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Books > Professional & Technical > Technology: general issues > History of engineering & technology
Dr Chaloner considers economic history to be a branch of what the French call the historical sciences and believes that it is impossible to treat usefully of the rise, decline and metamorphosis of industries and economics without some consideration of the part played by the efforts of individual men and women in these processes. In this collection of essays, first published in 1963, he provides biographies of certain entrepreneurs, inventors and engineers together with historical surveys of some vital industries.
Technology has always been inseparable from the development of music. But in the twentieth century a rapid acceleration took place: a new "machine music" came into existence, electronic musical instruments appeared, and composers sometimes seemed more like sound technicians than musicians. In this book Hans-Joachim Braun and his co-authors offer a wide-ranging and fascinating look at the relationship of technology and modern music. Topics range from the role of Yamaha in Japan's musical development to the social construction of the synthesizer; from the player piano as precursor of computer music to the musical role of airplanes and locomotives; from the growth of one independent recording studio (from "Polka to Punk") to the origins of the 45-RPM record. Other chapters consider violin vibrato and the phonograph, Jimi Hendrix, and the aesthetic challenge of soundsampling. The book concludes with a look at the current situation, and perspectives for its future in electronic music. Contributors: Barbara Barthelmes, Karin Bijsterveld, Hans-Joachim Braun, Martha Brech, Hugh Davies, Bernd Enders, Geoffrey Hindley, Juergen Hocker, Mark Katz, Tatsuya Kobayashi, James P. Kraft, Alexander B. Magoun, Rebecca McSwain, Andre Millard, Helga de la Motte-Haber, Trevor Pinch, Susan Schmidt-Horning, and Frank Trocco.
Despite having undergone major advances in recent years, the history of technology in Latin America is still an understudied topic. This is the first English-language volume to bring together a variety of critical perspectives on the history of technology in Latin America from the early-19th century through to the present day. This special issue, assembled by guest editor David Pretel, brings together a range of experts to explore a plethora of topics in Latin America's technological history. Papers include a study of rural telephony in in 20th-century Latin America; the rise of the 'Techno-class' in modern Brazil; an analysis of the rise and fall of three Caribbean commodities; the history of educational technology in Latin America, and science and technology in Cold War Chile. Special Issue: Technology in Latin American History Edited by David Pretel (Colegio de Mexico, Mexico) and Helge Wendt (Max Plank Institute for the History of Science, Germany)
Among the makers of these unusual aircraft were Focke-Wulf, Flettner and Wiener-Naustdter.
Are science and technology independent of one another? Is technology dependent upon science, and if so, how is it dependent? Is science dependent upon technology, and if so how is it dependent? Or, are science and technology becoming so interdependent that the line dividing them has become totally erased? This book charts the history of technoscience from the late nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth century and shows how the military-industrial-academic complex and big science combined to create new examples of technoscience in such areas as the nuclear arms race, the space race, the digital age, and the new worlds of nanotechnology and biotechnology.
At the age of twelve, American William R. Dunn decided to become a fighter pilot. In 1939 he joined the Canadian Army and was soon transferred to the Royal Air Force. He was the first pilot in the famous Eagle Squadron of American volunteers to shoot down an enemy aircraft and later became the first American ace of the war. After joining the U.S. Army Air Corps in 1943, he saw action in the Normandy invasion and in Patton's sweep across France. Twenty years later he fought again in Vietnam. Dunn keenly conveys the fighter pilot's experience of war -- the tension of combat, the harsh grip of fear, the love of aircraft, the elation of victory, the boisterous comradeship and competition of the pilot brotherhood. Fighter Pilot is both a gripping story and a unique historical document.
The 20th century saw air power transformed from novelists' fantasy
into stark reality. From string and canvas to precision weaponry
and stealth, air power has progressed to become not only the weapon
of first political choice, but often the only conceivable option.
This rapid development has given rise to considerable debate and
controversy with those holding entrenched views rarely slow to
shout their case. Many myths have grown over the period, ranging
from the once much vaunted ability of air power to win wars alone
through to its impact as a coercive tool.
"American Technology" is a collection of ten key essays selected
from the latest historical scholarship. The coverage ranges from
the colonial period to the modern day with the essays exploring
major technological themes including agricultural tool ownership,
working environments, the engineering profession, and the
intersection of race and gender in technology debates. Each chapter contains an introduction by the editor, a major article, and supporting primary documents that provide vivid images and testimony from the historical events covered in the articles. Also included are a general opening essay on the field by the editor, and further reading lists, making this an ideal resource for students of the social and cultural history of American technology.
This classic photo volume on the North African campaign is a gripping study of one of the major campaigns of the Second World War. From the point-of-view of Luftwaffe pilots and crews the reader is shown the campaign from its outset - from the initial victories, to the final battles in Tunisia.\nEach arm of the Luftwaffe is presented - from the Stuka and "Zerstorer" units to the fighter units JG 27 and JG 53 "Pik As." The various Fallschirmjager (Paratrooper) units are also covered, as is the "Hermann Goring" Division which was totally destroyed in the final battles in Tunisia.\nThis volume includes many action and up-close photographs of all of the aircraft used by the Luftwaffe - from the Messerschmitt Bf 109\s and Junkers Ju 87\s, to the Messerschmitt Me 323 "Gigant" transport planes - and also covers the many personalities, includding Hans-Joachim Marseille whose 151 aerial victories over the desert are legendary. \nWerner Held is the author of many books on the Luftwaffe including German Fighter Units Over Russia, The Messerschmitt Bf 110 (with Holger Nauroth), and German Fighters in World War II - The Day Fighters & The Night Fighters (with Holger Nauroth), all from Schiffer Military History. Ernst Obermaier is the author with Karl Ries of Luftwaffe Rudder Markings 1936-1945, available from Schiffer Military History.
This book presents an evolutionary theory of technological change based upon recent scholarship in the history of technology and upon relevant material drawn from economic history and anthropology. It challenges the popular notion that technology advances by the efforts of a few heroic individuals who produce a series of revolutionary inventions owing little or nothing to the technological past. Therefore, the book's argument is shaped by analogies taken selectively from the theory of organic evolution, and not from the theory and practice of political revolution. Three themes appear, and reappear with variations, throughout the study. The first is diversity: an acknowledgment of the vast numbers of different kinds of made things (artifacts) that have long been available to humanity; the second is necessity: the belief that humans are driven to invent new artifacts in order to meet basic biological requirements such as food, shelter, and defense; and the third is technological evolution: an organic analogy that explains both the emergence of novel artifacts and their subsequent selection by society for incorporation into its material life without invoking either biological necessity or technological progress. Although the book is not intended to provide a strict chronological account of the development of technology, historical examples - including many of the major achievements of Western technology: the waterwheel, the printing press, the steam engine, automobiles and trucks, and the transistor - are used extensively to support its theoretical framework. The Evolution of Techology will be of interest to all readers seeking to learn how and why technology changes, including both students and specialists in the history of technology and science.
This book covers all of the various fighter aircraft designed and employed by Russian forces during the years 1920-1941.
Invention and innovation lie at the heart of problem solving in virtually every discipline, but they are not easy to come by. Divine inspiration aside, historically we have depended primarily on observation, brainstorming, and trial-and-error methods to develop the innovations that provide solutions. But these methods are neither efficient nor dependable enough for the high-quality, high-tech engineering solutions we need today.
The DC-3 is the plane that made civilian transport that made civilian transport a profitable reality, and has become a legend in its own time. It has many names and designations - Skytrain, Spooky, Puff the Magic Dragon, DC-3, C-47, R4D, Li-2 and others. But the name that most pilots know it by is the "Gooney Bird." And it has played many roles besides being an aerial workhorse to transport people and cargo. It has been a bomber, fighter, airborne communications center, amphibian, living quarters, hospital, flying washing machine, and command post. When some of the more than 10,000 built, and additional hundreds in Japan and Russia, ended their days, they have been made into a hamburger stand, tea house, mobile home, seaside cottage, an officers club and even a chicken coop. Many have been put on static display at more than 200 museums around the world. After more than sixty years, 1,000 of them are still flying the world\s skies. The DC-3/C-47 has surpassed all other aircraft ever built in faithful service, dependability and achievement. This is the story of its conception, design and amazing life in war and peace. Carroll glines is also the author of The Doolittle Raid, Attack on Yamamoto, and Chennault\s Forgotten Warriors: The Saga of the 308th Bomb Group in China (all available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).
This second collection of studies by Maurice Crosland has as a first theme the differences in the style and organisation of scientific activity in Britain and France in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Science was more closely controlled in France, notably by the Paris Academy of Sciences, and the work of provincial amateurs much less prominent than in Britain. The most dramatic change in any branch of science during this period was in chemistry, largely through the work of Lavoisier and his colleagues, the focus of several articles here, and the dominance of this group caused considerable resentment outside France, not least by Joseph Priestley. The issue of authority in science emerges again, within France under the rule of Napoleon, in a study of the exceptional power exercised by the great mathematician Laplace both in theoretical science and in academic politics. This exploration of organisation and power is complemented by a comparative study of the practice of early 'physics' and chemistry and their different reliance on laboratories. This raises the question of whether chemistry provided a model for later experimental work in other sciences, both through the construction of pioneering laboratories and in establishing early schools of research.
This book presents a critical examination of conversations between engineering, social sciences, and the humanities asking whether their conversations have come of age. These conversations are important because ultimately their outcome have real world consequences in engineering education and practice, and for the social and material world we inhabit. Taken together the 21 chapters provide scholarly-argued responses to the following questions. Why are these conversations important for engineering, for social sciences, and for the humanities? Are there key places in practice, in the curriculum, and in institutions where these conversations can develop best? What are the barriers to successful conversations? What proposals can be made for deepening these conversations for the future? How would we know that the conversations have come of age, and who gets to decide? The book appeals to scholarly audiences that come together through their work in engineering education and practice. The chapters of the book probes and access the meetings and conversations, and they explore new avenues for strengthening dialogues that transcend narrow disciplinary confines and divisions. "The volume offers a rich collection of descriptive resources and theoretical tools that will be useful for researchers of engineering practices, and for those aiming to reshape the engineering lifeworld through new policies. The book depicts the current state of the art of the most visible SSH contributions to shaping engineering practices, as well as a map of research gaps and policy problems that still need to be explored." - Dr. Ir. Lavinia Marin, TU Delft, Electrical Engineering and Philosophy
This collection of essays explores the history of control by looking at a variety of cultural forms, practices, and beliefs.These ideas are examined critically, not only in the light of the possibilities which control technologies seem to offer for resolving human problems, but also the contradictory moral, political, and economic consequences they have had. The discussion takes into account the important modes in which humans have cast their organizational efforts: political, social, psychological, economic, and legal. It also takes a "longue" "duree" view of the history of control, looking back to the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and establishes the continuities in the twentieth century as a transatlantic phenomenon.
Number 2 in the Luftwaffe Profile Series describes the design and use of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 G/K.
"The first magnetic recording device was demonstrated and patented
by the Danish inventor Valdemar Poulsen in 1898. Poulsen made a
magnetic recording of his voice on a length of piano wire. MAGNETIC
RECORDING traces the development of the watershed products and the
technical breakthroughs in magnetic recording that took place
during the century from Paulsen's experiment to today's ubiquitous
audio, video, and data recording technologies including tape
recorders, video cassette recorders, and computer hard drives.
This volume contains papers and reports from the Conference held in Romania, June 2000. The book covers many topics, for example, place, role and content of geotechnical engineering in civil, environmental and earthquake engineering.
Drawing on entirely new evidence, The English Renaissance Stage: Geometry, Poetics, and the Practical Spatial Arts in England 1580-1630 examines the history of English dramatic form and its relationship to the mathematics, technology, and early scientific thought during the Renaissance period. The book demonstrates how practical modes of thinking that were typical of the sixteenth century resulted in new genres of plays and a new vocabulary for problems of poetic representation. In the epistemological moment the book recovers, we find new ideas about form and language that would become central to Renaissance literary discourse; in this same moment, too, we find new ways of thinking about the relationship between theory and practice that are typical of modernity, new attitudes towards spatial representation, and a new interest in both poetics and mathematics as distinctive ways of producing knowledge about the world. By emphasizing the importance of theatrical performance, the book engages with continuing debates over the cultural function of the early modern stage and with scholarship on the status of modern authorship. When we consider playwrights in relation to the theatre rather than the printed book, they appear less as "authors" than as figures whose social position and epistemological presuppositions were very similar to the craftsmen, surveyors, and engineers who began to flourish during the sixteenth century and whose mathematical knowledge made them increasingly sought after by men of wealth and power.
Very influential design was the first and only rocket fighter used in WWII.
The Origins of Agriculture in Europe takes a look at current ideas
in the light of a considerable mass of literature and
archaeological evidence; examining the transition to agriculture
through the comparison of social and economic developments across
Europe.
In a provocative new interpretation of a transforming era in American history, Maury Klein examines the forces that turned the United States from a rural agricultural society to an urban industrial one. Integrating social, economic, and business history, he stresses the driving role of technology and the emergence of a complex society of many cultures, lacking a cohesive center. The rise of a corporate economy, described by Mr. Klein, resulted in productive miracles unequaled elsewhere-but at the cost of great social dislocation in American life. Gradually there arose a society that organized and formalized traditional American values in new and unexpected ways. This transformation produced a surprising new center for the diverse and fragmented American social order: the consumer economy. The new order flowered after the turn of the century and was advanced by the consequences of World War I, which left the United States as the world's major power. The Flowering of the Third America is a vivid and authoritative portrait of the making of modern America.
Few people have changed the world like the Nobel Prize winners. Their breakthrough discoveries have revolutionised medicine, chemistry, physics and economics. Nobel Life consists of original interviews with twenty-four Nobel Prize winners. Each of them has a unique story to tell. They recall their eureka moments and the challenges they overcame along the way, give advice to inspire future generations and discuss what remains to be discovered. Engaging and thought-provoking, Nobel Life provides an insight into life behind the Nobel Prize winners. A call from Stockholm turned a group of twenty-four academics into Nobel Prize winners. This is their call to the next generations worldwide. |
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