During the commercial broadcasting boom of the 1920s, mica became an essential component of various radio parts, especially the audion vacuum tube, which became central to signal amplification during this period. As uses multiplied and factories produced greater quantities of sound-reproduction machines, the demand for mica exploded. This chapter traces a history of mica through the interwar years, arguing that the newfound necessity of this mineral pushed radio manufacturing into an existing—and vexed—infrastructure held together through exploitative labor regimes, environmental degradation, and the tense politics of empire during this period. It uncovers the surprisingly far-reaching political and social contexts involved in the production of a single radio component. The point of departure is RCA’s effort to find alternative sources of mica, which was primarily controlled by UK interests that, in turn, controlled key mica mines in India. These mines relied on female and child workers, deemed by many observers as the most efficient at splitting the extracted mineral into fine sheets. Such considerations drew RCA into direct negotiations with the US Bureau of Mines, the US Army, and mica mines in Appalachia and New Hampshire, thereby tethering them to hundreds of women and children in various parts of the world whose labor they deemed essential to their enterprise.
Review: The Indispensable Force: The Post-Cold War Operational Army Reserve, 1990-2010