Techniques of repair, the circulation of knowledge, and environmental transformation: Towards a new history of transportation.

Dániel Margócsy,Mary Augusta Brazelton

doi:10.1177/00732753211046450

Dániel Margócsy, Mary Augusta Brazelton

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/00732753211046450

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Journal: History of science	Publication Date: Sep 28, 2021
Citations: 1	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Cambridge

Abstract

It is the aim of this article to put questions of maintenance and repair in the history of science and technology under scrutiny, with a special focus on technologies and methods of transportation. The history of transportation is a history of trying to avoid shipwrecks and plane crashes. It is also a history of broken masts, worm-eaten hulls, the flat tires of cars, and endless delays at airports. This introductory article assesses the technological, scientific, and cultural implications of repairing and maintaining transportation networks. We argue that infrastructures for maintenance and repair played just as important a role in the history of transportation as the wharves and factories where ships, cars, trains, and airplanes were originally built. We also suggest that maintenance and repair are important sites of knowledge production, and a historical account of these practices provides a new, decentered narrative for the development of modern science and technology.

Highlights

The philosophical paradox of the ship of Theseus asks what happens if a ship is exhibited in a museum, and its rotting pieces are replaced by replicas one by one, until no plank remains from the original construction
Consider the Avondster, for instance – an East Indiaman sunk in the Bay of Galle near Sri Lanka in the mid-seventeenth century
We argue that infrastructures for maintenance and repair played just as important a role in the history of transportation as the wharves and factories where ships, cars, trains, and airplanes were originally built

Summary

Introduction

The philosophical paradox of the ship of Theseus asks what happens if a ship is exhibited in a museum, and its rotting pieces are replaced by replicas one by one, until no plank remains from the original construction. Keywords Circulation of knowledge, history of repair, history of technology, transportation technology, maintenance Ancient and early modern ships, like twenty-first-century cars or airplanes, were constantly rebuilt, and it is anyone’s guess what remained constant beyond the name.

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Conclusion