The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is typically thought of in national terms - as an American initiative developed specifically to compete with the Soviet Union. Yet, from its inception, NASA was mandated not only to sustain US leadership in space, but also to pursue international collaboration. Since that time, it has participated in over four thousand international projects. Drawing on unprecedented access to agency archives and personnel, this definitive study explores US-Soviet cooperation during the darkest days of the Cold War, relations with Western Europe, India, and Japan, the development of the International Space Station, and many other aspects of scientific and technological collaboration, making it a signal contribution to space studies and international diplomatic history.

This book covers the use and development of one the Luftwaffe's largest planes, the Messerschmitt Me 321/323.

This volume contains a selection of papers whose content have been presented at the International conferences CIPHI on Cultural Heritage and History of Engineering at University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, Spain, in recent years. The conference series is aimed at bringing together researchers, scholars and students from a broad range of disciplines referring to the History of Engineering and Cultural Heritage, in a unique multidisciplinary forum to stimulate collaboration among historians, architects, restaurateurs, and engineers.

These papers illustrate, by treating specific emblematic topics and problems, technical developments in the historical evolution of engineering concerning cultural heritage. Thus, emphasis is given to a discussion of matters of cultural heritage with engineering history by reporting authors' experiences and views. Topics treated include: reutilization of industrial heritage: the unique example of the Royal Segovia Mint in Spain; the image of factories; Pedro Juan De Lastanosa and "the twenty-one books of devices and machines of Juanelo"; the historical development of paper-mills and their machines in South Latium during 19th century; a virtual reconstruction of a wave-powered flour mill from 1801; 3D modelling and animation study of the industrial heritage wonders; a new model of the hydraulic machine known as "el artificio de Juanelo"; and the mystery of one Havana portrait, on the first steam machine in Cuba. This work has been made possible thanks to the invited authors who have enthusiastically shared this initiative and who have spent time and effort in preparing the papers in much more detail that in the conference presentations."

This book, the first in a multi-volume history of German aviation, provides a comprehensive and detailed analysis of of jet aircraft design and development in Germany. The solid description, unique photo material, historical documents, numerous drawings and complete data tables - published for the first time - make this book not only a gripping story but also an indispensable reference work for anyone with an interest in the development of aviation. In August 1939 in Germany a small propellerless aircraft took off on its maiden flight under conditions of utmost secrecy: the world's first jet aircraft. Apart from Ernst Heinkel, Hans Joachim Pabst von Ohain (inventor of the turbojet engine) and a small circle of their co-workers, no one suspected the profound effect that the successful flight of the tiny He 178 would have on aviation. Spurred on by Heinkel's success, very high speed aircraft were also put into the air by Messerschmitt, Arado and Junkers. On the other hand the designers of jet engines initially encountered almost insuperable problems, for in wartime high-quality raw materials such as nickel, cobalt and molybdenum were unobtainable and substitute materials had to be used in their place. But the designers, who were rushing ahead with their own projects, found a way around this with the help of experienced test pilots: in 1940 the Heinkel 280, the first twin-engined jet aircraft, was flown without engines as a towed glider; Messerschmitt installed an auxiliary piston engine in the nose of its twin-engined Me 262; Arado equipped its twin-engined Ar 234 with jet engines intended for ground tests only. The test pilots became accustomed to landing on just one working engine or none at all. In spite of shortages of strategic materials and the use of replacements, jet engines reached the production stage by the end of the war. But it was only possible to put small numbers of the very high speed aircraft into service, too late to have any decisive effect on the war. The development work on these first jet aircraft led to a tremendous technological leap forward; it was the beginning of advanced technology in aircraft design.

Whether buried underfoot or strung overhead, electrical lines are omnipresent. Not only are most societies dependent on electrical infrastructure, but this infrastructure actively shapes electrified society. From the wires, poles, and generators themselves to the entrepreneurs, engineers, politicians, and advisors who determine the process of electrification, our electrical grids can create power--and politics--just as they transmit it.
"Current Flow" examines the history of electrification of British-ruled Palestine in the 1920s, as it marked, affirmed, and produced social, political, and economic difference between Arabs and Jews. Considering the interplay of British colonial interests, the Jewish-Zionist leanings of a commissioned electric company, and Arab opposition within the case of the Jaffa Power House, Ronen Shamir reveals how electrification was central in assembling a material infrastructure of ethno-national separation in Palestine long before "political partition plans" had ever been envisioned. Ultimately, "Current Flow" sheds new light on the history of Jewish-Arab relations and offers broader sociological insights into what happens when people are transformed from users into elements of networks.

Informatica—the updated edition of Alex Wright's previously published Glut—continues the journey through the history of the information age to show how information systems emerge. Today's "information explosion" may seem like a modern phenomenon, but we are not the first generation—or even the first species—to wrestle with the problem of information overload. Long before the advent of computers, human beings were collecting, storing, and organizing information: from Ice Age taxonomies to Sumerian archives, Greek libraries to Christian monasteries. Wright weaves a narrative that connects such seemingly far-flung topics as insect colonies, Stone Age jewelry, medieval monasteries, Renaissance encyclopedias, early computer networks, and the World Wide Web. He suggests that the future of the information age may lie deep in our cultural past. We stand at a precipice struggling to cope with a tsunami of data. Wright provides some much-needed historical perspective. We can understand the predicament of information overload not just as the result of technological change but as the latest chapter in an ancient story that we are only beginning to understand.

Scholars in this edited collection tackle the issue of teaching students Technology while Technology Education has not been decolonized or made relevant to indigenous technological worldviews. This book provides solutions that address the question: How to decolonize Technology Education? The solutions include the African Technology Education Decolonization Framework that should guide the design and development of the Technology Education curriculum and its methodologies in tune with the local realities and tailored towards the African agenda on sustainable development. This book offers fresh ideas to conceptualize Technology Education from an indigenous perspective.

How have state policies influenced the development of Japan's telecommunications, computer hardware, computer software, and semiconductor industries and their stagnation since the 1990s? Marie Anchordoguy's book examines how the performance of these industries and the economy as a whole are affected by the socially embedded nature of Japan's capitalist system, which she calls "communitarian capitalism."Reprogramming Japan shows how the institutions and policies that emerged during and after World War II to maintain communitarian norms, such as the lifetime employment system, seniority-based wages, enterprise unions, a centralized credit-based financial system, industrial groups, the main bank corporate governance system, and industrial policies, helped promote high tech industries. When conditions shifted in the 1980s and 1990s, these institutions and policies did not suit the new environment, in which technological change was rapid and unpredictable and foreign products could no longer be legally reverse-engineered.Despite economic stagnation, leaders were slow to change because of deep social commitments. Once the crisis became acute, the bureaucracy and corporate leaders started to contest and modify key institutions and practices. Rather than change at different times according to their specific economic interests, Japanese firms and the state have made similar slow, incremental changes.

Using such terms as science and technology, which have been relatively - cently adopted, to write about situations and events that occurred 2,500 years ago, may be a paradox. The Homeric Epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey, refer to the Mycenean Era, a civilisation that ?ourished from the 16th to 12th c- tury BCE. The seeming paradox ceases to be one when modern specialists, searching through the ancients texts, discover knowledge and applications so advanced, that can be termed as scienti?c or technological in the modern sense of the words. The present book is based on extensive research performed by the author and his associates at the University of Patras, along with the presentations of other researchers at two international symposia, which he organized in 1 Ancient Olympia. It consists of ?ve parts, of which Part I is introductory, including such chapters as Homer and Homeric Epics, Troy and the mythological causes of the War, Achilles and his wrath, the siege and fall of Troy, Odysseus' long way home, the Trojan war and the cultural tradition, scienti?c knowledge in the Homeric Epics and ?nally an account on science and technology. Part II includes three chapters on applications of principles of natural s- ence, including chariot racing and the laws of curvilinear motion, creep in wood and hydrodynamics of vortices and the gravitational sling.

Machines have always gone hand-in-hand with the cultural development of m- kind throughout time. A book on the history of machines is nothing more than a specific way of bringing light to human events as a whole in order to highlight some significant milestones in the progress of knowledge by a complementary persp- tive into a general historical overview. This book is the result of common efforts and interests by several scholars, teachers, and students on subjects that are connected with the theory of machines and mechanisms. In fact, in this book there is a certain teaching aim in addition to a general historical view that is more addressed to the achievements by "homo faber" than to those by "homo sapiens," since the proposed history survey has been developed with an engineering approach. The brevity of the text added to the fact that the authors are probably not com- tent to tackle historical studies with the necessary rigor, means the content of the book is inevitably incomplete, but it nevertheless attempts to fulfil three basic aims: First, it is hoped that this book may provide a stimulus to promote interest in the study of technical history within a mechanical engineering context. Few are the co- tries where anything significant is done in this area, which means there is a general lack of knowledge of this common cultural heritage.

April 12, 2011 is the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin s pioneering journey into space. To commemorate this momentous achievement, Springer-Praxis is producing a mini series of books that reveals how humanity s knowledge of flying, working, and living in space has grown in the last half century.
Tragedy and Triumph focuses on the 1980s and early 1990s, a time when relations between the United States and the Soviet Union swung like a pendulum between harmony and outright hostility. The glorious achievements of the shuttle were violently arrested by the devastating loss of Challenger in 1986, while the Soviet program appeared to prosper with the last Salyut and the next-generation Mir orbital station. This book explores the continued rivalry between the two superpowers during this period, with each attempting to outdo the other the Americans keen to build a space station, the Soviets keen to build a space shuttle and places their efforts in the context of a bitterly divisive decade, which ultimately led them into partnership.

This book describes the life and times of fifty-three great British scientists and engineers - male and female inventive geniuses who changed the world, improving the lives of mankind, and propelling humanity forward. Their stories abound with personal ingenuity, brilliance and scientific or engineering wizardry, and with the ambition to satisfy fundamental human needs. The author aspires to set these individual achievements in the socio-political context of their place in history, sometimes embracing the activities of others to round off the story and scientific contribution. Avoiding overly technical language, he nonetheless succeeds in making complex theories and technologies more comprehensible and accessible to a lay audience. This book is a must for all those interested in the prehistory and history of the steam engine, transport, communication technology, public health services, and many topics from the natural sciences. Many of the inventions described in its pages have helped shape the modern world.

The essays in this volume explore how two domains of human experience and action-religion and technology-are implicated in each other. Contrary to commonsense understandings of both religion (as an "otherworldly" orientation) and technology (as the name for tools, techniques, and expert knowledges oriented to "this" world), the contributors to this volume challenge the grounds on which this division has been erected in the first place. What sorts of things come to light when one allows religion and technology to mingle freely? In an effort to answer that question, Deus in Machina embarks upon an interdisciplinary voyage across diverse traditions and contexts where religion and technology meet: from the design of clocks in medieval Christian Europe, to the healing power of prayer in premodern Buddhist Japan, to 19th-century Spiritualist devices for communicating with the dead, to Islamic debates about kidney dialysis in contemporary Egypt, to the work of disability activists using documentary film to reimagine Jewish kinship, to the representation of Haitian Vodou on the Internet, among other case studies. Combining rich historical and ethnographic detail with extended theoretical reflection, Deus in Machina outlines new directions for the study of religion and/as technology that will resonate across the human sciences, including religious studies, science and technology studies, communication studies, history, anthropology, and philosophy.

At the University of Rhode Island over 25% of engineering undergraduates simultaneously complete a second degree in German, French, Spanish, or Chinese. They furthermore spend an entire year abroad, one semester as exchange students at a partner university and six months as professional engineering interns at a cooperating company. With a close-to 100% placement rate, over 400 graduates, and numerous national awards, the URI International Engineering Program (IEP) is a proven path of preparation for young engineers in today's global workplace. The author of this volume, John Grandin, is an emeritus professor of German who developed and led the IEP for twenty-three years. In these pages, he provides a two-pronged approach to explain the origin and history of this program rooted in such an unusual merger of two traditionally distinct higher education disciplines. He looks first at himself to explain how and why he became an international educator and what led him to his lasting passion for the IEP. He then provides an historical overview of the program's origin and growth, including looks at the bumps and bruises and ups and downs along the way. Grandin hopes that this story will be of use and value to other educators determined to reform higher education and align it with the needs of the 21st Century. Table of Contents: How I became a Professor of German / My Unexpected Path to Engineering / Building a Network of Support / Sidetracked by a Stint in the Dean's Office / Reshaping the Language Mission / Struggling to Institutionalize / Partnering with Universities Abroad / Going into the Hotel and Restaurant Business / Taking the Lead Nationally / Building the Chinese IEP / Staying Involved after Retirement / The Broader Message for Higher Education / Conclusions

The creation of physical and material infrastructure is the cornerstone of human development; not surprisingly, engineers and designers are often motivated and inspired in their practice to improve the world around them, to make things better for others, and to apply their knowledge for the good of mankind. These aspirations often get translated into engineering and design curricula where students and faculty work on development related projects usually under the category of community or service learning. This book presents an overview of such an education and outreach program designed to empower stakeholders to improve their lives. The project described here was an international multi-institutional undertaking that included academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and private firms. Within the academic setting, an interdisciplinary set of actors that included engineering and industrial design students and faculty worked on the project. We concretize our work by presenting a design case study that illustrates how different approaches can help guide the works of engineers and designers as they create global infrastructures and localized artifacts. We emphasize the importance of developing long term relationships with organizations on the ground in order to ensure appropriate design as well as successful transfer and long term use of designed artifacts. We discuss the life trajectories of the authors to provide a grounded perspective on what motivated us to undertake this work and shaped our approach with the intention to demonstrate that there are multiple paths toward this goal. Table of Contents: Introduction / Development of the Program: Personal Trajectories Meet Professional Opportunities / Intellectual Positioning of the Program: Sociomaterial Infrastructures and Capable and Convivial Design / Case Study: Quick Response (QR) Code Based Immunization Solution / Design for Development Course and Outreach Initiative / Conclusion: Lessons Learned

This work derives from a conference discussing the history of computing in education. This conference is the first of hopefully a series of conferences that will take place within the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and hence, we describe it as the First Conference on the History of Computing in Education (HCE1). These proceedings represent a collection of works presented at the HCE1 Conference held in association with the IFIP 2004 World Computer Congress held in Toulouse, France. Contributions to this volume range from a wide variety of educational perspectives and represent activities from four continents. The HCE1 conference represents a joint effort of the IFIP Working Group 9.7 on the History of Computing and the IFIP Technical Committee 3 on Education. The HCE1 Conference brings to light a broad spectrum of issues and spans fourcontinents. It illustrates topics in computing education as they occurred in the "early days" of computing whose ramifications or overtones remain with us today. Indeed, many of the early challenges remain part of our educational tapestry; most likely, many will evolve into future challenges. Therefore, this work provides additional value to the reader as it will reflect in part the future development of computing in education to stimulate new ideas and models in educational development.

The New Kingmakers documents the rise of the developer class, and provides strategies for companies to adapt to the new technology landscape. From recruiting to retention, it provides a playbook to work more efficiently and effectively with the most important members of your organization.

The International Symposium on the History of Machines and Mechanisms is the main activity of the Permanent Commission (PC) for the History of Mechanism and Machine Science (HMM) of the International Federation for the Promotion of Mechanism and Machine Science (IFToMM). The first symposium, HMM2000, was initiated by Dr. Marco Ceccarelli and was held at the University of Cassino (Cassino, Italy) on May 11-13, 2000. The second symposium, HMM2004, was chaired by Dr. Marco Ceccarelli and held at the same venue on May 12-15, 2004. The third symposium, HMM2008, was chaired by Dr. Hong-Sen Yan and held at the National Cheng Kung University (Tainan, Taiwan) on November 11-14, 2008. The mission of IFToMM is to promote research and development in the field of machines and mechanisms by theoretical and experimental methods, along with their practical applications. The aim of HMM2008 is to establish an international forum for presenting and discussing historical developments in the field of Mechanism and Machine Science (MMS). The subject area covers all aspects of the development of HMM, such as machine, mechanism, kinematics, design method, etc., that are related to people, events, objects, anything that assisted in the development of the HMM, and presented in the forms of reasoning and ar- ments, demonstration and identification, and description and evaluation.

Along with the Bf 109, the Fw 190 was a stalwart of the Luftwaffe and one of the top fighters of WWII.

These proceedings derive from an international conference on the history of computing and education. This conference is the second of hopefully a series of conferences that will take place within the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and hence, we describe it as the "Second IFIP Conference on the History of Computing and Education" or simply "History of Computing and Education 2" (HCE2). This volume consists of a collection of articles presented at the HCE2 conference held in association with the IFIP 2006 World Computer Congress in Santiago, Chile. Articles range from a wide variety of educational and computing perspectives and represent activities from five continents. The HCE2 conference represents a joint effort of the IFIP Working Group 9. 7 on the History of Computing and the IFIP Technical Committee 3 on Education. The HCE2 conference brings to light a broad spectrum of issues. It illustrates topics in computing as they occurred in the "early days" of computing whose ramifications or overtones remain with us today. Indeed, many of the early challenges remain part of our educational tapestry; most likely, many will evolve into future challenges. Therefore, these proceedings provide additional value to the reader as it will reflect in part the future development of computing and education to stimulate new ideas and models in educational development. These proceedings provide a spectrum of interesting articles spanning many topics of historical interest.