, and ujeong, instead of Japanese-style words like upyeon, upyo, and yeokche, and received permission from Gojong [Korean king].

* * *

When the telephone was invented, the military was the first to use it.

-A telephone is much more useful than having messengers run between outposts and headquarters.

-It will also be useful in the event of war, provided the lines are not cut.

Once its usefulness was confirmed by the Imperial Army, government agencies soon began to use telephones extensively.

And second and third Kim Jeoms appeared.

“This seems like it could be profitable?”

Before long, telephones began to appear in the homes of commoners throughout the Empire.

The construction of telephone lines went surprisingly smoothly.

Telegraph lines had already been installed up to towns of considerable size, so telephone lines could be added to the telegraph poles that already had telegraph lines.

The problem was the cost of installing telephone poles and connecting telephone lines from the post office in the town to the house where the telephone was installed.

In the Empire, this cost was charged to the person who applied for the telephone.

The cost was considerable, so installing a telephone meant that you were quite well-off.

As a result, the telephone became a status symbol.

Because of this symbolic meaning, households that had some influence in the village began to install telephones competitively.

As telephones spread to the private sector in this way, a new occupation emerged.

It was the ‘telephone operator.’

Although the telephone was ‘something everyone wanted but could not easily obtain,’ there were those who did not welcome it.

These were high-ranking officials in the central government, or, in the old-fashioned way of expressing it, high-ranking officials above the level of Dangsanggwan [a high-ranking official position in the Joseon dynasty].

“Esteemed sir, there is a call from the palace.”

“Ugh… at this hour?”

This was because of the calls from the palace that came at all hours, even when they were staying at home.

“I’d rather they send a eunuch like in the old days, so I’d have time to compose myself!”

“This isn’t a device, it’s a shackle, a shackle!”

* * *

The phonograph and the sound cylinder that appeared after the telephone soon became symbols of ‘well-to-do’ homes.

However, their heyday quickly came to an end.

The reason was that the number of people buying them increased explosively because the initial cost was much lower than that of a telephone.

As ‘economies of scale’ were realized, the price quickly fell, and the image of ‘luxury goods’ faded.

And the ‘image receiver (受像機, television)’ pushed them out.

Starting with the image receiver, refrigerators, washing machines, and air coolers took the place of ‘luxury home appliances’ over time.

By this time, having ‘1 Tong, 2 Gi, 2 Naeng’ in the house was what it took to be considered a ‘somewhat well-off’ household.

-1 Tong: A container for storing gat [traditional Korean hat] or other high-end hats.

-2 Gi: Telephone and washing machine.

-2 Naeng: Refrigerator and air cooler.