The modern machine became an object of artistic inspiration early in the 20th century.

The Italian FUTURISTS made a cult of automobiles and airplanes. George Antheil's Ballet mécanique shocked concert audiences by its use of propellers and other mechanical noisemakers. Max Brand (1896-1980) produced the first machine opera in Machinist Hopkins in 1929. ARTHUR HONEGGER made a declaration of love for powerful American locomotives in his symphonic movement Pacific 231. Frederick Converse (1871-1940) glorified the Ford car in his Flivver 10,000,000 from 1927.

But locomotives, automobiles, and airplanes soon lost their glamour and became public nuisances. By mid-century the machine as a positive subject for artistic creation was obsolete.