The History of Engineering Science: An Annotated Bibliography by David F. Channell

Abstract

150 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE after the introduction of machined support members and entire metal structures in the case of bridges. Horace King, a black contrac­ tor best known as a bridge builder, constructed Jemison’s textile mill; Norrell, not bothering to discover King’s last name, identified “Ho­ race” as Alabama’s “most accomplished civil engineer” during the period (pp. 122-23). King’s sons, using their father’s 1830s tech­ niques, continued to erect heavy timber-frame structures, especially small bridges, into the 20th century. In this case, race—specifically the limited career options of blacks in the New South—contributed to the persistence of an older technology. As illustrated by the failure to identify adequately Horace King, this anthology suffers from some editorial problems as well as more serious weaknesses. Only three pieces are footnoted (Daniels, Lewis, and Kobayashi); two of the papers (Daniels and Branscomb) have already appeared in the proceedings of earlier symposia. While these papers contribute knowledge to narrow areas of southern history, a more satisfactory treatment of the broader topic of technology and the South resulted from Auburn University’s earlier conference and appeared as The Southern Mystique: Technology and Human Values in a Changing Region (1977), which was edited by W. David Lewis and B. Eugene Griessman. John Lupold Dr. Lupold, professor of history at Columbus College, is investigating the early textile industry and hydropower developments in Georgia, especially in the Chattahoochee Valley. The History ofEngineering Science: An Annotated Bibliography. By David F. Channell. New York: Garland, 1989. Pp. xxxi + 311; index. $42.00. This volume continues the Bibliographies of the History of Science and Technology series edited by Robert Multhauf and Ellen Wells. It is not likely that many readers will have an accurate understanding of the subjects it covers from the title alone. David Channell defines engineering science as an “intermediate mode of knowledge . . . that lies between science and technology” (p. xi). His definition appears to correspond roughly to the research disciplines represented in the more or less typical departments of an American university’s school of engineering. This is not the case, however, as he has omitted electrical and chemical engineering (covered elsewhere in the series) and nuclear engineering, astronautics, and several other subjects “devel­ oped so recently that little historical research has been done on them” (p. xii). What remains are four chapters on general topics, a chapter on the “pre-history of engineering science,” and a chapter each for applied mechanics, thermodynamics and heat transfer, and fluid mechanics. TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 151 Channell provides nearly 1,500 citations in all. About half include brief annotations. There is also an index of names and authors (but not subjects or institutions). In the last three chapters, he provides useful references to core primary works, in addition to the historical literature. Indeed, engineering treatises and papers outnumber sec­ ondary sources in these chapters, so that perhaps a quarter of the entire bibliography consists of the historical core literature of the three areas of engineering science represented. These areas are subdivided into sections within each chapter. The chapter devoted to fluid mechanics, for example, comprises three parts: hydraulics, hydrodynamics, waterwheels, and turbines; naval architecture and the theory of waves; and aeronautics and aircraft design. In short, with the inclusion of so many primary sources, the scope of the bibliography, and the number of engineering specializations included in each of the sections, coverage of some topics is rather thin: only twenty-eight secondary sources in the history of aeronautics, a mere twenty-three in the history of naval architecture, and so on. Less than 10 percent of the literature itemized in this bibliography appeared in languages other then English. Only French and German have more than a dozen entries. Works from Scandinavian, Italian, Dutch, Polish, and Soviet historians and technical traditions are represented, with a handful of exceptions, only by what has appeared in English. I did not identify any important omissions from the English-language literature, but it did not take much time to think of recent works of European scholarship that Channell either missed or decided not to include. In the chapter on engineering education, this group...