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.

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 book presents a historical and philosophical analysis of programming systems, intended as large computational systems like, for instance, operating systems, programmed to control processes. The introduction to the volume emphasizes the contemporary need of providing a foundational analysis of such systems, rooted in a broader historical and philosophical discussion. The different chapters are grouped around three major themes. The first concerns the early history of large systems developed against the background of issues related to the growing semantic gap between hardware and code. The second revisits the fundamental issue of complexity of large systems, dealt with by the use of formal methods and the development of `grand designs' like Unix. Finally, a third part considers several issues related to programming systems in the real world, including chapters on aesthetical, ethical and political issues. This book will interest researchers from a diversity of backgrounds. It will appeal to historians, philosophers, as well as logicians and computer scientists who want to engage with topics relevant to the history and philosophy of programming and more specifically the role of programming systems in the foundations of computing.

An engrossing and powerful story about the influence of printers, who used their commercial and political connections to directly shape Revolutionary political ideology and mass mobilization. Honorable Mention, St. Louis Mercantile Library Prize, Bibliographical Society of America During the American Revolution, printed material, including newspapers, pamphlets, almanacs, and broadsides, played a crucial role as a forum for public debate. In Revolutionary Networks, Joseph M. Adelman argues that printers-artisans who mingled with the elite but labored in a manual trade-used their commercial and political connections to directly shape Revolutionary political ideology and mass mobilization. Going into the printing offices of colonial America to explore how these documents were produced, Adelman shows how printers balanced their own political beliefs and interests alongside the commercial interests of their businesses, the customs of the printing trade, and the prevailing mood of their communities. Adelman describes how these laborers repackaged oral and manuscript compositions into printed works through which political news and opinion circulated. Drawing on a database of 756 printers active during the Revolutionary era, along with a rich collection of archival and printed sources, Adelman surveys printers' editorial strategies. Moving chronologically through the era of the American Revolution and to the war's aftermath, he details the development of the networks of printers and explains how they contributed to the process of creating first a revolution and then the new nation. By underscoring the important and intertwined roles of commercial and political interests in the development of Revolutionary rhetoric, this book essentially reframes our understanding of the American Revolution. Printers, Adelman argues, played a major role as mediators who determined what rhetoric to amplify and where to circulate it. Offering a unique perspective on the American Revolution and early American print culture, Revolutionary Networks reveals how these men and women managed political upheaval through a commercial lens.

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

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 volume provides an overview of current research in the history of Italian technology in the long run, from the early Middle Ages to the 20th century. The contributors focus on different aspects of Italian creativity in a local, transnational and global dimension, tracing the trajectory from primacy to relative decline. The themes range from the creation and establishment of new technologies in laboratories or enterprises, the processes of learning, diffusion, and copying and the institutions involved in the generation of a national technological capability and innovation system. Comparative studies are included in order to illustrate special features of the Italian case. The industries covered in this volume range from silk, iron and steel production, to electricity generation and telecommunications. Special Issue: Italian Technology from the Renaissance to the 20th Century Edited by Anna Guagnini and Luca Mola Included in this volume: Inventors, Patents and the Market for Innovations in Renaissance Italy The Microcosm: Technological Innovation and the Transfer of Mechanical Knowledge in the Habsburg Empire of the Sixteenth century Diamonds in Early Modern Venice: Technology, Products and International Competition A Global Supremacy. The Worldwide Hegemony of the Piedmontese Reeling Technologies, 1720s-1830s Raw Materials, Transmission of Know-How and Ceramic Techniques in Early Modern Italy: a Mediterranean perspective Anabaptist Migration and the Diffusion of the Maiolica from Faenza to Central Europe A Bold Leap into Electric Light. The Creation of the Societa Italiana Edison, 1880-1886 Keeping Abreast with the Technology of Science. The Economic Life of the Physics Laboratory at the University of Padua, 1847-1857 Mechanics "Made in Italy": Innovation and Expertise Evolution. A Case Study from the Packaging Industry, 1960-98 Telecommunications Italian Style. The shaping of the constitutive choices (1850-1914) Beyond the Myth of the Self-taught Inventor. The Learning Process and Formative Years of Young Guglielmo Marconi Technology Transfer, Economic Strategies and Politics in the Building of the First Italian Submarine Telegraph Lights and Shades: Italian Innovation Across the Centuries European Steel vs Chinese Cast-iron: From Technological Change to Social and Political Choices (4th Century BC-18th Century AD) The Italian National Innovation System. A Long Term Perspective, 1861-2011

This tenth volume of papers emanating from the annual International High Technology Small Firms Conference represents a full decade of research and policy relevant papers on innovation and growth problems of New Technology-based Firms (NTBf).
Because this series has become the major vehicle for publication among the best international researchers working on the formation and subsequent growth problems of NTBfs, it represents an authoritative voice on NTBf development problems.
Topics covered in this volume include strategy, spin offs - their contribution to NTBf growth and the problems they encounter during the traumatic "spin off" process, the current hot topic of clusters and their role in enhancing NTBf formation and growth, networking and global issues since many NTBfs are truly "born global."

One theme of this volume is whether the complementarity between technology and human capital is a recent phenomenon, or whether it can be traced through history. Different approaches to human capital as well as technology are applied, and besides historical surveys are total factor productivity and patent data employed. The studies deal with the Iberian peninsula, Scandinavia, and Canada, countries displaying different patterns in the international development.

The technical problems confronting different societies and periods, and the measures taken to solve them form the concern of this annual collection of essays. Volumes contain technical articles ranging widely in subject, time and region, as well as general papers on the history of technology. In addition to dealing with the history of technical discovery and change, History of Technology also explores the relations of technology to other aspects of life -- social, cultural and economic -- and shows how technological development has shaped, and been shaped by, the society in which it occurred.

A "beautifully written" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) memoir-manifesto from the first female director of the National Science Foundation about the entrenched sexism in science, the elaborate detours women have take to bypass the problem, and how to fix the system. If you think sexism thrives only on Wall Street or Hollywood, you haven't visited a lab, a science department, a research foundation, or a biotech firm. Rita Colwell is one of the top scientists in America: the groundbreaking microbiologist who discovered how cholera survives between epidemics and the former head of the National Science Foundation. But when she first applied for a graduate fellowship in bacteriology, she was told, "We don't waste fellowships on women." A lack of support from some male superiors would lead her to change her area of study six times before completing her PhD. A Lab of One's Own is an "engaging" (Booklist) book that documents all Colwell has seen and heard over her six decades in science, from sexual harassment in the lab to obscure systems blocking women from leading professional organizations or publishing their work. Along the way, she encounters other women pushing back against the status quo, including a group at MIT who revolt when they discover their labs are a fraction of the size of their male colleagues. Resistance gave female scientists special gifts: forced to change specialties so many times, they came to see things in a more interdisciplinary way, which turned out to be key to making new discoveries in the 20th and 21st centuries. Colwell would also witness the advances that could be made when men and women worked together--often under her direction, such as when she headed a team that helped to uncover the source of anthrax used in the 2001 letter attacks. A Lab of One's Own is "an inspiring read for women embarking on a career or experiencing career challenges" (Library Journal, starred review) that shares the sheer joy a scientist feels when moving toward a breakthrough, and the thrill of uncovering a whole new generation of female pioneers. It is the science book for the #MeToo era, offering an astute diagnosis of how to fix the problem of sexism in science--and a celebration of women pushing back.

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. -- .

It has been upon the shoulders of giants that the modern world has been forged. This accessible compendium presents an insight into the great minds responsible for the technology which has transformed our lives. Each pioneer is introduced with a brief biography, followed by a concise account of their key contributions to their discipline. The selection covers a broad spread of historical and contemporary figures from theoreticians to entrepreneurs, highlighting the richness of the field of computing. Suitable for the general reader, this concise and easy-to-read reference will be of interest to anyone curious about the inspiring men and women who have shaped the field of computer science.