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.

A revealing genealogy of image-recognition techniques and technologies   Today’s most advanced neural networks and sophisticated image-analysis methods come from 1950s and ’60s Cold War culture—and many biases and ways of understanding the world from that era persist along with them. Aerial surveillance and reconnaissance shaped all of the technologies that we now refer to as computer vision, including facial recognition. The Birth of Computer Vision uncovers these histories and finds connections between the algorithms, people, and politics at the core of automating perception today. James E. Dobson reveals how new forms of computerized surveillance systems, high-tech policing, and automated decision-making systems have become entangled, functioning together as a new technological apparatus of social control. Tracing the development of a series of important computer-vision algorithms, he uncovers the ideas, worrisome military origins, and lingering goals reproduced within the code and the products based on it, examining how they became linked to one another and repurposed for domestic and commercial uses. Dobson includes analysis of the Shakey Project, which produced the first semi-autonomous robot, and the impact of student protest in the early 1970s at Stanford University, as well as recovering the computer vision–related aspects of Frank Rosenblatt’s Perceptron as the crucial link between machine learning and computer vision. Motivated by the ongoing use of these major algorithms and methods, The Birth of Computer Vision chronicles the foundations of computer vision and artificial intelligence, its major transformations, and the questionable legacy of its origins. Cover alt text: Two overlapping circles in cream and violet, with black background. Top is a printed circuit with camera eye; below a person at a 1977 computer.

Examples of enduring feats of civil engineering endeavour can be seen around the world's seas and waterways, from the SS Great Britain to the Panama Canal. In this beautifully illustrated book, John Laverick offers an insight into the intriguing field of civil engineering, taking you on a journey that crosses three continents and three centuries, exploring extraordinary achievements including the artificial waterways of the Panama and Suez canals, floating concepts such as the concrete Mulberry harbours, the world's only rotating ship lift at Falkirk, a man-made island in the Baltic linking the crossings between two countries and the ambitious restoration of the Wilts & Berks Canal.

The automobile continues to be the privileged product of the culture of mass consumption, yet there has been little scholarly attention to what concerns consumers most-- the appearance of cars. "Auto-Opium" is the first comprehensive history of the profession and aesthetics of American automobile design. David Gartman reveals how the appearance of vehicles became an integral part of the system of mass production and mass consumption forged in the struggles of American society.
The book traces the development of automobile design, from the first utilitarian cars around the turn of the century to the most modern of symbol-laden cultural icons. The author shows that the aesthetic qualities of vehicles were shaped by the social conflicts generated by the process of mass production. These conflicts became channeled into the realm of mass consumption, where working Americans demanded beautiful, stylish, and constantly improving cars to compensate them for the deprivations of mass production. Combining a unique blend of business, social, and cultural history, "Auto-Opium" connects the social struggles of designers within firms and the marketplace struggles between auto firms.

This much needed book is the first to provide a comprehensive history of the profession and aesthetics of American automobile design. The author reveals how the appearance of the automobile was shaped by the social conflicts arising from America's mass production system. He connects the social struggles of American society with the organizational struggles of designers to create symbol-laden substitutes for the American dream. Theoretically sophisticated, lucid and compelling, Auto-Opium will appeal to all interested in the American obsession with the car.

During the late 1930s the He 100 was the fastest aircraft, yet was used only for propaganda purposes.

Narrative Science examines the use of narrative in scientific research over the last two centuries. It brings together an international group of scholars who have engaged in intense collaboration to find and develop crucial cases of narrative in science. Motivated and coordinated by the Narrative Science project, funded by the European Research Council, this volume offers integrated and insightful essays examining cases that run the gamut from geology to psychology, chemistry, physics, botany, mathematics, epidemiology, and biological engineering. Taking in shipwrecks, human evolution, military intelligence, and mass extinctions, this landmark study revises our understanding of what science is, and the roles of narrative in scientists' work. This title is also available as Open Access.

India, especially coastal India, has a long history of shipbuilding and navigation dating back to the Indus Valley Civilization. Indian shipwrights and the labour force associated with various aspects of shipbuilding excelled in naval architecture. Their native wisdom was adopted by the Europeans engaged in shipbuilding in coastal India. Similarly some of the techniques of navigation followed by Indians were emulated by the European mariners. A comprehensive peep into the science of naval architecture and navigation is attempted in this work making a comparative study of Indian and Portuguese architecture and navigation. The volume discusses the importance of the timber grown in the monsoon-fed forests of the Malabar coast and its appreciation by the Portuguese shipwrights and theoreticians of naval architecture. The work shows that increase of the tonnage of ocean-going vessels and the appearance of hostile mariners from other quarters of Western Europe compelled the Portuguese to adopt enhanced technology in naval architecture and navigation. The fact that the use of canons for defence against intruders made the Portuguese vessels stronger than the Indian ships which, for centuries, were accustomed to considerably peaceful navigation is also brought out in this much anticipated volume.

Richard Bueschel revises and updates his classic series of books on Japanese Naval and Army Air Force aircraft of World War II. The Japanese navy Mitsubishi/Nakajima G3M1/2/3 96 RIKKO (Nell) is presented in this volume. All variations and markings are covered in this sixth book in a multi-volume series.

Though the C-135 was originally designed over forty years ago as an aerial refueling tanker, (749 of the 820 were built as tankers), more than 600 of all types of C-135s are still flying. Boeing's C-135 series has been the most successful military jet ever built. This book, Don Logan's sixth, tells the story of the Boeing C-135 series including: tankers, reconnaissance, airborne command post, weather, test, and special purpose models. All C-135 aircraft types, along with their operating units are covered. Tables and serial number lists are included listing all C-135 configurations by serial number. Re-engine programs and facts including serial numbers of the C-135s and the identity of the donor aircraft in the airline re-engine program (E-model types). Also included: a listing of all C-135 losses, including date and reason for loss; three views of C-135 major configurations; selected aircraft nose art; and all USAF, ARFES, and Air National Guard unit markings. Don Logan is also the author of Rockwell B-1B: SAC's Last Bomber, The 388th Tactical Fighter Wing; At Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base 1972, Northrop's T-38 Talon, Northrop's YF-17 Cobra, and Republic's A-10 Thunderbolt II. (all available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.)

This highly acclaimed study approaches the space race as a problem in comparative public policy. Drawing on published literature, archival sources in both the United States and Europe, interviews with many of the key participants, and important declassified material, such as the National Security Council's first policy paper on space, McDougall examines U.S., European, and Soviet space programs and their politics. Opening with a short account of Nikolai Kibalchich, a late nineteenth-century Russian rocketry theoretician, McDougall argues that the Soviet Union made its way into space first because it was the world's first "technocracy"--which he defines as "the institutionalization of technological change for state purpose." He also explores the growth of a political economy of technology in both the Soviet Union and the United States.

Since 2000, the National Science Foundation has depended upon its pioneering FastLane e-government system to manage grant applications, peer reviews, and reporting. In this behind-the-scenes account Thomas J. Misa and Jeffrey R. Yost examine how powerful forces of science and computing came together to create this influential grant-management system, assessing its impact on cutting-edge scientific research. Why did the NSF create FastLane, and how did it anticipate the development of web-based e-commerce? What technical challenges did the glitch-prone early system present? Did the switch to electronic grant proposals disadvantage universities with fewer resources? And how did the scientific community help shape FastLane? Foregrounding the experience of computer users, the book draws on hundreds of interviews with scientific researchers, sponsored project administrators, NSF staff, and software designers, developers, and managers.

Covers airfield vehicles, ordnance loading equipment, refueling equipment and a wide variety of apparatus used by the Luftwaffe.

When the paper industry moved into the South in the 1930s, it confronted a region in the midst of an economic and environmental crisis. Entrenched poverty, stunted labor markets, vast stretches of cutover lands, and severe soil erosion prevailed across the southern states. By the middle of the twentieth century, however, pine trees had become the region's number one cash crop, and the South dominated national and international production of pulp and paper based on the intensive cultivation of timber. In The Slain Wood, William Boyd chronicles the dramatic growth of the pulp and paper industry in the American South during the twentieth century and the social and environmental changes that accompanied it. Drawing on extensive interviews and historical research, he tells the fascinating story of one of the region's most important but understudied industries. The Slain Wood reveals how a thoroughly industrialized forest was created out of a degraded landscape, uncovers the ways in which firms tapped into informal labor markets and existing inequalities of race and class to fashion a system for delivering wood to the mills, investigates the challenges of managing large paper making complexes, and details the ways in which mill managers and unions discriminated against black workers. It also shows how the industry's massive pollution loads significantly disrupted local environments and communities, leading to a long struggle to regulate and control that pollution.

First Published in 1991. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The first global history of the epic early days of the iron railway   Railways, in simple wooden or stone form, have existed since prehistory. But from the 1750s onward the introduction of iron rails led to a dramatic technological evolution—one that would truly change the world.   In this rich new history, David Gwyn tells the neglected story of the early iron railway from a global perspective. Driven by a combination of ruthless enterprise, brilliant experimenters, and international cooperation, railway construction began to expand across the world with astonishing rapidity. From Britain to Australia, Russia to America, railways would bind together cities, nations, and entire continents. Rail was a tool of industry and empire as well as, eventually, passenger transport, and developments in technology occurred at breakneck speed—even if the first locomotive in America could muster only 6 mph.   The Coming of the Railway explores these fascinating developments, documenting the early railway’s outsize social, political, and economic impact—carving out the shape of the global economy as we know it today.

Very influential design was the first and only rocket fighter used in WWII.

Why have cesarean sections become so commonplace in the United States? Between 1965 and 1987, the cesarean section rate in the United States rose precipitously-from 4.5 percent to 25 percent of births. By 2009, one in three births was by cesarean, a far higher number than the 5-10% rate that the World Health Organization suggests is optimal. While physicians largely avoided cesareans through the mid-twentieth century, by the early twenty-first century, cesarean section was the most commonly performed surgery in the country. Although the procedure can be lifesaving, how-and why-did it become so ubiquitous? Cesarean Section is the first book to chronicle this history. In exploring the creation of the complex social, cultural, economic, and medical factors leading to the surgery's increase, Jacqueline H. Wolf describes obstetricians' reliance on assorted medical technologies that weakened the skills they had traditionally employed to foster vaginal birth. She also reflects on an unsettling malpractice climate-prompted in part by a raft of dubious diagnoses-that helped to legitimize "defensive medicine," and a health care system that ensured cesarean birth would be more lucrative than vaginal birth. In exaggerating the risks of vaginal birth, doctors and patients alike came to view cesareans as normal and, increasingly, as essential. Sweeping change in women's lives beginning in the 1970s cemented this markedly different approach to childbirth. Wolf examines the public health effects of a high cesarean rate and explains how the language of reproductive choice has been used to discourage debate about cesareans and the risks associated with the surgery. Drawing on data from nineteenth- and early twentieth-century obstetric logs to better represent the experience of cesarean surgery for women of all classes and races, as well as interviews with obstetricians who have performed cesareans and women who have given birth by cesarean, Cesarean Section is the definitive history of the use of this surgical procedure and its effects on women's and children's health in the United States.

This is the fascinating story of the single-engine Lockheeds flown by Charles Lindbergh, Wiley Post and Will Rogers, Amelia Earhart, and Jimmy Doolittle.

First Published in 1966. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This book, originally published just after World War I, is the definitive reference to United States Naval aviators in World War I. Also included: a history of naval aviation operations in World War I.

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.

Wings of Honor is a compilation of all United States pilots, observers, gunners and mechanics who flew against the enemy in World War I. Covered are Americans who flew with the French and British air services, U.S. Navy aviators, the 103rd Pursuit Squardron, the 1st Balloon Group, the 1st Pursuit Group, the 1st Corps Observation Group, American bomber units, the 2nd Pursuit Squardron, the 3rd Pursuit Group, and all other units in which Americans flew.\nJames J. Sloan is a founding member of the American Aviation Historical Society, as well as a charter member of the Society of World War I Aero Historians. He lives in Salinas, CA.

The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art is a classic text: the most important mathematical source in China during the past 2000 years, and comparable in significance to Euclid's Elements in the West. This volume contains the first complete English translation of the Nine Chapters, together with two commentaries written in the 3rd century (by Liu Hui) and 7th century AD, and a further commentary by the translators.

Science, technology, and medicine all contributed to the emerging modern Japanese empire and conditioned key elements of post-war development. As the only emerging non-Western country that was a colonial power in its own right, Japan utilized these fields not only to define itself as racially different from other Asian countries and thus justify its imperialist activities, but also to position itself within the civilized and enlightened world with the advantages of modern science, technologies, and medicine. This book explores the ways in which scientists, engineers and physicians worked directly and indirectly to support the creation of a new Japanese empire, focussing on the eve of World War I and linking their efforts to later post-war developments. By claiming status as a modern, internationally-engaged country, the Japanese government was faced with having to control pathogens that might otherwise not have threatened the nation. Through the use of traditional and innovative techniques, this volume shows how the government was able to fulfil the state's responsibility to protect society to varying degrees. Chapter 14 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 3.0 license. https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/tandfbis/rt-files/docs/Open+Access+Chapters/9781138905337_oachapter14.pdf