Grands réseaux techniques, modèles de développement dans le temps : l'exemple des chemins de fer et de l'électricité

Abstract

This essay analyses the growth of large technical systems in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. For examples, it uses the development of railways in the early nineteenth century and later during the second half of the twentieth century. It also analyzes the problems in developing electric power networks, particularly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The purpose of the work is to describe large technical systems at the time of their foundation with the emphasis upon their technical configurations. The paper then analyses the adjustments such systems must make when they interface with other enterprises at the time when they cross political, cultural or geographic boundaries. One issue which is highlighted is the problem of whether large technical systems are driven mainly by engineering forces or whether the predominant forces are political or economic.