Tolkien Lived at Sarehole near (too near for him!) to Birmingham in the English Midlands, till, I think, he was about 8.
The Ring, according to his son Christopher, symbolised The Machine - 'The Machine' for Tolkien wasn't just technology/machinery, it was our use of technology to control & coerce others - to force them to live as we want them to. So, the Ring is the ultimate machine. Christopher also says Magic is part of the Machine mentality, if it is used to impose control on others. So The 'Machine' is a mentality, the mentality which builds & uses machinery, rather than the machines themselves.
Good source for this is a vhs - JRRT -A fim portrait of JRR Tolkien, available through the Tolkien Society, among others, which has a very long interview with Christopher Tolkien, & Tolkien's other children & friends who knew him. Lots of insights into Tolkien's works.
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