State Sponsored Technological Development
State and private sector development of technology, privatization
State involvement with legislation, regulation, resources and infrastructure
State involvement with technological innovation questioned, competition and efficiency
Polymer Incorporated, Canadian Crown corporation, manufacturing synthetic rubber
Polymer altered [...]
Iron, rail and steam, 1st Industrial revolution
“Second Industrial Revolution”, internal combustion engine, electrical technology and chemicals
Industrial developments were interdependent
The Merger of Science and Engineering
Scientific R+D was appropriated by industrial interests
Scientific research:
Increased productivity
New methods of production
Required innovation and capital access
Scientific R+D was long, and expensive, this required excess capital from:
Traditional manufacturing [...]
Space Exploration
Large rockets for space travel, predecessors in Germany during WWII
Connections to literature and film, parallel with nuclear power
Jules Verne “From the Earth to the Moon” and H.G. Wells “The First Men on the Moon”
German technological superiority, Werner Von Braun
Solid fuel rocketry in 10th century China
Germans amateur rocket program, secrecy, slave labor
US and Russian [...]
NOTE: This is an abbreviated lecture
Mid-1800’s, oil was found in open ponds in parts of the US
This oil was taken to chemists for analysis, commercial applications were suggested
Gasoline was originally a by-product of refining, it was disposed of as it was dangerous
Early 1900’s, electric lighting replacing kerosene, internal combustion could increase demand for gasoline
Gasoline: low [...]
Iron, rail and steam, 1st Industrial revolution
“Second Industrial Revolution”, internal combustion engine, electrical technology and chemicals
Industrial developments were interdependent
The Merger of Science and Engineering
Scientific R+D was appropriated by industrial interests
Scientific research:
Increased productivity
New methods of production
Required innovation and capital access
Scientific R+D was long, and expensive, this required excess capital from:
Traditional manufacturing profits
Financial speculation
Industrial consolidation (vertical [...]
Late 19th century possibility of life on Mars
Astronomy borrowed representational tools from geography (e.g. mapmaking, travelogues)
Images of geometrical lines in the landscape implied canals to some people
There was considerable discussion of this debate in the popular press
Life on Mars, plurality of worlds thesis
Information about Mars was conveyed through maps
Astronomers and techniques from geography: travel [...]
NOTE: THIS SUMMARY IS ABBREVIATED
by 1800 math teaching in England was better than math teaching in France
in addition, after 1750 British math was oriented towards practical teaching, French towards developing calculus and astronomy
The British market was less regulated and less controlled by guilds
Both the British and the French were increasingly influenced by markets, and markets [...]
Steam Engine and Thermodynamic Theory
Thermodynamic theory and steam engines
Vacuum and atmospheric pressure
Christian Huygens & Denis Papin (1673) small charge of gunpowder exploded in cylinder, vacuum causes cylinder to be pushed downwards by air pressure, lifting 1600lbs through 5 feet
Steam engine: piston covers chamber, steam pushes it up, cooling the steam causes it to condense, creating [...]
The Factory System
Many steps between raw material and finished textile
Cotton had to be ‘carded’, straightened out into fibers that could be stretched and twisted together to form thread
Threads were then woven, bleached, dyed and printed
Richard Arkwright added a crank for removing the fibers from the cylinder
James Hargreaves Spinning Jenny was the [...]
The Industrial Revolution
The industrial revolution was characterized by a switch from craft work by agrarian communities to manufacturing using machinery by urban industry
The industrial sector came to dominate the economy over the agricultural sector for the first time since the beginning of civilization
After industrial revolution technological innovation was rapid, this influenced: Incomes, employment, skills, social [...]
Seventeenth Century Science
slowdown in the development of science in England in the late 17th century
Bernal attributes this slowdown primarily to social and economic factors, namely a new class of merchants had arisen who were less enterprising and more interested in secure investments like land
There are other explanations:
Newton’s science was close to complete and [...]
Introduction
Science and economic needs, other commercial inputs to science
Objectivity and the Growth of Science
Descriptions of natural objects, personal acquaintance
Scientific revolution occurred during the “first age of global commerce”
Medicine and the life sciences, “folk” traditions of local knowledge
“Head and the hand” reunited in the Renaissance
Knowledge from tradesmen and common people, not just scholars
Reports/specimens from travelers: [...]
Introduction:
Shift from a geocentric to a heliocentric planetary system
By the end of the Scientific Revolution (early 18th century):
Merging of terrestrial and celestial physics
Religious views successfully challenged
New fields of research
Scientific authority and scientific community
Public science
New technologies
These sorts of changes did not [...]
Philosophical Foundations of Science
Theoretical changes and practical gains
Rene Decartes and Francis Bacon
Bacon’s work empirical, observations and common-sense, Descartes rational, logic and reason
Induction – going from the particular to the general
Deduction – going from the general to the particular
Bacon and inductive method, accumulating observations
Descartes and deductive [...]
The Scientific Revolution Part 1
Bernal treats economic and political factors as the sources of the scientific revolution, not the context
Bernal highlights the transformation of the Feudal economy
Rise of monarchy and the bourgeoisie
Technical improvements in agriculture and textile production
Expansion of trade due to improvements in agriculture [...]
Science, Technology and Colonial Expansion
Science and technology, colonial expansion
Capitalism, international trade and European expansion, new resources and land
Technology (sailing ships, telescopes, clocks) and science (astronomy) and navigation, discovery and conquest, colonialism
ASIDE: Technology and Navigation
Mathematical equations: time, distance, angle, longitude or latitude
Angles (sextants), direction (compass), [...]
Feudalism
Fall of the Roman Empire, feudal economy, local defense and self-sufficiency, trade in luxury goods and slaves
Land based feudal system, craft based industry
Common ownership of land, forced labor
Lords provided protection from aggressors, demanded service
Technological advances (iron, ploughs, harnesses and looms, mills) dispersed
Feudal economy expanded in scope over more land
Trade and local manufacturing, importance of towns, [...]
Introduction
10 centuries of history, end of the Classical period to end of the medieval period
What happens to science in this long span of time?
Greek natural philosophy, in techniques and ideas, decays, is transmitted across cultures, it recovers and eventually transforms
Recovering the classical world view, adapting it Feudalism and religion
Classical World View
No religious explanations, exclusion of [...]
Medieval Dutch Hydraulic Engineering
European rainfall, thick, wet soil, iron–shod plough and oxen
Field rotation, crop, fallow, manure, population increase
Horse-collar, increased horse population, cavalry, stirrups
Hydraulic Engineering in Holland
Limited land for farming, starvation, disease and warfare
Holland below sea level, hydraulic engineering to create farmland
Drainage of marshland using canals
Reciprocal effect: draining one area led to flooding in another, [...]
The Iron Age and Greek Natural Philosophy
Ancient Greece: Scholarly discussion about nature; The exclusion of religion from explanations of nature; City states and democracy, open inquiry
Iron
Iron important for commerce by 12th century BC
Forging and welding soft wrought iron, trial and error
Technique, simple tools, wood and iron ore, secret of steel
Communities, iron weapons, horses, warfare with [...]
Agriculture
Agriculture developed approximately 10000 years ago
Growing of crops and the domestication of animals
Change from nomadic tribes to settlements, knowledge of growing cycle of plants: Early agriculture expanded our knowledge of plants
Populations growth, food storage, work
Agricultural techniques: sowing, hoeing, reaping, threshing, storing, grinding, baking, brewing, weaving, pottery, etc.
Surplus food as common goods, private property
Agriculture and delayed [...]
An Economic Perspective on Science and Technology - Methods
Bernal’s Marxism, science and history
Role of scientist in capitalist society, origins of science in society
Conditions of production, economic context of science and technology
Concerns with Science in the Modern World
Science changes rapidly, unpredictably and is not in control of scientists*The disinterested pursuit of truth, moral concerns *
Five characteristics [...]
