Masonry constructions are the great majority of the buildings in Europe's historic centres and the most important monuments of its architectural heritage. Given the age of these constructions, the demand for safety assessments and restoration projects is pressing and constant; still within the broad studies in the subject it is not yet recognised, in particular within the seismic area, a unitary approach to deal with Masonry structures. This successful book contributes to clarify the issues with a rigorous approach offering a comprehensive new Statics of Masonry Constructions. This third edition has been driven by some recent developments of the research in the field, and it gives the fundamentals of Statics with an original and rigorous mathematical formulation, further in-depth inquired in this new version. With many refinements and improvements, the book investigates the static behaviour of many historic monuments, such as the Gothic Cathedrals, the Mycenaean Tholoi, the Pantheon, the Colosseum, the domes of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence and St Peter's in Rome, as well as the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The last chapter - the 11th - regarding the behaviour of masonry buildings under seismic actions, has been modified and integrated in order to take into account the numerous recent achievements of the research in the dynamic and seismic analysis. The focal point is that there's no dissipation of energy during the deformation of masonry structures, even if accompanied by cracks. If properly reinforced, masonry constructions have the sole resource to escape the seismic action developing the rocking without failure, under alternate seismic action. In this context, the rocking of pier walls, the main resistant components of the masonry structure, has been here thoroughly examined. Furthermore, the out of plane and the in-plane seismic strengths of masonry walls with openings has been investigated within the framework of Limit Analysis. Through an interdisciplinary approach, involving Mathematics, Engineering and Architecture, this book highlights the tight connection existing between the Statics of Masonry constructions and the principles that ruled the history of constructions, since the beginnings as far as the Seventeenth century.

This lively and fascinating text traces the key developments in computation - from 3000 B.C. to the present day - in an easy-to-follow and concise manner. Topics and features: ideal for self-study, offering many pedagogical features such as chapter-opening key topics, chapter introductions and summaries, exercises, and a glossary; presents detailed information on major figures in computing, such as Boole, Babbage, Shannon, Turing, Zuse and Von Neumann; reviews the history of software engineering and of programming languages, including syntax and semantics; discusses the progress of artificial intelligence, with extension to such key disciplines as philosophy, psychology, linguistics, neural networks and cybernetics; examines the impact on society of the introduction of the personal computer, the World Wide Web, and the development of mobile phone technology; follows the evolution of a number of major technology companies, including IBM, Microsoft and Apple.

This timely book explores technological innovation as a concept, dissecting its emergence, development and use. Benoit Godin offers an exciting new historiography of the subject, arguing that the study of innovation originates not from scholars but from practitioners of innovation. Godin looks to engineers, managers, consultants and policymakers as the instigators of our current understanding of technological innovation. Offering a conceptual history of the subject, Part I considers the many iterations of innovation - as an science applied, outcome, process and system - to track and analyse the changing discourses surrounding technological innovation. In Part II, the author turns to historic and contemporary innovation policy to illustrate the critical role that practitioners have had in formulating and strategizing policy. Effectively rewriting the historiography of the topic, this book is critical reading for scholars of innovation studies, sociology and the history of science and technology. Students will benefit from Godin's pioneering approach to the subject and policymakers will also find value in the book's unique insight into innovation.

This set of 10 volumes, originally published between 1900 and 1994, amalgamates a wide breadth of research on Science and Technology in the Nineteenth Century, including studies on notable figures such as Gregor Johann Mendel, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson and Sir Humphry Davy. This collection of books from some of the leading scholars in the field provides a comprehensive overview of the subject how it has evolved over time, and will be of particular interest to students of history and the sciences.

Systems Ultra explores how we experience complex systems: the mesh of things, people, and ideas interacting to produce their own patterns and behaviours.

What does it mean when a car which runs on code drives dangerously? What does massmarket graphics software tell us about the workplace politics of architects? And, in these human-made systems, which phenomena are designed, and which are emergent? In a world of networked technologies, global supply chains, and supranational regulations, there are growing calls for a new kind of literacy around systems and their ramifications. At the same time, we are often told these systems are impossible to fully comprehend and are far beyond our control.

Drawing on field research and artistic practice around the industrial settings of ports, air traffic control, architectural software, payment platforms in adult entertainment, and car crash testing, Georgina Voss argues that complex systems can be approached as sites of revelation around scale, time, materiality, deviance, and breakages. With humour and guile, she tells the story of what ‘systems’ have come to mean, how they have been sold to us, and the real-world consequences of the power that flows through them.

Systems Ultra goes beyond narratives of technological exceptionalism to explore how we experience the complex systems which influence our lives, how to understand them more clearly, and, perhaps, how to change them.

An archaeology of innovation is the first monograph-length investigation of innovation and the innovation process from an archaeological perspective. It interrogates the idea of innovation that permeates our popular media and our political and scientific discourse, setting this against the long-term perspective that only archaeology can offer. Case studies span the entire breadth of human history, from our earliest hominin ancestors to the contemporary world. The book argues that the present narrow focus on pushing the adoption of technical innovations ignores the complex interplay of social, technological and environmental systems that underlies truly innovative societies; the inherent connections between new technologies, technologists and social structure that give them meaning and make them valuable; and the significance and value of conservative social practices that lead to the frequent rejection of innovations. -- .

This book offers an original and informative view of the development of fundamental concepts of computability theory. The treatment is put into historical context, emphasizing the motivation for ideas as well as their logical and formal development. In Part I the author introduces computability theory, with chapters on the foundational crisis of mathematics in the early twentieth century, and formalism. In Part II he explains classical computability theory, with chapters on the quest for formalization, the Turing Machine, and early successes such as defining incomputable problems, c.e. (computably enumerable) sets, and developing methods for proving incomputability. In Part III he explains relative computability, with chapters on computation with external help, degrees of unsolvability, the Turing hierarchy of unsolvability, the class of degrees of unsolvability, c.e. degrees and the priority method, and the arithmetical hierarchy. Finally, in the new Part IV the author revisits the computability (Church-Turing) thesis in greater detail. He offers a systematic and detailed account of its origins, evolution, and meaning, he describes more powerful, modern versions of the thesis, and he discusses recent speculative proposals for new computing paradigms such as hypercomputing.  This is a gentle introduction from the origins of computability theory up to current research, and it will be of value as a textbook and guide for advanced undergraduate and graduate students and researchers in the domains of computability theory and theoretical computer science. This new edition is completely revised, with almost one hundred pages of new material. In particular the author applied more up-to-date, more consistent terminology, and he addressed some notational redundancies and minor errors. He developed a glossary relating to computability theory, expanded the bibliographic references with new entries, and added the new part described above and other new sections.

This book is composed of chapters that focus specifically on technological developments by distinguished figures in the history of MMS (Mechanism and Machine Science). Biographies of well-known scientists are also included to describe their efforts and experiences and surveys of their work and achievements and a modern interpretation of their legacy are presented.

After the first two volumes, the papers in this third volume again cover a wide range within the field of the History of Mechanical Engineering with specific focus on MMS and will be of interest and motivation to the work (historical or not) of many.

Ernest Baldini started out as a bullied kid in Detroit, and he could have easily slipped into a life of mediocrity. Instead, he chose a different path--making careful decisions and working hard to eventually become a rocket scientist. Along the way, he survived World War II and learned that money is not the key to fulfilling dreams; instead, it's only another tool to use in building dreams.

Over the course of eighty years and a series of carefully considered choices, he set the bar high in a bid to reach the heavens. Although he rubbed elbows and collaborated with some of the century's greatest scientists and engineers, his life parallels the lives of millions of other Americans whose years have been clouded by wars, disasters, booms, and busts.

Take a trip through history, enjoy modest adventures, and relish the tales of a man with a romantic heart whose love for life never wavered in A Twentieth-Century Argonaut.

Soon to be a major motion picture, the story of one of the most improbable and productive collaborations ever chronicled, between a young unschooled Indian prodigy and a great English mathematician.

In 1913, a young unschooled Indian clerk wrote a letter to G H Hardy, begging the preeminent English mathematician's opinion on several ideas he had about numbers. Realizing the letter was the work of a genius, Hardy arranged for Srinivasa Ramanujan to come to England. Thus began one of the most improbable and productive collaborations ever chronicled. With a passion for rich and evocative detail, Robert Kanigel takes us from the temples and slums of Madras to the courts and chapels of Cambridge University, where the devout Hindu Ramanujan, "the Prince of Intuition," tested his brilliant theories alongside the sophisticated and eccentric Hardy, "the Apostle of Proof." In time, Ramanujan's creative intensity took its toll: he died at the age of thirty-two and left behind a magical and inspired legacy that is still being plumbed for its secrets today.

Global Control aims to achieve a clearer understanding of the long process of globalization by focusing on the crucial role of information and control technologies. Information systems and control technologies are key to globalization and, while generally facilitating the overall trend to spatial reorganization, they also effect change through the pervasive influence of 'internal systems logic'. Thus, the author argues, the dominant institutions of states, firms and markets transform global development and are themselves transformed by key information technologies. More specifically the book identifies the key phases of modern globalization and analyses the crucial role played by different information technologies at each point in time. Peter McMahon uses theory in political economy with writing on technological developments, and also combines cutting edge theory with historical evidence which provides a new explanation of the last two and a half centuries of global development. This unique book will be of great interest to academics and researchers of political economy, globalization, innovation and science as well as international business scholars.

The technical problems confronting different societies and periods, and the measures taken to solve them, form the concern of this annual collection of essays. The book deals with the history of technical discovery and change, and explores the relation of technology to other aspects of life. It also shows how technological development has shaped, and been shaped by, the society in which it occurred.

Today, computers fulfil a dazzling array of roles, a flexibility resulting from the great range of programs that can be run on them.

"A Science of Operations" examines the history of what we now call programming, defined not simply as "computer" programming, but more broadly as the definition of the steps involved in computations and other information-processing activities. This unique perspective highlights how the history of programming is distinct from the history of the computer, despite the close relationship between the two in the 20th century. The book also discusses how the development of programming languages is related to disparate fields which attempted to give a mechanical account of language on the one hand, and a linguistic account of machines on the other.

Topics and features: Covers the early development of automatic computing, including Babbage's "mechanical calculating engines" and the applications of punched-card technology, examines the theoretical work of mathematical logicians such as Kleene, Church, Post and Turing, and the machines built by Zuse and Aiken in the 1930s and 1940s, discusses the role that logic played in the development of the stored program computer, describes the "standard model" of machine-code programming popularised by Maurice Wilkes, presents the complete table for the universal Turing machine in the Appendices, investigates the rise of the initiatives aimed at developing higher-level programming notations, and how these came to be thought of as 'languages' that could be studied independently of a machine, examines the importance of the Algol 60 language, and the framework it provided for studying the design of programming languages and the process of software development and explores the early development of object-oriented languages, with a focus on the Smalltalk project.

This fascinating text offers a new viewpoint for historians of science and technology, as well as for the general reader. The historical narrative builds the story in a clear and logical fashion, roughly following chronological order.

"Riveting...A great read, full of colorful characters and outrageous confrontations back when the west was still wild." --George R.R. Martin A propulsive and panoramic history of one of the most dramatic stories never told--the greatest railroad war of all time, fought by the daring leaders of the Santa Fe and the Rio Grande to seize, control, and create the American West. It is difficult to imagine now, but for all its gorgeous scenery, the American West might have been barren tundra as far as most Americans knew well into the 19th century. While the West was advertised as a paradise on earth to citizens in the East and Midwest, many believed the journey too hazardous to be worthwhile--until 1869, when the first transcontinental railroad changed the face of transportation. Railroad companies soon became the rulers of western expansion, choosing routes, creating brand-new railroad towns, and building up remote settlements like Santa Fe, Albuquerque, San Diego, and El Paso into proper cities. But thinning federal grants left the routes incomplete, an opportunity that two brash new railroad men, armed with private investments and determination to build an empire across the Southwest clear to the Pacific, soon seized, leading to the greatest railroad war in American history. In From the River to the Sea, bestselling author John Sedgwick recounts, in vivid and thrilling detail, the decade-long fight between General William J. Palmer, the Civil War hero leading the "little family" of his Rio Grande, and William Barstow Strong, the hard-nosed manager of the corporate-minded Santa Fe. What begins as an accidental rivalry when the two lines cross in Colorado soon evolves into an all-out battle as each man tries to outdo the other--claiming exclusive routes through mountains, narrow passes, and the richest silver mines in the world; enlisting private armies to protect their land and lawyers to find loopholes; dispatching spies to gain information; and even using the power of the press and incurring the wrath of the God-like Robber Baron Jay Gould--to emerge victorious. By the end of the century, one man will fade into anonymity and disgrace. The other will achieve unparalleled success--and in the process, transform a sleepy backwater of thirty thousand called "Los Angeles" into a booming metropolis that will forever change the United States. Filled with colorful characters and high drama, told at the speed of a locomotive, From the River to the Sea is an unforgettable piece of American history "that seems to demand a big-screen treatment" (The New Yorker).

This book tells the story of government-sponsored wiretapping in Britain and the United States from the rise of telephony in the 1870s until the terrorist attacks of 9/11. It pays particular attention to the 1990s, which marked one of the most dramatic turns in the history of telecommunications interception. During that time, fiber optic and satellite networks rapidly replaced the copper-based analogue telephone system that had remained virtually unchanged since the 1870s. That remarkable technological advance facilitated the rise of the networked home computer, cellular telephony, and the Internet, and users hailed the dawn of the digital information age. However, security agencies such as the FBI and MI5 were concerned. Since the emergence of telegraphy in the 1830s, security services could intercept private messages using wiretaps, and this was facilitated by some of the world's largest telecommunications monopolies such as AT&T in the US and British Telecom in the UK. The new, digital networks were incompatible with traditional wiretap technology. To make things more complicated for the security services, these monopolies had been privatized and broken up into smaller companies during the 1980s, and in the new deregulated landscape the agencies had to seek assistance from thousands of startup companies that were often unwilling to help. So for the first time in history, technological and institutional changes posed a threat to the security services' wiretapping activities, and government officials in Washington and London acted quickly to protect their ability to spy, they sought to force the industry to change the very architecture of the digital telecommunications network. This book describes in detail the tense negotiations between governments, the telecommunications industry, and civil liberties groups during an unprecedented moment in history when the above security agencies were unable to wiretap. It reveals for the first time the thoughts of some of the protagonists in these crucial negotiations, and explains why their outcome may have forever altered the trajectory of our information society.

BERGBUCHLEIN, The Little Book on Ores was published before 1518 and was the first book on mining ever printed. With references to alchemy and astronomy this English translation of the German text includes the full text and original woodcut illustrations. BERGBUCLIEN pre-dates DE RE METALLICA by four decades and sections of BERGBUCHLEIN were used by Georgius Agricola in his landmark text. Republished every century since its origination in the 1500s, with this edition BERGBUCHLEIN is once again available to audiences interested in the historical views of mining and ore formation.

This inquiry into the technical advances that shaped the 20th century follows the evolutions of all the principal innovations introduced before 1913 (as detailed in the first volume) as well as the origins and elaborations of all fundamental 20th century advances. The history of the 20th century is rooted in amazing technical advances of 1871-1913, but the century differs so remarkably from the preceding 100 years because of several unprecedented combinations. The 20th century had followed on the path defined during the half century preceding the beginning of World War I, but it has traveled along that path at a very different pace, with different ambitions and intents. The new century's developments elevated both the magnitudes of output and the spatial distribution of mass industrial production and to new and, in many ways, virtually incomparable levels. Twentieth century science and engineering conquered and perfected a number of fundamental challenges which remained unresolved before 1913, and which to many critics appeared insoluble. This book is organized in topical chapters dealing with electricity, engines, materials and syntheses, and information techniques. It concludes with an extended examination of contradictory consequences of our admirable technical progress by confronting the accomplishments and perils of systems that brought liberating simplicity as well as overwhelming complexity, that created unprecedented affluence and equally unprecedented economic gaps, that greatly increased both our security and fears as well as our understanding and ignorance, and that provided the means for greater protection of the biosphere while concurrently undermining some of the keybiophysical foundations of life on Earth.
Transforming the Twentieth Century will offer a wide-ranging interdisciplinary appreciation of the undeniable technical foundations of the modern world as well as a multitude of welcome and worrisome consequences of these developments. It will combine scientific rigor with accessible writing, thoroughly illustrated by a large number of appropriate images that will include historical photographs and revealing charts of long-term trends.