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Books > Professional & Technical > Technology: general issues > History of engineering & technology
We live in a moment of high anxiety around digital transformation.
Computers are blamed for generating toxic forms of culture and ways
of life. Once part of future imaginaries that were optimistic or
even utopian, today there is a sense that things have turned out
very differently. Anti-computing is widespread. This book seeks to
understand its cultural and material logics, its forms, and its
operations. Anti-Computing critically investigates forgotten
histories of dissent - moments when the imposition of computational
technologies, logics, techniques, imaginaries, utopias have been
questioned, disputed, or refused. It asks why dissent is forgotten
and how - under what circumstances - it revives. Constituting an
engagement with media archaeology/medium theory and working through
a series of case studies, this book is compelling reading for
scholars in digital media, literary, cultural history, digital
humanities and associated fields at all levels. -- .
The He 111 flew over every front from the first day of the Second
World War to the last and was among the most produced aircraft of
the Luftwaffe. Aerodynamically a very clean aircraft, it was a
superior bomber during the first two years of the war. This volume
is dedicated to this aircraft.
This book represents an original study of long term patterns in
technological development and innovation in large corporations. The
author is primarily concerned with understanding open-ended
transformation processes in the evolution of industrialised
societies. US patent data from 1890 to 1990 is employed within an
evolutionary framework. The book offers an overview of an
intellectual agenda associated with a highly important and
pervasive set of phenomena and challenges several dogmas currently
alive within economic reasoning including: * technological
paradigms governing trajectories of opportunity * the S-shaped
image of the technological growth cycle and technological dynamics
* long waves * industrial dynamics * the variety of firms'
technological profiles and corporate trajectories * corporate
technological leadership * socio-economic transformation processes
and underpinning 'rules'. Technological Change and the Evolution of
Corporate Innovation details historically how the innovative and
competitive landscapes within industrialised societies have become
increasingly complex. This book will appeal to industrial and
business economists, technology historians, researchers, students,
policymakers and business analysts.
Take an action-packed flight through the history of aircraft and
the intrepid pioneers who made a dream become reality. Uncover the
engineering behind more than 800 aircraft models, from military
jets to commercial planes. This visual history book captures the
fascinating story of aeroplanes and aviation, and how this
groundbreaking discovery has influenced the 21st Century. Inside
the pages of this aircraft book, you'll discover: - The history of
military and commercial aircraft from all over the world, decade by
decade, to the present day in stunning visual detail -
Comprehensive catalogues highlighting the most important aircraft
of each period along with their specifications and unique features
- Showcases particularly celebrated aircraft - such as the
Supermarine Spitfire and Concorde - in beautifully photographed
"virtual tour" features - Tells the stories of the engineers and
manufacturers that created marques like Boeing and Airbus Modern
flight has opened the world up to new opportunities and paved the
way to the development of advanced research and technology. But,
what made it so groundbreaking? This book uncovers the stories
behind the first aeroplane models, the development of flight, and
brings you to present-day marvels such as the Gypsy Moth and
Supermarine Spitfire. The Aircraft Book is filled with stats, facts
and photographs that create a visual tour and allows you to see
inside key commercial and military aircraft models from the
exterior to the cockpit. Aviation enthusiasts will also be
captivated by the manufacturer of aircraft engines and how famous
models like the Boeing and Lockheed became household names.
Complete the series DK's The Definitive Visual History series is an
iconic celebration of design and history. Packed with fascinating
facts and statistics, these high-quality visual guides cover
everything from history and notable designs to the people and
technology that made it possible. Books in this series include The
Car Book, The Train Book, The Tank Book, and so much more.
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It is November 6, 1920, in Chilean Patagonia when Oriana Josseau
is born into a lively family with two grandparents, two parents,
and sixteen young aunts and uncles, most within easy reach of her
robust cries. And so begins the life of an independent-minded girl
from the bottom of the world who somehow manages to overcome the
restrictions and biases of a conservative patriarchal society and
eventually becomes a scientist.
As her family relocates to the idyllic countryside of central
Chile and then to the hectic complex society of Santiago, Oriana
vividly recalls her reactions to such diverse events as the birth
of her brothers; the abrupt transition from wealth to near poverty;
her first earthquake; the turmoil of student politics; the
challenges of mountain adventures; the exploration of friendship,
love and sex; and her first encounter with raw anti-female bias in
a male-dominated research world. As she details her life from early
childhood on, it soon becomes evident that Oriana must prevail over
frequent conflicts with prejudice in order to become a strong, free
woman long before the advent of the feminist movement.
Oriana describes beautifully, with humor and empathy, the
idiosyncrasies, strengths, and foibles of one woman, and those
around her, as she embarks on a unique coming-of-age journey in a
different society and different time.
This major new book provides a concise history of optical media
from Renaissance linear perspective to late twentieth-century
computer graphics. Kittler begins by looking at European painting
since the Renaissance in order to discern the principles according
to which modern optical perception was organized. He also discusses
the development of various mechanical devices, such as the camera
obscura and the laterna magica, which were closely connected to the
printing press and which played a pivotal role in the media war
between the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation.
After examining this history, Kittler then addresses the ways in
which images were first stored and made to move, through the
development of photography and film. He discusses the competitive
relationship between photography and painting as well as between
film and theater, as innovations like the Baroque proscenium or
"picture-frame" stage evolved from elements that would later
constitute cinema. The central question, however, is the impact of
film on the ancient monopoly of writing, as it not only provoked
new forms of competition for novelists but also fundamentally
altered the status of books. In the final section, Kittler examines
the development of electrical telecommunications and electronic
image processing from television to computer simulations.
In short, this book provides a comprehensive introduction to the
history of image production that is indispensable for anyone
wishing to understand the prevailing audiovisual conditions of
contemporary culture.
The life story of the highest decorated soldier of the Wehrmacht.
Many photos of Rudels aircraft.
Years before Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris
electrified the nation, a group of daredevil pilots, most of them
veterans of the World War I, brought aviation to the masses by
competing in the sensational transcontinental air race of 1919. The
contest awakened Americans to the practical possibilities of
flight, yet despite its significance, it has until now been all but
forgotten. In The Great Air Race, journalist and amateur pilot John
Lancaster finally reclaims this landmark event and the unheralded
aviators who competed to be the fastest man in America. His
thrilling chronicle opens with the race's impresario, Brigadier
General Billy Mitchell, who believed the nation's future was in the
skies. Mitchell's contest-critics called it a stunt-was a risky
undertaking, given that the DH-4s and Fokkers the contestants flew
were almost comically ill-suited for long-distance travel: engines
caught fire in flight; crude flight instruments were of little help
in clouds and fog; and the brakeless planes were prone to nosing
over on landing. Yet the aviators possessed an almost inhuman
disregard for their own safety, braving blizzards and mechanical
failure as they landed in remote cornfields or at the edges of
cliffs. Among the most talented were Belvin "The Flying Parson"
Maynard, whose dog, Trixie, shared the rear cockpit with his
mechanic, and John Donaldson, a war hero who twice escaped German
imprisonment. Jockeying reporters made much of their rivalries, and
the crowds along the race's route exploded, with everyday Americans
eager to catch their first glimpse of airplanes and the mythic
"birdmen" who flew them. The race was a test of endurance that many
pilots didn't finish: some dropped out from sheer exhaustion, while
others, betrayed by their engines or their instincts, perished. For
all its tragedy, Lancaster argues, the race galvanized the nation
to embrace the technology of flight. A thrilling tale of men and
their machines, The Great Air Race offers a new origin point for
commercial aviation in the United States, even as it greatly
expands our pantheon of aviation heroes.
In this detailed and meticulously researched account of the life
and work of Charles Michell, the first surveyor-general and civil
engineer of the South African Cape Colony, author Gordon Richings
examines in depth, the many interests and achievements of the man,
as well as the essence of the time in which he lived, by referring
to unpublished personal diaries, sketchbooks and letters. Born in
Exeter, Devon in 1793, Michell showed artistic talent at a young
age, but due to family circumstances, joined the British Army and
served with distinction in the Napoleonic Wars in Portugal. He came
to the Cape in 1829 and for the next twenty years played a crucial
role in opening up the Cape interior to economic development and
expansion, by designing roads, bridges and mountain passes,
including Sir Lowry's, the Houw Hoek, Montagu and Michell's Passes.
He also suggested improvements to Table Bay Harbour and designed
lighthouses at Mouille Point, Cape Agulhas and Cape Recife in an
effort to protect shipping along the Cape's notorious coastline.
This first biography of Charles Michell is lavishly illustrated
with his sketches, watercolours and engravings of Cape scenery,
plants, insects and rock paintings, as well as Cape personalities,
maps of the colony and architectural plans - the majority of which
are published for the first time. New light is shed on the
socio-economic life at the Cape, particularly the Tsitsikamma
region of the southern Cape, the Frontier War of 1834-35, as well
as on the personalities of Michell's colleagues and contemporaries
in England and at the Cape.
Charles Babbage was thirty years old in 1821, as was his close
friend, John Herschel, and in English intellectual circles they
were both regarded as brilliant mathematicians. One day as Babbage
worked in preparing logarithmic tables, a tedious and boring task,
he commented to Herschel that he thought he could invent a machine
to do these calculations with far more speed and accuracy than a
human calculator could. And so was born an idea that would
fascinate, tantalize, and absorb him for the remainder of his life.
Over the years he drew plans, expanded them, modified them, and
finally invented two machines, the Difference Engine and the
Analytical Engine. The first was capable only of generating tables,
but the Analytical Engine could do much more. It could convert into
numbers and print the results of any formula that might be
required. It could also develop any analytical formula the laws of
whose formation were given. Using punched cards it could store
early results in a calculation and then use them to make further
calculations when they were required. He had invented the first
mechanical computer.
The dramatic life story of one of the legendary USAAF fighter
pilots of World War II who fought across the skies over the
Mediterranean and southern Europe in the great aerial campaigns
against the Luftwaffe a Herschel H. "Herky" Green. By the time
Colonel Green was grounded by orders of higher headquarters, he was
the leading ace of the 15th Air Force with eighteen aerial
victories.
A sweeping overview of the American peasantry: the largely
sharecrop cultivators who, in Seavoy's analysis, rejected the labor
norms of commercial agriculture. About equal numbers of black and
white sharecroppers chose to practice subsistence cultivation in
order to minimize agricultural labor. The study begins with
pre-Civil War slave plantations and the landless white peasants who
migrated to North America to escape full-time paid labor in
Britain. Seavoy then describes and analyzes the operation of the
postbellum sharecrop system and related Back Caste System; the
different origins of southern and northern Populism; the massive
displacement of southern peasants (after 1950) when cotton
cultivation was fully mechanized, and how the voluntary joblessness
of the urban underclass has been perpetuated by the welfare
entitlements of the Great Society.
Cambridge Engineering: The First 150 Years takes the reader on a
journey that starts with the genesis of engineering as an academic
discipline, leads to the creation of the Department in 1875, and
looks forward to its plans for the 150th anniversary in 2025. The
history is told through the extraordinary lives of engineering
leaders, who fought through the initial derision of other
disciplines to take the faculty from a workshop in a wooden hut to
stand as the largest department in the University. The narrative
comes right up to date with stories from the latest research and
its positive impact on the world. Cambridge Engineering concludes
with the vision for the future as the Department moves to its new
state-of-the-art home at West Cambridge and takes a global lead in
redefining the discipline. Richly illustrated with images from past
and present, this hardback will appeal not only to alumni, but to
anyone, old or young, who is ready to explore how engineering has
changed the world and dream how it will drive further revolutions.
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. -- .
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