History of Science and Technology

"Atoms for Sale"

by John P. DiMoia

T & C, July 2010

"Transnational Scientific Networks and the Postwar Research University: Taikyue Ree, and Physical Chemistry at the University of Utah, 1948-1970"

by John P. DiMoia

published, EASTS (Duke), 6.1, published, EASTS (Duke), 6.1,

The influence of the Society of Jesus on the spread of european mechanical knowledge in China in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries

by Michela Cigola

Cigola M., The influence of the Society of Jesus on the spread of european mechanical knowledge in China in the XVIth and XVIIth centuries, in Explorations in the History of Machines and Mechanisms Proceedings of HMM2012, T. Koetsier & M. Ceccarelli editors, Part 1, “History of Mechanisms and machine science” vol. 15; Springer, Dordrecht, Heidelberg, London, New York 2012; pp 69-79. ISSN 1875-3442 ISBN 978-94-007-4131-7 DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-4132-4

This article aims to investigate the role played by various missionaries of the Society of Jesus in the development... more This article aims to investigate the role played by various missionaries of the Society of Jesus in the development and spread of European scientific and mechanical knowledge in China between the XVIth and XVIIth centuries.

Cultural Meanings of Wood Gas as Automobile Fuel in Sweden 1930-1945

by Helena Ekerholm

Published in: (ed.) Nina Möllers & Karin Zachmann, Past and Present Energy Societies: How Energy Connects Politics, Technologies and Cultures, Transcript Verlag 2012.

The Development of Contemporary Dairy Culture: Appropriation of American Bodies for Industry and the National Defense

by Victor Galli

Senior thesis for the Science, Technology & Society program in the Department of the History & Sociology of Science.

El reloj y el tiempo en la Castilla bajomedieval a través de la literatura

by Víctor Pérez Álvarez

Published in: M. I. Del Val Valdivieso, P. Martínez Sopena (coords.): "Homenaje al Profesor Julio Valdeón", Valladolid, Junta de Castilla y León, Universidad de Valladolid, 2009, pp. 493-502

Time conciusness and time measuring can be traced in literature better than in many administrative documents. In this... more Time conciusness and time measuring can be traced in literature better than in many administrative documents. In this paper the author analizes the implantation of the mechanical clock in the society of the Kingdom of Castile in the XVth century through two well known literary sources.

Centring the computer in the business of banking: Barclays Bank and technological change: 1954-1974

by Ian Martin

My PhD thesis. I graduated from the CHSTM (the Centre for the History of Science Technology and Medicine) at the University of Manchester in 2010.

The introduction of large-scale computing technology into British high street banking in the 1960s was a solution to... more The introduction of large-scale computing technology into British high street banking in the 1960s was a solution to shortages of space and staff. Computers required a first-time dislocation of customer accounting from its confines in the branch, where it had been dealt with by paper-based and mechanised systems, to a new space: the bank computer centre. The implications of this shift have, up until now, not been explored. While historians of business and technology have stressed the continuities between computerisation, punched-card machines, and centralised work, the demands of the computer on decentralised business activities have received little attention. This thesis addresses that shortcoming.

The main vehicle for my analysis is a case study of Barclays Bank. I begin in 1954, when the bank took its initial steps towards branch computerisation, and end twenty years later, when the last of its branches was connected to the system. Blending oral testimonies with visual and written sources, I follow activities inside and outside the computer centre to consider the relationship between computers, business, space and work as the material and discursive aspects of computing technology are connected to existing banking practice.

I contend that while computers did not appear to achieve the quantitative changes in staffing and space that the banks initially desired, there were qualitative effects that reveal different dimensions to technological change. I demonstrate how the computer centre was constructed as an iconic symbol of modernity to project a new organisational identity for the banks; how technology’s materiality changed the look of banking and signalled the approach of “Americanisation”; how the computer could provide opportunities both for learning and for expensive failure; and how the computer centre was a place that reconfigured temporal, occupational and organisational structures to become a nexus of new careers for bank workers turned computer specialists. The result is an analysis of computing use that moves beyond simple causal connections between computers, space and work to highlight the reciprocal and changing nature of their relationships.

‘The role of the Omega antenna in La Reunion during the Cold War’ In Revue Historique de l’Océan Indien (2) 2005. 10 p (in French)

by Heloise Finch-Boyer

In search of optimality: A systems technologist goes east [from New Zealand!]

by Peter Mellalieu

Mellalieu, P. J. (1983). In search of optimality: A systems technologist goes east. Overseas study report. Wellington, New Zealand: Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR).

In 1983, the author undertook a period of post-doctoral study based in the operations research departments at... more In 1983, the author undertook a period of post-doctoral study based in the operations research departments at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Lancaster University, England. The objectives of the overseas study were to report on practical developments in using systems technologies applied to planning activities. Of special concern was the application of such techniques to strategic planning and R&D planning. The report details the itinerary of the tour, observations, and recommendations.

The important developments observed were:

In business situations there is a strong emphasis in providing computer-based end-user oriented systems often using graphics and microcomputers

Artificial intelligence approaches, especially expert systems have already begun to be used by industrial practitioners.

In the United States, research into the planning and operation of flexible manufacturing systems (such as networks of robots) is a topic of high concern amongst operations researchers.

Strategic management is developing a strong discipline in its own right, with traditional operations research techniques being viewed as one of many available analytical tools.

The availability of both software and hardware computer technologies far exceeds the capacity of even large organisations to identify where the technology could be applied, what benefits might occur and how to adopt the technology.

The report recommends that New Zealand’s principle industrial and scientific organisation (DSIR) should play a major role in encouraging the construction of a ‘knowledge infrastructure’ that facilitates effective communication of technological know-how between national knowledge centers. The first generation of such an infrastructure are now emerging, but in a fragmented fashion. DSIR’s attention should focus on the strategic specification of the knowledge infrastructure needed by New Zealand in 1990. This specification will then identify pilot projects that should be commissioned over the next five years to provide the necessary base of experience for the detailed systems design. The report details specific proposals for achieving the recommendations.

H. Wittenberg, A. Schachner, The Ponds of Hattusa. Early Groundwater Managment in the Hittite Kingdom. in: IWA-WWTAC (Istanbul 2012) 313-319

by Andreas Schachner

The Politics of Theory in the History of Science

by Fabiano Ardigó

Preface of Histórias de Uma Ciência Regional: Cientistas e suas instituições no Paraná (1940-1960). Ed. Contexto, São Paulo, 2011.

“The Dynamo and the Virgin: Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Religious Nocturnes in a Modern Light”, catalogue essay for the exhibition Henry Ossawa Tanner: an Modern Spirit, University of California Press, 2011

by Hélène Valance

The New Breed of Science Manager

by Peter Mellalieu

Mellalieu, P. J. (1992). The New Breed of Science Manager. NZ Science Review, 49(4), 121–122.

For practical examples of strategic thinking applied to the task of science management see:
Mellalieu, P. J. (1987). Strategic orientation in a biological science laboratory [the case of DSIR Applied Biochemistry Division]. New Zealand Journal of Technology, 3, 153–157. Retrieved from http://web.me.com/petermellalieu/Teacher/Examples/Entries/2007/10/28_Case_study__strategic_orientation_in_a_biological_science_laboratory.html

Mellalieu, P. J. (1997). Research-based innovation strategy and the New Zealand pipfruit industry. New Zealand strategic management, 3(2 (Spring)), 12. Retrieved from http://tinyurl.com/pjm-pipfruit

Hill, R., Jones, G., Hewitt, E., Banks, N., Scott, D., Mellalieu, P. J., Ferguson, I., et al. (1996). A strategic research and development plan for the New Zealand pipfruit industry (Strategic plan) (p. 48). Hastings, New Zealand: Pipfruit R&D Strategic Planning Group. Retrieved from http://unitec.academia.edu/PeterMellalieu/Papers/1569486/A_strategic_research_and_development_plan_for_the_New_Zealand_pipfruit_industry

Enderwick and Templeton presented an overview of the nature of modern management theory and practice. They... more Enderwick and Templeton presented an overview of the nature of modern management theory and practice. They demonstrated that science management today is concerned with matters far beyond the traditional areas of the science administrator, such as book keeping, accounts, paying wages, ordering stores, and filing paper. They also showed how the disciplines of management theory and practice have developed well beyond those of the late 19th and 20th centuries. The theories then extant were oriented towards the planning, organisation, leadership, and control of large-scale, mass-production enterprises producing a limited number of products for mass distribution, in periods of market growth.

By the early 1990s, New Zealand had neared completion of the first stage of a management revolution presenting the country with a clearer view of the economic activities that the country might be capable of pursuing competitively into the 21st century. With that clarity, New Zealand began embarking on the second phase of its management revolution, establishing the basis for producing the skills and knowledge necessary to create future services and products. To achieve that task requires a new breed of science manager, competent not only in science, but also contemporary management theory and practice.

Food, Drugs, and TV: The Social Study of Corporate Science

by David Schleifer

Coauthored with Bart Penders, published in Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society 31 (6), 431-434.

The vast, heterogeneous, and consequential world of cor-
porate science demands and invites empirical inquiry. The vast, heterogeneous, and consequential world of cor-
porate science demands and invites empirical inquiry.

Divas, Turks and HAL: a reflexion on the history of voice machines

by Dong Liang

New Information about Cogs and Esneccar from an Eyewitness Account of the Third Crusade: De Itinere Navali

by Dana Cushing

AVISTA Forum Journal 20.1 (2010)

ICOHTEC Travel Grants to Mancheter Symposium 2013

by Timo Myllyntaus

Guidelines

The ICOHTEC Board will make available a limited number of grants for graduates, post-graduates... more Guidelines

The ICOHTEC Board will make available a limited number of grants for graduates, post-graduates and young researchers who are giving a paper at the 2013 ICOHTEC Symposium Knowledge at Work in Manchester, UK, 22-28 July 2013. Special preference will be given to students and young researchers from developing countries as well as Eastern and Central European countries in transition who are not able to receive sufficient financial support from their home countries or sponsors in other countries.

These travel grants are not intended to provide the full costs associated with attending the symposium; they are meant as an encouragement, not a full subsidy.

Eligibility: ICOHTEC Travel Grants will be awarded to students or young researchers, travel costs and accommodation costs of whom have not been covered by some sponsors.

The Travel Grant of 350 euro is to be used to cover bus/train/ ship /flight tickets, lodging and/or registration fee. Reimbursement will be made after presenting paper or poster and proving the student’s or young researcher status by an appropriate document (Student’s ID or super¬visor’s/professor’s letter).

Application forms should be sent to the President as email attachments or by ordinary mail. Applica¬tions for support must include personal contact information, an estimate on travel, registration and accommodation costs, title of the paper/poster to be presented and a short CV. An application form may be downloaded from the ICOHTEC web site at:
http://www.icohtec.org/resources-prizes.html.

Deadline: Applications with appendices should be submitted by 15 November, 2012. Submissions via email are requested and preferred. Grants will be announced in January, 2013.

James Williams
President
101 Lake Winnemissett Drive
Deland FL 32724 USA
techjunc@gmail.com

El trabajo de cuentas de hueso en la ciudad de León durante la Baja Edad Media

by Enrique Echevarría Alonso-Cortés

Co-authored with MUÑOZ VILLAREJO, F. A.; publicado en LANCIA, 3 (1999), 205-226. Universidad de León. León. 1998 – 1999.

En dos excavaciones de urgencia llevadas a cabo recientemente en la ciudad de León, se encontraron unos doscientos... more En dos excavaciones de urgencia llevadas a cabo recientemente en la ciudad de León, se encontraron unos doscientos huesos perforados pertenecientes a la Baja Edad Media (mas concretamente entre finales del s. XV y principios del XVI). En una primera interpretación, pensamos que se trataría de restos de un trabajo para cuentas de rosario o de collar, o de las dos cosas. Así mismo, éste hecho viene a mostrar una actividad artesanal que no se conoce en la documentación de la época. El estudio de cerca de doscientas piezas perforadas, nos permite aproximarnos al modo de fabricación desde la extracción del hueso al pulimento final de las cuentas. Asi mismo se estudian los diferentes tratamientos previos que ha podido sufrir la materia prima.

Summary

In two excavations carried out recently in the city of León, they were some two hundred perforated bones belonging to the Middle Age (mainly to the 15th / 16th centuries A.D.). In a first interpretation, we think that it would be remains of a work for rosary beads or of necklace, or of the two things. Likewise, this fact comes to show a craftwork that one doesn´t know in the documentation of the time. The study of about two hundred perforated pieces, allows to approach to the way of production from the extraction of the bone until the final polish of the beads. Likewise the different previous treatments are studied that has been able to suffer the raw materal.

"Britannia Rules the Wireless Waves": the British Admiralty and wireless, 1899-1914

by Elizabeth Bruton

To be presented at "Fighting Technologies: Military Confrontations with Telecommunications Systems, 1876-1918" session at the Three Societies conference, Philadelphia, July 2012.

In July 1899 three Royal Navy ships tested Marconi wireless sets during naval manoeuvres and later that year Marconi... more In July 1899 three Royal Navy ships tested Marconi wireless sets during naval manoeuvres and later that year Marconi wireless sets originally intended for the British Army were instead used by the Royal Navy during the Boer War.  In 1901 the Admiralty signed a contract with the Marconi Company, one of the newly-established company's earliest and most important contracts.  Henceforth the Admiralty continued to invest in wireless, both with land-based stations and on-board wireless sets.  This process of installation and adoption would continue up to and through World War One.  On the surface, the Admiralty's adoption of wireless telegraphy fits into the standard historiography of commercial development and early success of the Marconi Company.  However, I will utilise previously unexplored primary source material to demonstrate a simmering and ongoing tension between commercial interests (represented by the Marconi Company) and state interests (represented by the Admiralty).

Parallel to the Admiralty's public dealings with the Marconi Company, it arranged a series of secret interdepartmental conferences to discuss the validity of the company's patents and to argue for stringent domestic wireless controls in order to address concerns about privacy, secrecy, and interference.  Increased regulation took the form of national legislation, the 1904 Wireless Telegraphy Act, and international agreements, the 1906 Radiotelegraphic Congress in Berlin.  It would be this regulation, in parallel with related military demands, rather than commercial concerns that would control and shape the early development of wireless and lay the foundation for its later successes in World War One and beyond.

Visibly audible. The radio dial as mediating interface

by Andreas Fickers

Published in: Trevor Pinch / Karin Bijsterveld (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Sound Studies. Oxford University Press: Oxford (2012), pp. 411-439.

This chapter considers the radio receiver and, more specifically, the radio dial as a mediating interface. Usually the... more This chapter considers the radio receiver and, more specifically, the radio dial as a mediating interface. Usually the radio dial is thought of as mediating between the operator—the listener—and the radio stations tuned in by turning the dial. Here we look at mediation in a wider sense—between a European regulatory regime of frequency allocation and the imagined European broadcasting landscape of the listener. My argument thus develops a triangular relationship between the rise of a European regime of frequency regulation, the materiality of the radio set, and the symbolic appropriation of the European broadcasting landscape. This approach requires an analysis of the material, institutional, and symbolic dimensions of a concrete technical innovation: the calibrated radio station scale. In analyzing the iconological and semantic meanings of this technical artifact, I emphasize the importance of material objects as sources for a cultural history of technology in general and of radio listening in particular.