Great interview with Jay Owens on her recent book on dust with Wired. When did dust become a concern?
First of all, it requires you to be able to see the dust well. Electricity is one big factor, or gas lighting—just more lighting in the homes so you can actually see more clearly. Secondly, it’s the expansion of consumerism, and the invention of desire. A home in the Victorian period, if you’re wealthy enough, is quite flouncy, ornate, very different to the quite austere Tudor era. Once you’ve got beautiful mirrors and plates and things like that, dust shows up more. Then thirdly, the public health side and awareness of the dangers of microscopic things. Having an ordered, neat home has always been valorized, but this is the idea that it could be sort of pristinely, spotlessly clean.