Transformations and the Myth of “Engineering Science”: Magic in a White Coat

Abstract

Transformations and the Myth of “Engineering Science”: Magic in a White Coat MICHAEL FORES Early man seeks above all to control the course of na­ ture for practical ends, and he does it directly, by rite and spell, compelling wind and weather, ani­ mals and crops to obey his will.... Magic, based on man’s confidence that he can dominate nature directly, if only he knows the laws which govern it magically, is in this akin to science. [Bronislaw Malinowski, Magic, Science and Religion and Other Es­ says] Obviously, much of the impetus to modern engineer­ ing has . . . come from science. [Edwin T. Layton, Jr., “American Ideologies of Science and Engineer­ ing”]1 1. Introduction Some commentators have argued that, after a “revolutionary” shift or a “transformation,” there was generated, probably in the lat­ ter 19th century, a distinctly “modern technology,” different from its predecessors. This notion is broadly understood from the follow­ ing claims: there was “a radical transformation in the entire human environment, largely as a result of the impact of the mathematical and physical sciences upon technology” (Mumford); “Having come Mr. Fores has been with the International Institute of Management, Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin, and the Department of Industry in London. This article draws some of its theme from A. Sorge and M. Fores, “The Fifth Discontinuity,” IIM Discussion Paper 79-84, Berlin, 1979. 'Layton, “American Ideologies of Science and Engineering” (hereafter cited as Layton, “Ideologies”), Technology and Culture 17 (October 1976): 688—700, quote on p. 696; the Malinowski quote is from the Condor edition (New York, 1948), p. 19.© 1988 by the Society for the History of Technology. All rights reserved. 0040-165X/88/2901-0006$01.00 62 63 Transformations and the Myth of “Engineering Science” to control and direct industry, it [science] is now rapidly and mani­ festly transforming the very face of the earth and the lot of its liv­ ing inhabitants . . .” (Singer); “the modern developments in the sciences of chemistry, physics, and genetics are a quantum jump in man’s ability to transform matter into useable materials and en­ ergy” (North on a Second Economic Revolution).2 And subse­ quently a theme has been articulated, whose proponents accept that there was a historical discontinuity but model it differently, espe­ cially regarding the “science(s)” central to the changes. At the heart of this revision of the record there are claims such as Layton’s that there was a “transformation of a traditional mechani­ cal technology” with the buildup of a “new scientific era” for techni­ cal working.3 The present article focuses on several of Layton’s contributions in Technology and Culture and another by Layton’s for­ mer student David Channell, although various other T&C authors have followed the same broad line.4 Layton has suggested that an item identified as “technology as knowledge” played a major part in creating an expressly “scientific technology.”5 (Here, technology is an activity.) And W. J. M. Rankine’s proposition of shifts in the “basis” of technical activity from “tradition or rule of thumb” and in “the basic philosophy of the engineering profession” that Rankine helped to achieve in the mid-19th century, resulted, accord­ ing to Rankine and Channell, in “the harmony of theory and prac­ 2L. Mumford, The Myth of the Machine: Technics and Human Development (London, 1967), p. 3; C. Singer, A Short History of Scientific Ideas to 1900 (Oxford, 1959), p. v; D. C. North, Structure and Change in Economic History (New York, 1981), p. 174. Oth­ ers who have argued broadly thus have included W. W. Rostow, The Stages of Eco­ nomic Growth (Cambridge, 1960), p. 4; S. Kuznets, Modem Economic Growth (New Haven, Conn., 1966), chap. 1; P. Heimann, “The Scientific Revolutions” in The New Cambridge Modem History (Cambridge, 1979), 13:248; and D. Birdsall and C. M. Cipolla, The Technology ofMan (London, 1980), pp. 138, 156, 157. 3E. Layton, “Scientific Technology, 1845-1900: The Hydraulic Turbine and the Ori­ gins of American Industrial Research” (hereafter cited as Layton, “Scientific Technol­ ogy”), Technology and Culture 20 (January 1979): 64—89, pp. 65, 88. 4Layton, “Technology as Knowledge” (hereafter cited as Layton, “Technology”), Technology and Culture 15 (January 1974): 31—41...