Technological Divergence in a Continuous Flow Production Industry: American and British Paper Making in the Late Victorian and Edwardian Era

Abstract

For most of the nineteenth century Britain held an undisputed lead in the field of paper-machine technology. By the 1890s this lead had been lost to America. This article argues that Britain's loss of technological preeminence at this time had much more to do with the greater scale of the American market and the willingness of American manufacturers to embrace schemes that enhanced technological accumulation than it did to any protracted adherence to outdated and traditional practices that some British workers might have had. The article also outlines a general framework for the analysis of the rate of innovation achieved through learning.