British Entrepreneur Research Articles

Kalkstein als 'Kritischer' Rohstoff: Eine Stoffgeschichte der Industrialisierung, 1840–1930 [Limestone as a 'critical' raw material: A material history of industrialization, 1840–1930] by Sebastian Haumann

Reviewed by: Kalkstein als 'Kritischer' Rohstoff: Eine Stoffgeschichte der Industrialisierung, 1840–1930 [Limestone as a 'critical' raw material: A material history of industrialization, 1840–1930] by Sebastian Haumann Frank Veraart (bio) Kalkstein als 'Kritischer' Rohstoff: Eine Stoffgeschichte der Industrialisierung, 1840–1930 [Limestone as a 'critical' raw material: A material history of industrialization, 1840–1930] By Sebastian Haumann. Bielefeld: transcript, 2021. Pp. 362. The quotation marks in the title immediately hint at one of the intriguing questions in this book: how could an abundant material such as limestone become or be considered a critical resource? Many histories of modernization and industrialization have highlighted the development of industrial complexes by focusing on the growth and expansion of core industries in mining, metal working, and chemistry. Sebastian Haumann approaches his narrative from the opposite direction. His resource history is not in the tradition of the actor-network inspired new materialism approach, as he develops a social constructivist account of limestone praxes and how its application became entangled with the introduction of blast furnace steel and iron works in the German Ruhr area. Kalkstein als 'Kritischer' Rohstoff combines notions of history of technology with environmental history. The account starts in 1844 with the technological investigatory travels of Prussian iron work experts like Phillip Ferdinand Engels, to the blast furnaces that British entrepreneur John Cockerill established in 1826 in the Liège area of Belgium. Impressed by the new iron works, Engels developed a special interest in the blast furnace input. The application of cokes, and especially the amount of limestone added, came as a surprise to the German investigators. This sparked great interest in the relationship between ores, fuels, and additives. In Kalkstein als 'Kritischer' Rohstoff, Haumann points at the nexus of knowledge production and the application of resources in these historical developments. Knowledge of resources was co-constructed by applying them. In what Haumann calls this "self-binding" process, specific limestone variants became interconnected with distinct blast furnace designs and operations. He explains how new scientific insights and technological innovation in steel production set increasing demands on limestone quality, which led to path dependencies and lock-in. This involved much more than the scientific and technological development of blast furnaces. The modernization of German iron industries became entangled in geological research and led to scientific investigations commodifying different types of soils, including limestone, into resources for specific technological applications. Haumann shows how these investigations made soils and localities more or less interesting for further exploitation, and how legal distinctions between quarrying and mining played a role in excavation strategies and opportunities. He traces the efforts of landscape surveyors, [End Page 595] the planning and layout of excavation sites, and the construction of transport infrastructures. Institutional and market developments, especially cartelization of this specialized trade, established the idea of limestone as a critical resource in the 1880s. This also explains why iron and steel works integrated vertically with limestone excavations. Haumann also investigates the changing environment and the social and ecological consequences of excavation. By investigating this history from a limestone angle, Haumann has developed an original and interesting narrative to understand the economic developments and social and ecological impacts of the infamous German iron and steel industries. It has also enabled him to illustrate vividly how these developments interconnected localities, impacted the morphology of valleys, and affected local livelihoods for better or worse. But this is not a linear story about economic gains and environmental degradation. It demonstrates the intertwined developments of science, technology, and socio-economic and environmental changes. In the final chapter, Haumann gives the book an interesting twist by highlighting the afterlife of limestone quarrying endeavors. He unfolds how some of the quarries became early nature protection areas and subjects of landscape planning. Haumann concludes with an elaborate reflection on the kaleidoscopic process. It was this "self-binding" process that made limestone a "critical resource." Depletion and access worries turned out to be fertile grounds for creative initiatives in investigating variants, supplements, and new arrangements. This argument is also relevant for contemporary issues of environmental justice related to mining. Taking into account the specificities of existing material arrangements and local praxis could open up a more socio-environmentally just perspective...

Historicizing entrepreneurial networks

AbstractResearch summaryIn recent years, there has been increased interest in the role of context in different entrepreneurial processes. This article builds on this line of research by deploying a microhistorical‐informed approach to contextualize and make sense of the ways in which the correspondence network of the nineteenth‐century British entrepreneur, Isaac Holden, changed over time. In the process, it contributes to our understanding of entrepreneurial networks by illustrating: (a) how networking activities take place through specific communication platforms with their own socio‐technical qualities; (b) how entrepreneurs have the capacity to actively shape and co‐create the context within which their networking activity takes place; and (c) how entrepreneurial networking activity can take place in conjunction with—or as a result of—networking activity in other social movements.Managerial AbstractFor entrepreneurs, having an effective network of trusted contacts can be the difference between success and failure. But what happens to these relationships when (or if) the entrepreneur achieves commercial success? Do they change? This article advances our understanding in this respect by providing an in‐depth analysis of how, and why, the personal network of Isaac Holden—a British wool manufacturing entrepreneur from the Victorian era—changed over time. In the process, it provides interesting insights into how political, social, cultural, and technological factors have the capacity to shape the way that entrepreneurial networks change and evolve over time.

Congress 2020 Keynote Speaker announced

Best known for her role in the Dragon’s Den on the BBC, British entrepreneur Jenny Campbell has been announced as the Congress 2020 keynote speaker. Ahead of her appearance at Congress Jenny has spoken to us about her life as a working parent, how she deals with stress, and some advice she has for Congress delegates.

기업가는 과연 세상을 구제할 수 있는가- 영국의 괴짜 CEO 리처드 브랜슨의 박애 사업과 그 의의 -

기업가는 과연 세상을 구제할 수 있는가- 영국의 괴짜 CEO 리처드 브랜슨의 박애 사업과 그 의의 -

When is a Bedroom Not a Bedroom? Bringing a Space of Flows to the Design of Apartment Interiors in YO! Home

An apartment is commonly seen as a place. Accepting it as a process, the act of creating and performing interiors becomes a collaborative flow involving designers, makers, and users. Simon Woodroffe, British entrepreneur, recognized what the dynamic performance spaces of the theater could bring to the design of residential interiors and in 2012 he launched YO! Home—his reconceptualization of the city center apartment, drawing on the mechanisms of stage design to create fluid and changeable interiors. The ability to create a number of credible interactive environments from a single cubic space offers much potential to design interiors that are responsive to the multiple daily needs of inhabitants, especially those who need to optimize every centimeter of space. YO! Home promotes a reappraisal of the role of design in relation to the expressive and transformative possibilities of an apartment interior at the stage of material conception. In so doing it demonstrates the possibility to provide homes for more people within the same residential footprint, but also that those “shoebox dwellers” can get a lot more interior for their space. In this paper, I draw on Castells’ concept of the space of flows as both metaphor and provocateur to help question the design of interiors that are shaped by the flows of inhabitants, and how these flows manifest in the prototype of YO! Home.

Introduction

This issue brings together five articles on the modern petroleum industry. Two cover the growth of the industry in the early twentieth century: Michael Adamson's study of the development of California's coastal oil region by independent oilman Ralph Lloyd; and the study by Lisa Bud-Frierman, Andrew Godley, and Judith Wale of the British entrepreneur Weetman Pearson's operations in Mexico. Two articles treat the post–World War II period: Nathan Citano looks at the budding interests of U.S. oilmen in the Middle East and Daniele Pozzi traces the transformation of the Italian company ENI into an international oil firm. Finally, Keetie Sluyterman examines the ways in which Royal Dutch Shell handled environmental issues from its inception in 1907 to the present. The issue also contains a survey of recent historiography on the oil industry in Latin America by Marcelo Bucheli and a review essay by James Bamberg on a recent four-volume history of Royal Dutch Shell.

‘Parisomania’? Jack Hylton and the French Connection

AbstractLike many figures in popular music, the British dance bandleader and entrepreneur Jack Hylton (1892–1965) has been largely forgotten. Through concert tours of France and nostalgic recordings with Chevalier, Hylton forged a connection which peaked at the Paris Opéra. Despite his large French-related repertory, which included ‘jazz’ arrangements of Stravinsky's Mavra, Ravel's Boléro and chansons, his American-influenced style was ultimately international. If his obsession justified the quip of ‘Parisomania’, there was reason in his madness.

State Power and Community in Early Modern Russia: The Case of Kozlov, 1635-1649 by Brian L. Davies (review)

REVIEWS 155 (I905) by Samuel Turner, is an interesting study of a certain social class of British entrepreneur who combined hard heroic tourism with shrewd observationsof technique and technology. Volume twelve, TheLifeandVoyages ofjoseph Wiggins (I907), is apologetically introduced by the editor since it is a biography. However it fits well in the collection being the account of an advocate of the extension of Britishtradethroughthe Eniseivalley. In comparison to other scholarlywork on travel literature, this collection distinguishesitselffor its focus primarilyon central Siberia and on the startof the twentieth century. The inclusion of industrial and developmentalist accounts provide an interestingbalance to the Soviet literatureon the region which is also predominantly modernist but from a different ideological position. The years proceeding the Civil War and the Revolution are still poorly understood by historians, and this collection helps to give students access to valuable English language accounts of this period. In my reading it would have been interestingto have had referenceto some workbetween 1798 and I90 i since there is a definite qualitativeleap between the work of Brand and those to follow in the twentieth century.It would be interestingto knowif these early twentieth-century pioneers had any consciousness of travel or businesspracticein the nineteenth century. All of thevolumes arepublishedon high-qualitypaperand in firmhardback bindings. The reader should be warned that these are facsimile editions. In some cases, as with the Ides and Brand volumes, the qualityof the copying is poor given thepriceof theedition. This isfeltmost acutelyin thereproductions of the engravings.The edition also has no index otherthan those which might have been provided in the original editions (since the original pagination is reproduced). Department ofAnthropology D. G. ANDERSON University ofAberdeen Davies, Brian L. StatePowerandCommunity in EarlyModern Russia:TheCaseof Kozlov,I635-I649. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke and New York, 2004. x + 308 pp. Maps. Appendices. Notes. Archival sources. Index. [55.00. THIS illuminatingwork is a valuable addition to the growing number of local studies in Russian history. Based largely on archival materials from the Military Chancellery, it traces the history of the garrisontown of Kozlov, on the southern steppe frontier of Muscovy, from its foundation in I 635 to the introduction of the I649 Law Code. Brian L. Davies describes the establishment of the fortressat a point of strategicimportance on the Nogai invasion route, and chroniclestheprocessof recruitmentof colonists.Separatechapters are devoted to the garrison'seconomy and to its system of governance. The final chapter examines forms of protest and resistance, culminating in the mutiny of I648. Throughout the book the author highlights the distinctive features of the urban communities of Kozlov and other southern frontier towns, compared with those of central Muscovy. The 'middle service class' of Kozlov the I56 SEER, 84, I, 2006 petty servicenobility,or detiboiarskie were mostlyodnodvortsy, yeoman smallholders withoutpeasanttenants, whoheldtheirlandallotments asshares in communalblocgrants,ratherthanasindividual estates.Theyweremore firmlysubordinated to the statethanweretheircounterparts in theRussian heartland,but Daviesdemonstrates thattheystillhad roomto manoeuvre andnegotiatein theirrelations withthetowngovernor, withvarioustypesof community organization playing an important role. The author makes a convincingcase that Kozlovexemplifieda distinctpoliticalcultureon the southernfrontier, whichdifferedsignificantly fromthatdescribed byValerie KivelsonforthecentralMuscovite provinceofVladimir. Thesubsequent fate oftheKozlovservicemen wasalsoverydifferent fromthatofthepomeshchiki of theheartland: afterI649 thesouthernodnodvortsy wereincreasingly subjected totaxes,andeventually becameeffectively servilized. Davies'sstudyis in manywaysa modelexercisein localhistory.Through all his detailedreconstruction of the experienceof the firstgenerationof colonistsin Kozlov, the authorneverloses sight of the broadernational context,or of the web of powerrelationsin which the southernfrontier garrisonswere enmeshed.He provides a perceptive,sophisticatedand nuancedaccountof the interactionbetweenone specificlocalityand the centre, at a key time and place for the developmentof the expanding Muscovitestate. His discussionof corruption,and the problemof distinguishing betweenanillegalbribeandaninnocentgift,isespecially thoughtful, as is his examinationof the roleplayedby the conceptof 'the Sovereign's business' (gosudarevo delo) intheKozlovrevoltof I648(wherehemakesauseful comparison with the events in Tomsk in I648-49, as described by N. N. Pokrovskii). In spiteof its manymerits,however,thisbookis not an easyread.The author'sstyle of writingis very dense and compressed,and his choice of terminology sometimesobscuresmorethanit illuminates: hisconceptof the 'theodicyof bureaucraticmalfeasance'(pp.213-I6), for example,seems simplytomeanthatRussians tendedtoblamecorrupt officials rather thanthe tsaror the tsaristsystemfor failingsof administration andjustice. Other concepts,suchas 'techniques of primitivecentralization' (pp.9, 27) remain largelyunexplained.Davies'stranslations of Russiantermsare also often puzzling,when they are not accompaniedby the transliterated originals. 'Middleserviceclass'isafairlystandard rendering ofdetiboiarskie, but'menof draft'fortiaglye seemsodd,asdoes'liturgical...

A Pocket Eden: Guatemalan Journals, 1873-1874

In 1853 British entrepreneur Osbert Salvin made his first journey to Guatemala. Traveling ostensibly to explore the “commercial viability of [Guatemala’s] palm-nut industry,” Osbert returned several times during the next two decades to further survey business options and to indulge his passion for exploring and studying tropical flora and fauna. In 1873 Caroline Salvin accompanied her husband to Guatemala to chronicle the region’s biological cycle for one full year. Caroline, an accomplished amateur artist, spent the year sketching what she saw while recording her thoughts and observations.A Pocket Eden is an edited compilation of Caroline’s writings and drawings. Preceding the distinguished English photographer Eadweard Muybridge by one full year, Caroline provides some of the earliest known representations of flora, fauna, and indigenous customs in Guatemala and Central America generally. A Pocket Eden “paints a remarkably fresh, perhaps classic, picture of a Victorian lady’s confrontation with colonial culture,” providing in the process a telling firsthand account of the reach of Britain’s “informal empire” (p. 13).The editors propose to allow Caroline’s diary to speak for itself, “as if Caroline Salvin herself had brought them in for publication” (p. 25). Seen through her own words, Caroline emerges as an informed observer who “nevertheless shared the perspective and prejudices of the time she lived in” (p. 23). Her description of cocoa, howler monkeys, and the vivid colors of indigenous clothing capture the essence of daily life in the tropics. She depicts Guatemala as a beautiful, exotic place where life is frequently difficult and sometimes boring but where adventurous foreigners may experience the magnificence of nature rarely experienced by the timid.Her perceptions of the people she encountered are similarly striking, and editor Fiona Mackenzie King is to be commended for leaving her narrative intact. Caroline describes the old Guatemalan women she met, calling one “so very ugly” (p. 103) and another a “devout, brown old hag” (p. 107). Her observations regarding other foreigners in Central America are similarly lively. She describes the Americans and Germans she came across in Central America as “wearingly vulgar” and “slow” (p. 137), while denouncing the “Spanish butchery of the virgins of Cuba” (p. 227).A Pocket Eden does indeed provide readers a “rare glimpse of life in nineteenth- century Guatemala” (p. 25). The decision to publish this as a bilingual text, with the Spanish and English texts on opposing pages, insures that Spanish speakers will also benefit from Caroline’s diary and art. However, the text would have benefited from more helpful explanatory introduction and notes. The book’s 20-some pages of introductory narrative and comprehensive notes do little to place Caroline’s observations in any context. For example, the Salvins passed through Panama at a time that liberalism was beginning to collapse in Colombia, yet the editor writes only that “the local insurrection . . . worried them at the time they crossed Panama” (p. 19). When Caroline writes of “Panama during the revolution” (p. 61), the reader is left wondering about the context of her comments. Elsewhere, when Caroline writes her impressions of Justo Rufino Barrios, the editor describes him in a note as “the most powerful Liberal dictator in 19th-century Central America” (p. 101). Earlier Mackenzie King had explained the relationship between liberalism and modernity (p. 15), but the connection between the two is not intuitive in Caroline’s words. What relationship existed between Barrios’s regime and the Germans, French, and Americans Caroline interacted with?A fine editorial line exists between treating these journals as if “Caroline Salvin herself had brought them in for publication” and using footnotes “to provide background information and help today’s reader understand the context in which the entries are made” (p. 23, 25); A Pocket Eden occasionally strays too far in one direction. Despite this minor and understandable shortcoming, this book provides knowledgeable readers with a valuable firsthand glimpse at life in nineteenth- century Guatemala.

BHS boss takes over merger’s success rate

While Philip Green was celebrating his £5m birthday bash in the sun last year, rival shareholders and CEOs were bashing their heads against brick walls. Though every company the British entrepreneur touches (most recently Arcadia that he bought for £850m) seems to turn to gold dust, the majority of takeover deals do not pay off. Mergers are still business, with almost $4 trillion changing hands between 1998 and 2002, but results often are disappointing. So what does Philip Green know that perhaps the rest of us do not?

Rogues and Regulation in Global Finance: Maxwell, Leeson and the City of London

CLARK G. L. (1997) Rogues and regulation in global finance: Maxwell, Leeson and the City of London, Reg. Studies 31, 221-236. In this paper, I explore the culture of the finance industry in general and, in particular, the problems of dealing with socalled rogue behaviour in the context of regulation and regulatory regimes. The reference points for analysis are the recent cases of Robert Maxwell, the British entrepreneur who is thought by many to have systematically 'fleeced' his companies' pension funds to finance complex corporate deals, and Nick Leeson, the Barings trader (in Singapore) who, it is commonly believed, single-handedly bankrupted the bank. While no doubt provocative and the subjects of considerable speculation regarding their true motives, I argue that the Maxwell and Leeson cases are representative of a strategy of demonization and selective representation designed to protect the reputations of existing institutions. In this respect, I focus upon three issues: the representation of behaviour; the significance of an industry's culture for individual behaviour; and the scope of regulation. The paper includes a discussion of the flawed logic of explanations of individual behaviour that do not take seriously the context of behaviour. To illustrate, I begin with Mrs Maxwell's recent biography of her late husband and then concentrate on recent government reports and commentaries related to Leeson and the Barings' collapse. The paper concludes with an analysis of these issues with reference to the global regulation of the securities industry. CLARK G. L (1997) Les malins et la réglementation dans le domaine de la finance internationale: Ms. Maxwell, Leeson et la Cité, Reg. Studies 31, 221-236. Cet article cherche à examiner la culture de l'industrie de la finance en général et, en particulier, les problèmes de comment s'occuper du comportement dit frauduleux dans le contexte de la réglementation et des régimes régulateurs. Les points de repère pour l'analyse sont les affaires récentes concernant M. Robert Maxwell, l'entrepreneur britannique censé avoir 'plumé' systématiquemment les fonds de pension de ses compagnies afin de financer des affaires d'entreprise complexes, et M. Nick Leeson, l'opérateur de Barings (employéau Singapour) qui, ou du moins c'est ce que l'on raconte, a ruiné tout seul la banque. Alors que ces affaires-là donnent à penser et qu'il faut s'interroger sur les vrais motifs des sujets dont il s'agit, on affirme que les affaires Maxwell et Leeson constituent une stratégie de démonisation et de représentation sélective visant la protection de la réputation des institutions existantes. A cet égard, l'article porte sur trois questions: la représentation du comportement, l'importance de la culture d'une industrie quant au comportement de l'individu, et la portée de la réglementation. L'article discute de la logique imparfaite des explications du comportement des individus qui ne prennent pas au sérieux le contexte du comportement. A titre d'exemple, on commence par la biographie récente de Mme. Maxwell au sujet de son défunt mari et puis on concentre sur des rapports et des commentaires gouvernementaux récents liés àa M. Leeson et au krach de Barings. Pour conclure, l'article analyse ces questions-là quant à la réglementation internationale de l'industrie des valeurs boursières. CLARK G. L. (1997) Gauner und Vorschriften im Globalen Finanzgeschäft: Maxwell, Leeson und die Londoner Börse, Reg. Studies 31, 221-236. In diesem Aufsatz wird die Kultur der Finanzindustrie im allgemeinen untersucht, sowie die besonderen Probleme der Handhabung sogenannten Globalverhaltens im Zusammenhang mit Vorschriften und bestehenden Ordnungen. Der Bezugspunkt für die Analyse sind die kürzlich aufgetretenen Fälle Robert Maxwells, des britischen Unternehmers, von dem weithin angenommen wird, daß er die Pensionskassen seiner Gesellschaften systematisch 'ausgeplündert' habe, um komplexe körperschaftliche Geschäfte zu finanzieren, und Nick Leesons, des Baringhändlers (in Singapur), von dem man in weiten Kreisen annimmt, daß er allein den Bankrott seiner Bank herbeigeführt habe. Obgleich zweifellos provokativ, und Gegenstand beträchtlicher Spekulation, was ihre wahren Motive betrifft, wird hier die These aufgestellt, daß die Fälle Maxwell und Leeson für eine Strategie der Verteufelung und selektiver Repräsentierung stehen, die dazu dient, das Rénomme bestehender Institutionen zu wahren. In dieser Hinsicht behandelt der Aufsatz drei Themen: die Darstellung von Verhalten, die Bedeutung der Kultur einer Industrie für individuelles Verhalten, und den Geltungsbereich von Vorschriften. Der Aufsatz enthält eine Diskussion der fehlerhaften Logik bei Erklärungen individuellen Verhaltens, die den Zusammenhang des Verhaltens nicht ernst nehmen. Zur Veranschaulichung wird mit Mrs Maxwells kürzlich erschienener Biographie ihres verstorbenen Mannes begonnen; es folgen auf Leeson und den Zusammenbruch Barings eingehende Regierungsberichte und Kommentare der jüngsten Vergangenheit. Der Aufsatz schließt mit einer Analyse dieser Fragen im Lichte globaler Vorschriften für die Wertpapier-und Effektenindustrie.

John Hughes, the First Entrepreneur in Southern Metallurgy

On 18 April 1869 Alexander II approved a contract between the Russian government and the British entrepreneur and engineer John Hughes (1814-1889), a native of Merthyr Tydfil [in South Wales]. In the 1860s his expertise in manufacturing armor for ships' plating and fortifications had caught the attention of the Russian Admiralty's military engineers. At the same time, Hughes also received a tempting offer to build a rail-manufacturing plant in southern Russia. Prince S. Kochubei transferred the concession to him at a cost of 30,000 silver rubles, £24,000 in shares of a company to be created, and a compensatory lease of seven and a half acres of land.1

Time to scrap the rules: Entering Virgin territory

This paper examines the brand extension strategies explored by the Virgin brand's founder, maverick British entrepreneur, Richard Branson. In so doing, five stages of brand stretching are identified, ie the core and its four strata. It is argued that the last two stages are the two which are rarely exploited by most brand-owning companies. It is these last two strata that represent the ‘hidden gold’ of brand equity which Virgin and few others have discovered. The paper concludes that the time has come to be more daring with brands by scrapping the ‘rules’ that may have made marketers fear failure and lie low. This inactivity and complacent caution with regards to brand extensions may eventually cause the partial downfall of the world's biggest players, at the hands of those more daring and adventurous entrepreneurs who seem to have no sense of fear or failure.

American Technology and the British Motor Vehicle Industry by Wayne Lewchuk

168 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE obtrusive, and they do not invalidate the study. In particular, the thesis giving form to the book is a challenging one that may have a great deal of validity, however much one may argue about the details. George H. Daniels Dr. Daniels is chairman of the Department of History at the University of South Alabama. American Technology and the British Motor Vehicle Industry. By Wayne Lewchuk. NewYork: CambridgeUniversityPress, 1987.Pp.viii + 304; tables, notes, bibliography, index. $44.50. Between 1930 and 1955, the British motor vehicle industry ranked second to the United States in volume of production. Since that time the British industry has fallen to ninth position as it has been progressively overtaken by new mass producers such as Japan, the Soviet Union, and Spain. The wavering fortunes of this industry have naturally attracted academic scrutiny in the past decade. At the center of the multiplicity of problems that brought ultimate ruin to much of the auto industry was the British system of mass production. This system, as Wayne Lewchuk explains, was a distinc­ tive response to the Fordist production methods that were being introduced in Britain after 1911. The American model of production involved direct control of labor by the combination of a fixed wage system, new management methods, and a high investment in produc­ tion technology. In contrast, the British system as it evolved through the 1920s was never able to break the strong influence of the labor unions on the shop floor. Consequently, the control of labor was indirect, through incentive wage payments, while investment in new management methods and production technology was low. Morris Motors, the largest car manufacturer, did not adopt the chain-driven assembly line until as late as 1934. Labor-intensive production meth­ ods and weak managerial control became major problems for the industry as the competition in world markets grew in the 1950s. American Technology and the British Motor Vehicle Industry examines the development of British production and management techniques in the motor vehicle industry from its inception in 1896 to the mid1980s . Early chapters focus on the evolution of effort bargaining in the engineering and vehicle trades, and the difficulties of introducing scientific management and new production methods into small-scale manufacturing firms. These set the scene for the development of the British system between the wars and its gradual collapse in recent decades. Throughout the book the interlocking themes of production technology, labor, and management are carefully examined and succinctly expressed. TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 169 Lewchuk’s book, based on detailed research in archival collections on both sides of the Atlantic, reflects new levels of sophistication in work on the motor industry. It will be of interest to readers in a range of disciplines from labor industry to the history of technology. In the detailed discussion of the problems of adapting production technol­ ogy to old institutions, Lewchuk’s work has a place alongside David Hounshell’s From the American System to Mass Production 1800—1932 (1984) and Michael Cusumano’s The Japanese Automobile Industry: Technology and Management at Nissan and Toyota (1985). Gerald T. Bloomfield Dr. Bloomfield is a professor of geography at the University of Guelph. His research interests include the historical geography of the automotive industry in Britain and North America. Ferranti and the British Electrical Industry, 1864—1930. By J. F. Wilson. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press and St. Martin’s Press (distributor), 1988. Pp. ix+ 165; appendix, bibli­ ography, index. $39.95. The career of Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti (1864—1930), the ItalianBritish electrical engineer, contradicts the stereotypical image of the conservative British entrepreneur of the late Victorian and Edward­ ian periods. With no advanced scientific or engineering education, Ferranti quickly established an international reputation as an imagi­ native and bold electrical inventor who was far ahead of his contem­ poraries. Most of this reputation rests on the Deptford plant, a large central station built 8 miles from London on the other side of the Thames River (where land, coal, and water were inexpensive) in 1888—91. Ferranti designed the plant to supply alternating current to the city from four gigantic generators (10,000...

Ferranti and the British Electrical Industry, 1864–1930 by J. F. Wilson

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 169 Lewchuk’s book, based on detailed research in archival collections on both sides of the Atlantic, reflects new levels of sophistication in work on the motor industry. It will be of interest to readers in a range of disciplines from labor industry to the history of technology. In the detailed discussion of the problems of adapting production technol­ ogy to old institutions, Lewchuk’s work has a place alongside David Hounshell’s From the American System to Mass Production 1800—1932 (1984) and Michael Cusumano’s The Japanese Automobile Industry: Technology and Management at Nissan and Toyota (1985). Gerald T. Bloomfield Dr. Bloomfield is a professor of geography at the University of Guelph. His research interests include the historical geography of the automotive industry in Britain and North America. Ferranti and the British Electrical Industry, 1864—1930. By J. F. Wilson. Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press and St. Martin’s Press (distributor), 1988. Pp. ix+ 165; appendix, bibli­ ography, index. $39.95. The career of Sebastian Ziani de Ferranti (1864—1930), the ItalianBritish electrical engineer, contradicts the stereotypical image of the conservative British entrepreneur of the late Victorian and Edward­ ian periods. With no advanced scientific or engineering education, Ferranti quickly established an international reputation as an imagi­ native and bold electrical inventor who was far ahead of his contem­ poraries. Most of this reputation rests on the Deptford plant, a large central station built 8 miles from London on the other side of the Thames River (where land, coal, and water were inexpensive) in 1888—91. Ferranti designed the plant to supply alternating current to the city from four gigantic generators (10,000 horsepower each) through underground cables operating at the unprecedented voltage of 10,000 volts. Despite the plant’s many misfortunes—reduction of its service area by the Board of Trade in 1889, disruption of service and loss of customers caused by two fires in 1890, and the directors’ decision in 1891 not to complete the 10,000-hp generators—several historians have credited Deptford as the forerunner of modern electricity supply (transmission of high-voltage AC over long dis­ tances). Others, notably Thomas Hughes, have praised Ferranti for seeing the value of high-voltage AC but have criticized him for scaling up too quickly and for overlooking the advantages of polyphase over single-phase current (the former was better equipped at the time to provide electric power, as well as light, because of the recent invention of the induction motor). The extent of Ferranti’s technological “genius” is an important question for this new biography. One ofJ. F. Wilson’s main arguments 170 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE is that a restricted economic market and lack of financial support, not unfavorable laws or the lack of ingenuity, handicapped the British electrical industry in the late 19th century. The weak British economy thus constrained Ferranti’s inventive drive, which would have thrived in Germany or the United States. Paradoxically, Wilson also argues that much of the success which the Ferranti firm enjoyed before World War I was due to its executives’ reining in Ferranti’s inventive­ ness (e.g., persuading him to stop improving machines so they could be shipped out the door). Wilson admires Ferranti’s technical achieve­ ments and credits his technically led strategy for the firm’s success after World War I. But the real heroes of the book—published in a business history series—are the professional managers of the Ferranti company who introduced modern business methods that saved the firm—during its checkered history of fires and commercial failures— from the inept business decisions of its founder. Although better than the biography published by Ferranti’s daugh­ ter in the 1930s and more comprehensive than the booklet published by the London Science Museum, Wilson’s book is disappointing in many ways. Technical matters are described poorly, an unfortunate quality in a book that criticizes Hughes and others for their appraisal of Ferranti’s technical achievements. Wilson is not convincing on this score or in his attempt to explain the “failure” of British entrepre­ neurship in this period. Although based on research in the Ferranti...