Essays in Industry and Technology in the Eighteenth Century: England and France

ISBN-13: 9780860783152 / Angielski / Twarda / 1992 / 240 str.

J.R. Harris

Opis

This collection of essays is devoted to the industrial history of England and France in the 18th century and concentrates in particular on transfers of technology between them. There are specific studies of technical transfer in the steel, glass and hardware industries, and on the place of the skills of the workmen in the diffusion of technology. Industrial espionage, too, early had its place, and one essay investigates why it was resorted to and how it was carried out. In the new introductory chapter, John Harris surveys the rise of a new range of technologies in England, based on dramatic increase in the use of coal, and emphasises that this was basic to British industrial leadership and a main reason for her expertise being desired abroad. Throughout, the part played by individuals a from inventors and entrepreneurs to managers, ministers and skilled workers a is regarded as essential to the process of industrial development. Ce recueil est voue A la histoire industrielle de la Angleterre et de la France au 18e siecle et se concentre plus particulierement sur les transferts de technologie entre les deux pays. Certaines etudes traitent specifiquement des echanges techniques dans la industrie de la acier et celle du verre, ainsi que de la importance de la competence des ouvriers quant A la diffusion de la technologie. La espionage industriel, qui lui aussi a rapidement vu jour, fait le sujet da un article enquA tant sur sa raison da A tre et les methodes employees. Dans le nouveau chapA(r)tre da introduction, John Harris evalue la essor da un nouvel eventail de technologie en Angleterre, base sur la augmentation dramatique de la consommation de charbon; il insiste que ce fait etait A la base de la preponderance industrielle britannique et la une des raisons principales pour lesquelles son expertise etait si recherchee A la etranger. Le rAle joue par la individu a de la inventeur A la administrateur en passant par les entrepreneurs, les ministres et les ouvriers specialises a est constamment souligne au travers du volume comme etant la un des facteurs essentiels du processus de developpement industriel."

Recenzje

'Essays in Industry and Technology in the Eighteenth Century is important particularly in its stress on the significance of craft skills and diffusion in the Industrial Revolution. By publishing this anthology, Harris has made a major and timely contribution to the history of technology.' Edwin T. Layton, Technology and Culture. '...this volume can be highly recommended for the insights it gives into the minutiae of international industrial skulduggery in the 18th century....' History '...Harris has provided a series of reliable and excellently argued case studies which together comprise a commentary on the Industrial Revolution of which any contemporary scholar would be proud' The Newcomen Bulletin

Spis treści

Contents: Introduction; Skills, coal and British industry in the eighteenth century; Saint Gobain and Ravenhead; Attempts to transfer English steel techniques to France in the eighteenth century; Michael Alcock and the transfer of Birmingham technology to France before the Revolution; Industrial espionage in the eighteenth century; Copper and shipping in the eighteenth century; The origins of the St Helens glass industry; Recent research on the Newcomen engine and historical studies; Index.