Paul A. David and Gavin Wright
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197263471
- eISBN:
- 9780191734786
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197263471.003.0005
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter analyses the relationship between the diffusion of general purpose technologies (GPTs) and surges in the growth of productivity. It first explores the dynamics of GPT diffusion by ...
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This chapter analyses the relationship between the diffusion of general purpose technologies (GPTs) and surges in the growth of productivity. It first explores the dynamics of GPT diffusion by considering the generic and differentiating aspects of the US experience with industrial electrification and in comparison with that of the UK and Japan. It then discusses the analogies and contrasts between the historical case of a socio-economic regime transition involving the electric dynamo and the modern experience of the information and communications technology (ICT).Less
This chapter analyses the relationship between the diffusion of general purpose technologies (GPTs) and surges in the growth of productivity. It first explores the dynamics of GPT diffusion by considering the generic and differentiating aspects of the US experience with industrial electrification and in comparison with that of the UK and Japan. It then discusses the analogies and contrasts between the historical case of a socio-economic regime transition involving the electric dynamo and the modern experience of the information and communications technology (ICT).
Doron S. Ben-Atar
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300100068
- eISBN:
- 9780300127218
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300100068.003.0004
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This chapter discusses the role of Benjamin Franklin in discouraging European manufacturers from immigrating to America. It reveals that in 1784, shortly after concluding the peace treaty with ...
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This chapter discusses the role of Benjamin Franklin in discouraging European manufacturers from immigrating to America. It reveals that in 1784, shortly after concluding the peace treaty with England, Franklin published, in France, a short pamphlet titled, “Information to Those Who Would Remove to America,” advising those planning to immigrate that opportunities in the New World were limited. He directed his discouraging remarks at one particular group: European manufacturers. Franklin explained that the United States did not follow the practice of European princes who offered high salaries and privileges to manufacturers to induce them to migrate and introduce unknown advanced industrial technology. The chapter finds that he recognized the infant state of American manufacturers and their technological deficiencies, and neither ruled out technology piracy nor urged his countrymen to respect European prohibitions on the diffusion of technology.Less
This chapter discusses the role of Benjamin Franklin in discouraging European manufacturers from immigrating to America. It reveals that in 1784, shortly after concluding the peace treaty with England, Franklin published, in France, a short pamphlet titled, “Information to Those Who Would Remove to America,” advising those planning to immigrate that opportunities in the New World were limited. He directed his discouraging remarks at one particular group: European manufacturers. Franklin explained that the United States did not follow the practice of European princes who offered high salaries and privileges to manufacturers to induce them to migrate and introduce unknown advanced industrial technology. The chapter finds that he recognized the infant state of American manufacturers and their technological deficiencies, and neither ruled out technology piracy nor urged his countrymen to respect European prohibitions on the diffusion of technology.
Doron S. Ben-Atar
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300100068
- eISBN:
- 9780300127218
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300100068.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Economic History
This book focuses on intellectual piracy and presents an interpretive study of the American appropriation of forbidden European know-how from the perspective of a diplomatic historian of the early ...
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This book focuses on intellectual piracy and presents an interpretive study of the American appropriation of forbidden European know-how from the perspective of a diplomatic historian of the early republic. The technology and the manner in which Americans acquired it came in three forms that were never quite independent of one another. First, there was the knowledge itself—the mechanical and scientific discoveries that made innovations possible. Second, there were the innovations that improved existing production processes and allowed for the creation of new products that were smuggled across the Atlantic Ocean. Third, and most important, were the workers who immigrated to North America, bringing with them the professional training they had acquired in Europe's factories. These three distinct historical phenomena constitute a unified problem from the perspective of the relations among states—namely, the rules and boundaries of national ownership of intellectual property on the international scene. The book focuses on the role policies relating to intellectual property played in promoting the appropriation of smuggled technology, which led to the emergence of the United States as the premier industrial power in the world. It discusses the evolution of the American approach to the problem of the relations between international boundaries and intellectual property from the colonial period to the age of Jackson, examines the role of federal and state governments in that transformation, and explains the contradictory American policy.Less
This book focuses on intellectual piracy and presents an interpretive study of the American appropriation of forbidden European know-how from the perspective of a diplomatic historian of the early republic. The technology and the manner in which Americans acquired it came in three forms that were never quite independent of one another. First, there was the knowledge itself—the mechanical and scientific discoveries that made innovations possible. Second, there were the innovations that improved existing production processes and allowed for the creation of new products that were smuggled across the Atlantic Ocean. Third, and most important, were the workers who immigrated to North America, bringing with them the professional training they had acquired in Europe's factories. These three distinct historical phenomena constitute a unified problem from the perspective of the relations among states—namely, the rules and boundaries of national ownership of intellectual property on the international scene. The book focuses on the role policies relating to intellectual property played in promoting the appropriation of smuggled technology, which led to the emergence of the United States as the premier industrial power in the world. It discusses the evolution of the American approach to the problem of the relations between international boundaries and intellectual property from the colonial period to the age of Jackson, examines the role of federal and state governments in that transformation, and explains the contradictory American policy.
Daniel L. Purdy
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- August 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780801476761
- eISBN:
- 9780801460050
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801476761.003.0011
- Subject:
- Architecture, Architectural Theory and Criticism
This chapter describes how Walter Benjamin's writing responds to the German philosophical appropriation of Renaissance theory. From the start, Enlightenment revolutionaries looked back to the ...
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This chapter describes how Walter Benjamin's writing responds to the German philosophical appropriation of Renaissance theory. From the start, Enlightenment revolutionaries looked back to the Vitruvian history of building to uncover a new genealogy of construction. This process began before the French Revolution but became more than a theoretical debate with the emergence of industrial technology. Benjamin's physiognomy of modern industrial cities builds on the architectonic model of correspondences between buildings and humans, intensifying the Renaissance's particular emphasis on the facade as parallel to the face, while allowing for many more differentiations in appearance and function than classical architectonics, which always presumed the existence of a single ideal type.Less
This chapter describes how Walter Benjamin's writing responds to the German philosophical appropriation of Renaissance theory. From the start, Enlightenment revolutionaries looked back to the Vitruvian history of building to uncover a new genealogy of construction. This process began before the French Revolution but became more than a theoretical debate with the emergence of industrial technology. Benjamin's physiognomy of modern industrial cities builds on the architectonic model of correspondences between buildings and humans, intensifying the Renaissance's particular emphasis on the facade as parallel to the face, while allowing for many more differentiations in appearance and function than classical architectonics, which always presumed the existence of a single ideal type.
Adelheid Voskuhl
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- September 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226034027
- eISBN:
- 9780226034331
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226034331.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
The eighteenth century saw the creation of a number of remarkable mechanical androids: at least ten prominent automata were built between 1735 and 1810 by clockmakers, court mechanics, and other ...
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The eighteenth century saw the creation of a number of remarkable mechanical androids: at least ten prominent automata were built between 1735 and 1810 by clockmakers, court mechanics, and other artisans from France, Switzerland, Austria, and the German lands. Designed to perform sophisticated activities such as writing, drawing, or music making, these “Enlightenment automata” have attracted continuous critical attention from the time they were made to the present, often as harbingers of the modern industrial age, an era during which human bodies and souls supposedly became mechanized. This book investigates two such automata—both depicting piano-playing women. These automata not only play music, but also move their heads, eyes, and torsos to mimic a sentimental body technique of the eighteenth century: musicians were expected to generate sentiments in themselves while playing, and then communicate them to the audience through bodily motions. The author argues, contrary to much of the subsequent scholarly conversation, that these automata were unique masterpieces which illustrated the sentimental culture of a civil society rather than expressions of anxiety about the mechanization of humans by industrial technology. She demonstrates that only in a later age of industrial factory production did mechanical androids instill the fear that modern selves and societies had become indistinguishable from machines.Less
The eighteenth century saw the creation of a number of remarkable mechanical androids: at least ten prominent automata were built between 1735 and 1810 by clockmakers, court mechanics, and other artisans from France, Switzerland, Austria, and the German lands. Designed to perform sophisticated activities such as writing, drawing, or music making, these “Enlightenment automata” have attracted continuous critical attention from the time they were made to the present, often as harbingers of the modern industrial age, an era during which human bodies and souls supposedly became mechanized. This book investigates two such automata—both depicting piano-playing women. These automata not only play music, but also move their heads, eyes, and torsos to mimic a sentimental body technique of the eighteenth century: musicians were expected to generate sentiments in themselves while playing, and then communicate them to the audience through bodily motions. The author argues, contrary to much of the subsequent scholarly conversation, that these automata were unique masterpieces which illustrated the sentimental culture of a civil society rather than expressions of anxiety about the mechanization of humans by industrial technology. She demonstrates that only in a later age of industrial factory production did mechanical androids instill the fear that modern selves and societies had become indistinguishable from machines.
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226542010
- eISBN:
- 9780226542003
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226542003.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This chapter focuses on the crucial sciences of electricity and heat. The chapter looks at how developments in electricity emerged from concerns with showmanship and utility and how the new science ...
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This chapter focuses on the crucial sciences of electricity and heat. The chapter looks at how developments in electricity emerged from concerns with showmanship and utility and how the new science of heat responded to the problem of maximizing the efficiency of steam engines in industrial Britain. Throughout the nineteenth century, the most visible of the physical sciences in many ways was the burgeoning science of electricity. Electricity provided the technology for a whole range of vivid and spectacular demonstrations of nature's powers, and of man's powers over nature. As the century advanced electricity gave rise to a whole range of new industrial technologies as well. These kinds of links between electricity and the worlds of showmanship and industry were hardly new by the nineteenth century. Exhibition played a crucial role in nineteenth-century culture for a number of reasons. In many ways exhibitionism became more culturally acceptable as the nineteenth century went on. In the first decades of the century, while showmanship was certainly central to the natural philosopher's activities that showmanship was restricted to a particular context. Electricity's very visibility and the way in which it increasingly permeated Victorian culture made its disciplining increasingly crucial.Less
This chapter focuses on the crucial sciences of electricity and heat. The chapter looks at how developments in electricity emerged from concerns with showmanship and utility and how the new science of heat responded to the problem of maximizing the efficiency of steam engines in industrial Britain. Throughout the nineteenth century, the most visible of the physical sciences in many ways was the burgeoning science of electricity. Electricity provided the technology for a whole range of vivid and spectacular demonstrations of nature's powers, and of man's powers over nature. As the century advanced electricity gave rise to a whole range of new industrial technologies as well. These kinds of links between electricity and the worlds of showmanship and industry were hardly new by the nineteenth century. Exhibition played a crucial role in nineteenth-century culture for a number of reasons. In many ways exhibitionism became more culturally acceptable as the nineteenth century went on. In the first decades of the century, while showmanship was certainly central to the natural philosopher's activities that showmanship was restricted to a particular context. Electricity's very visibility and the way in which it increasingly permeated Victorian culture made its disciplining increasingly crucial.
William L. Shea
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807833155
- eISBN:
- 9781469605098
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807898680_shea.10
- Subject:
- History, American History: Civil War
This chapter discusses the impact of emerging industrial technology on traditional methods of warfare. On 24 November, Blunt learned that the Confederates had returned to Cane Hill. Instead of ...
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This chapter discusses the impact of emerging industrial technology on traditional methods of warfare. On 24 November, Blunt learned that the Confederates had returned to Cane Hill. Instead of assuming a defensive position along Flint Creek, as he had done two weeks earlier, Blunt decided to launch a preemptive attack. “I shall move on Marmaduke tomorrow morning,” he informed Curtis. “Hope to destroy him before he can be re-enforced by Hindman.” Curtis immediately notified Herron that “General Blunt is about to attack the enemy at Cane Hill” and told him to be prepared to support the Kansas Division “by a prompt movement” should that become necessary. Herron replied that the Missouri Divisions were ready to return to Arkansas at a moment's notice. The rapid exchange demonstrated the critical importance of the telegraph line linking St. Louis, Springfield, and Elkhorn Tavern.Less
This chapter discusses the impact of emerging industrial technology on traditional methods of warfare. On 24 November, Blunt learned that the Confederates had returned to Cane Hill. Instead of assuming a defensive position along Flint Creek, as he had done two weeks earlier, Blunt decided to launch a preemptive attack. “I shall move on Marmaduke tomorrow morning,” he informed Curtis. “Hope to destroy him before he can be re-enforced by Hindman.” Curtis immediately notified Herron that “General Blunt is about to attack the enemy at Cane Hill” and told him to be prepared to support the Kansas Division “by a prompt movement” should that become necessary. Herron replied that the Missouri Divisions were ready to return to Arkansas at a moment's notice. The rapid exchange demonstrated the critical importance of the telegraph line linking St. Louis, Springfield, and Elkhorn Tavern.
