History of Technology, Volume 25

The technical problems confronting different societies and periods and the measures taken to solve them form the concern of this annual collection of essays. It deals with the history of technical discovery and change and explores the relationship of technology to other aspects of life - social, cultural and economic - showing how technological development has shaped, and been shaped by, the society in which it occurred.

Editorial

ix

The Contributors

xi

Notes for Contributors

xiii

MARTIN WATTS AND JOHN LANGDON

An Early Tower Windmill? The Turweston 'Post mill' Reconsidered

1

(6)

NICK HAYES

Prefabricating Stories: Innovation in Systems Technology after the Second World War

7

(22)

JAN VAN DEN ENDE

Impacts of Technology Reassessed: A Retrospective Analysis of Computing Technology

29

(16)

Special Issue: The Global History of the Steam Engine, edited by Ian Inkster and Patrick O'Brien

45

(2)

IAN INKSTER

Introduction. Indisputable Features and Nebulous Contexts: The Steam Engine as a Global Inquisition

47

(6)

MARK ELVIN

Some Reflections on the Use of 'Styles of Scientific Thinking' to Disaggregate and Sharpen Comparisons Between China and Europe from Song to Mid-Qing Times (960-1850 CE)

53

(52)

ROB ILIFFE

Comments on Mark Elvin

105

(6)

H. FLORIS COHEN

Inside Newcomen's Fire Engine, or: The Scientific Revolution and the Rise of the Modern World

111

(22)

ALESSANDRO NUVOLARI

The Emergence of Science-based Technology. Comments on Floris Cohen's Paper

133

(4)

GRAHAM HOLLISTER-SHORT

The Formation of Knowledge Concerning Atmospheric Pressure and Steam Power in Europe from Aleotti (1589) to Papin (1690)

137

(14)

KENT G. DENG

Why the Chinese Failed to Develop a Steam Engine

151

(22)

DAVID WRIGHT

Response to Kent Deng

173

(4)

CHUN-YU LIU

Response to Kent Deng

177

(4)

RICHARD L. HILLS

The Development of the Steam Engine from Watt to Stephenson

181

(18)

IAN INKSTER

The Resources of Decisive Technological Change: Reflections on Richard Hills

199

(4)

NATHAN SIVIN AND Z. JOHN ZHANG

Steam Power and Networks in China, 1860-98: The Historical Issues

203

(8)

R. BIN WONG

A Comment on Sivin and Zhang

211

(2)

Contents of Former Volumes

213

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History of Technology, Volume 25

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials