Petrochemicals: The Rise of an Industry by Peter H. Spitz

Abstract

710 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE question of whether their managers are victimized (as DiFilippo contends) or incompetent. Why is it that machine tool producers are unable to realize their position and act to better it, rather than respond only by reflex to the immediate external stimuli of the business environment? Although DiFilippo notes that the larger companies invest substantial sums for research and development, apparently corporate leaders are unable to do so effectively—or to adapt for civilian markets devices developed through military R&D spending. Why? Coming after David Noble’s work on military sponsorship of numerical control for machine tools and that of David Hounshell on the development of mass production, this study appears at a propi­ tious time. Military Spending and Industrial Decline is impressive for its development of quantitative measures of the military’s influence on a basic sector of the American economy, and it provides some important basic data. But unlike these earlier accounts (and perhaps because it ignores them), it fails to engage the historical, human process of how machine tools are made and employed, and so also fails to make the leap from measurement to demonstration. Bruce Hevly Dr. Hevly is a postdoctoral scholar in the Program in History of Science at Stanford University. Much of his current research centers on the interactions of science, technology, and the military. Petrochemicals: The Rise of an Industry. By Peter H. Spitz. New York: John Wiley, 1988. Pp. xxvii + 588; figures, tables, notes, appendix, indexes. $29.95. The story that Peter Spitz tells raises important issues for the historian of modern technology. The development of petrochemicals revolutionized the chemical industry after World War II primarily by promoting the rapid expansion of polymers, which were used for, among other things, plastics, fibers, films, and coatings. The combi­ nation of petrochemicals and polymers made chemicals the glamour industry of the 1950s; growth rates were above 10 percent per year throughout the decade, and the potential for new products and processes appeared to be limitless. However, by the 1960s the industry had become so competitive that prices and profits were plummeting. Spitz, who was intimately involved with petrochemicals throughout this period, analyzes how a technologically innovative industry went from glory to gloom in such a short time. The central issue he examines is the inability of innovators to maintain technological advantages over their competitors. The explanation Spitz provides is complex and involves the difficulty of establishing strong patent positions on process technology, decisions by firms that more income TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 711 would be earned by licensing instead of captive use of new technology, antitrust policy that discouraged patent monopolies, and engineering firms that developed new processes and aggressively marketed them. These factors lowered the barriers to entry into the lucrative petro­ chemical industry. Consequently, all kinds of companies bought turnkey plants from engineering companies and became chemical producers. To stay ahead of this competition, companies built bigger and bigger plants, hoping that economies of scale would give them cost advantages. Even when demand for petrochemicals began to level off in the late 1960s, companies made large additions in capacity to drive weaker producers out of business. But instead of consolidat­ ing the industry, this strategy led to intensified competition that took nearly all the profit out of the business. At the end of the book, Spitz explores ways in which order might be established in what has become a chaotic and self-destructive industry. What is most interesting about this book for historians of technol­ ogy is how the large well-established companies in the oil and chemical industries were not able to control the pace and extent of technological innovation. Perhaps the key actors in this were the engineering companies, Stone and Webster, M. W. Kellogg, and Lummus; they made many of the process innovations and then marketed the technology worldwide. The scenario presented above was extracted from a very long book that contains too much technical detail and chemical jargon, consid­ erable extraneous information, and numerous factual errors. The usefulness of the book is also limited by an index that consists only of proper nouns. In spite of these flaws, Spitz’s book opens up...