152 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE ibly large ratio of arch opening to pier thickness never fails to amaze anyone who has even a passing acquaintance with the problems of thrust in bridge piers under construction. Some of the details suggest the inventive means used to achieve this ratio, and whet the appetite for more information than it has been possible to include in a general survey. The reader is left with a distinct need for more of the author’s excellent system sketches, more axonometric diagrams with dimen sions, and more detailed drawings of components and techniques which supplement the plenitude of photographs. It is rare indeed in any book on bridge history to find structures photographed and graphically annotated by someone who understands their structural problems. Many of the illustrations are aesthetically excellent, too, and it is regrettable that the printing cannot do them justice. The book opens a Pandora’s box of technical and historical questions that would require a set of tomes to answer; it introduces the reader to a culture of construction radically different from that to which we are accustomed. What is so tantalizing is that, far from merely rein forcing persistent notions about “Eastern” engineering technology, it expands our occidentalized view and affords glimpses of new struc tural horizons. Thus the work substantially increases our awareness and knowledge of one aspect of civil engineering history in China. It goes far deeper into the subject than Helge Fugl-Meyer (Chinese Bridges, Shanghai/Hong Kong/Singapore, 1937), Joseph Needham (Science and Civilisation in China, vol. 4, pt. 3, Cambridge, 1971), or Mao Yi-sheng (Bridges in China, Old and New, Beijing, 1978). We can only hope that the author, however occupied he may be with modern bridge con struction, will soon provide us with more technical information on some of the systems he discusses and with more detailed historical analysis of their evolution. Tom F. Peters Dr. Peters teaches history of technology and architectural technology at Cornell University. He is the author of several books on building history, most recently Tran sitions in Engineering: Guillaume Henri Dufour and the Early 19th Century Cable Suspension Bridges. Die Song-Dynastie (960 bis 1279): Eine neue Gesellschaft im Spiegel Hirer Kultur. By Dieter Kuhn. Weinheim: VCH, 1987. Pp. xvi + 528; il lustrations, tables, notes, appendix, index. DM 162.00. This handsomely printed, bound, illustrated—and priced—volume deals with a dynasty less fully described in Western literature than those before and after it. Although it leaves a great deal to be desired in its treatment of literature, science, and fine art, all of which one usually expects to find included in “culture,” this will not much offend readers of Technology and Culture, for its emphasis is on technology! TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 153 This is hardly what we expect in books on culture, but it becomes less surprising when one finds that the book is dedicated to Joseph Need ham, and when Dieter Kuhn indicates that he is a contributor to the Science and Civilisation in China volume dealing with textiles. The technical advances of the Sung, as described here, include improved strains of rice, fertilization, and the introduction of exotic citrus fruits, teas, sugar, and cotton. The seed plow came into wide spread use, as did a kind of reaping machine. Watermills were sys tematically established by the state, and there is an illustration of a waterpowered spinning machine of 1313. The book is handier than, and to some degree supplementary to, the Needham magnum opus in its treatment of technology, especially ofagriculture and textiles. And technology occupies only about a third of the text, the bulk of the remainder being devoted to relevant topics, the development of a civilian society, trade and daily life (the standard of living appears to have resembled that of Italian cities two centuries later), and archaeological evidence. Kuhn’s sources are mainly Chinese, and there is a Chinese index. R. P. Multhauf Dr. Multhauf is historian emeritus at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Harvesting the Air: Windmill Pioneers in Twelfth-Century England. By Edward J. Kealey. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of Cali fornia Press, 1987. Pp...
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Jan 4, 2024
Francesca Rispo + 15
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