C-3s and Model Ts: The Machines behind Two Lovely Farewells

Abstract

B. F. Skinner’s 1976 editorial “Farewell my LOVELY,” eulogizing the passing of the cumulative record as a primary form of data analysis, borrowed its title from a 1936 E. B. White essay of the same name. In it, White, a well-known 20^th century essayist and children’s book author, eulogized the Model T Ford. This article considers the parallels between the machine behind the cumulative record—the cumulative recorder—and White’s Model T. The cumulative recorder considered for comparison is the Ralph Gerbrands Company Model C-3, widely considered by scientists of the time to be the best of the cumulative recorders that proliferated between the 1950s and the 1990s. On a much more modest scale, the C-3 became as popular, visible, distinct, and important in research laboratories devoted, but not limited, to the experimental analysis of behavior as was the Model T on the roads of early 20^th century America. Not only were there parallels in manufacture and marketing, but, more importantly, in reliability, durability and ease of function of these two machines that changed the respective practices and culture of behavioral psychology and the world.