The World of the Industrial Revolution: Comparative and International Aspects of Industrialization ed. by Robert Weible

Abstract

966 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE under Conditions of War: German Aero-Technology in Japan during the Second War.” His analysis of necessity places this aspect of tech­ nology in a socioeconomic context and is of particular interest because of its wartime setting. Vernard Foley’s “Using the Early Slide Rest” takes the subject back to the late 15th century. The author uses an experimental model approach to resolve difficulties arising from con­ temporary illustrations and argues that the slide rest emerges in re­ lation to the introduction of the conical screw thread. “The Origins and Worldwide Spread of Warren-Truss Bridges in the Mid-Nine­ teenth Century,” by J. G. James, deals with the development and diffusion of the minimal framework system of equilateral triangles patented by James Warren in 1848. It is the densely packed, wellillustrated piece that we have come to expect from James and it will remain a source paper for some years. Andrew Nahum, in “The Rotary Aero Engine,” deals with this peculiar, short-lived (1908-18), but important engine and the author argues that the commonly ad­ vanced reasons for its demise are inadequate. There are excellent illustrations and tables of engine performance. An unusual paper is Dale H. Porter’s “An Historian’s Judgements about the Thames Em­ bankment.” It is a preliminary piece describing the historian’s ways of defining an event, evaluating sources, and makingjudgments about structuring his writing. The final papers deal with railway technology. John H. White discusses the reasons for replacing timber with steel in freight cars on American railroads at the end of the last century, and Ian R. Winship discusses the acceptance of continuous brakes on railways in Britain. The two articles illustrate how economy and safety influenced railway practice and shed new light on these topics. The diverse backgrounds of the contributing authors say a great deal about the subject of the history of technology on both sides of the Atlantic. These volumes are a major contribution to studies in the field and should be on the shelves of all well-stocked libraries. Denis Smith Dr. Smith is a lecturer and writer and chairman of the Rapers Committee of the Newcomen Society. The World of the Industrial Revolution: Comparative and International Aspects of Industrialization. Edited by Robert Weible. North Andover, Mass.: Museum of American Textile History, 1986. Pp. 177; illus­ trations, notes. $ 10.00+ $ 1.50 handling (paper). Unlike many collections of essays, this volume of papers from the 1984 Lowell Conference on Industrial History focuses on a few central themes. Nearly all of the essays concern the New England textile industry (the exceptions—David Goldfield’s comparison of 20thcentury city planning in the United States and Sweden and two com­ TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 967 mentaries on Goldfield’s paper—should interest historians of urban engineering and students of the work of Lewis Mumford), and all of the authors adopt the comparative method. The resulting coherence gives the book a cumulative influence greater than the sum of its individual components. Four of the essays about textiles concentrate on the antebellum industry. Peter Temin discusses capital; Darwin Stapleton examines the role of Michel Chevalier in transferring textile and other tech­ nology between Europe and the United States; and Richard Hills and Terry Reynolds each compare waterpower in the United States and Great Britain. In remarks long on ideas but short on data, Temin puts forth two hypotheses: (1) much of the capital involved in American textile production was working capital, as Sidney Pollard found was true in England; and (2) historians have placed too much emphasis on the relative shortage of labor in the American industry and not enough on the relative shortage of capital. With this second assertion, Temin touches on a major theme of the subsequent three papers, which each lend credence to the notion that the American industry developed in a capital-scarce environment. Like other European vis­ itors, Chevalier noted that cheap, hasty construction made American mills and railroads appear temporary in comparison to their European counterparts. Hills contrasts waterpowered mills in England, where many small, technically sophisticated establishments crowded along small streams that had supported industry for centuries, with...