Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867-1914 and Their Lasting ImpactThe period between 1867 and 1914 remains the greatest watershed in human history since the emergence of settled agricultural societies: the time when an expansive civilization based on synergy of fuels, science, and technical innovation was born. At its beginnings in the 1870s were dynamite, the telephone, photographic film, and the first light bulbs. Its peak decade - the astonishing 1880s - brought electricity - generating plants, electric motors, steam turbines, the gramophone, cars, aluminum production, air-filled rubber tires, and prestressed concrete. And its post-1900 period saw the first airplanes, tractors, radio signals and plastics, neon lights and assembly line production. This book is a systematic interdisciplinary account of the history of this outpouring of European and American intellect and of its truly epochal consequences. It takes a close look at four fundamental classes of these epoch-making innovations: formation, diffusion, and standardization of electric systems; invention and rapid adoption of internal combustion engines; the unprecedented pace of new chemical syntheses and material substitutions; and the birth of a new information age. These chapters are followed by an evaluation of the lasting impact these advances had on the 20th century, that is, the creation of high-energy societies engaged in mass production aimed at improving standards of living. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 48
Page 201
... techniques is either largely absent or perpetuates various misunderstandings : neither Thomas Ed- ison nor the Lumière brothers invented moving pictures , nor did Marconi make the world's first radio broadcasts ( Garratt 1994 ) ...
... techniques is either largely absent or perpetuates various misunderstandings : neither Thomas Ed- ison nor the Lumière brothers invented moving pictures , nor did Marconi make the world's first radio broadcasts ( Garratt 1994 ) ...
Page 282
... techniques to other places and societies , formative system growth followed by reaching a new momentum ( that arises both from the accumulated mass of new machines and infrastructures and from the velocity of their diffusion ) , and ...
... techniques to other places and societies , formative system growth followed by reaching a new momentum ( that arises both from the accumulated mass of new machines and infrastructures and from the velocity of their diffusion ) , and ...
Page 284
... techniques , or their functional assemblages , reach the limits of their growth , they do not , like individual organisms , face inevitable decline and demise . Another biological analogy then becomes appropriate as they be- have as ...
... techniques , or their functional assemblages , reach the limits of their growth , they do not , like individual organisms , face inevitable decline and demise . Another biological analogy then becomes appropriate as they be- have as ...
Contents
The Great Inheritance | 3 |
The Age of Electricity | 33 |
Internal Combustion Engines | 99 |
Copyright | |
7 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
20th century Age of Synergy alloys aluminum ammonia applications automobiles BASF basic became began Benz Benz & Cie built carbon coal commercial converted cylinder Daimler decades device diesel diffusion dynamos early economic Edison efficiency electric lights electric motors electromagnetic energy eventually experiments explosive figure filament filed film four-stroke fuel fundamental furnace German global Hall-Héroult process heat Hertz HVAC improved incandescent lights industry innovations installed internal combustion engines introduced invention inventors iron Karl Benz lamps largest late later less lightbulbs London machines Marconi Maybach mechanical metal million Model modern nitrogen nitroglycerine Nobel operation pioneering Poldhu pre-WWI prime movers produced rapid Reproduced Scientific American Siemens Smil speed station steam engines steam turbines steel synthesis technical advances techniques telephone Tesla transformers transmission transmitter U.S. Patent United Kingdom vehicles voltage Westinghouse William wire wireless world's York