Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries

Rodney Carlisle

Description

A unique A-to-Z reference of brilliance in innovation and invention

Combining engagingly written, well-researched history with the respected imprimatur of Scientific American magazine, this authoritative, accessible reference provides a wide-ranging overview of the inventions, technological advances, and discoveries that have transformed human society throughout our history.

More than 400 entertaining entries explain the details and significance of such varied breakthroughs as the development of agriculture, the "invention" of algebra, and the birth of the computer. Special chronological sections divide the entries, providing a unique focus on the intersection of science and technology from early human history to the present. In addition, each section is supplemented by primary source sidebars, which feature excerpts from scientists' diaries, contemporary accounts of new inventions, and various "In Their Own Words" sources.

Comprehensive and thoroughly readable, Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries is an indispensable resource for anyone fascinated by the history of science and technology.

Topics include:

aerosol spray * algebra * Archimedes' Principle * barbed wire * canned food * carburetor * circulation of blood * condom * encryption machine * fork * fuel cell * latitude * music synthesizer * positron * radar * steel * television * traffic lights * Heisenberg's uncertainty principle
Acknowledgments.

General Introduction.

Part I: The Ancient World through Classical Antiquity, 8000 B.C. to A.D. 330.

Part II: The Middle Ages through 1599.

Part III: The Age of Scientific Revolution, 1600 to 1790.

Part IV: The Industrial Revolution, 1791 to 1890.

Part V: The Electrical Age, 1891 to 1934.

Part VI: The Atomic and Electronic Age, 1935 into the 21st Century.

Index.

Sujets

• Internal Medicine
• Critical Care
• Histoire
• Cardiology
• History
• Science

Informations

• Publié par: Turner Publishing Company
• Date de parution: 21 avril 2008
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780470306925
• Langue: English

Extrait

Scientific American
INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES
Scientific American

INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES
All the Milestones in Ingenuity- from the Discovery of Fire to the Invention of the Microwave Oven
R ODNEY C ARLISLE



John Wiley Sons, Inc.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Copyright 2004 by Rodney Carlisle. All rights reserved
Published by John Wiley Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey
Published simultaneously in Canada
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
Carlisle, Rodney P.
Scientific American inventions and discoveries : all the milestones in ingenuity-from the discovery of fire to the invention of the microwave oven / Rodney Carlisle.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-471-24410-4 (Cloth)
1. Inventions-History-Encyclopedias. 2. Inventions-United States-Encyclopedias. 3. Technology-
History-Encyclopedias. 4. Technological innovations-Encyclopedias. I. Title.
T15 .C378 2004
609-dc22 2003023258
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
C ONTENTS
Acknowledgments
General Introduction
Part I The Ancient World through Classical Antiquity, 8000 B . C . to A . D . 330
Part II The Middle Ages through 1599
Part III The Age of Scientific Revolution, 1600 to 1790
Part IV The Industrial Revolution, 1791 to 1890
Part V The Electrical Age, 1891 to 1934
Part VI The Atomic and Electronic Age, 1935 into the 21st Century
Index
A CKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing the essays for this encyclopedia has provided me with an opportunity to bring together thoughts, information, and ideas that drew from many sources, both literary and personal, to which I have been exposed over many years.
My interest in the history of technology was stimulated by a course taken as a freshman at Harvard that was taught by Professor Leonard K. Nash. As I recall, Natural Sciences 4 or Nat Sci Four was suggested by other students and advisers as the appropriate course for a history major to take to meet the college s general education requirements. I did not realize it at the time, but the course had been established by James B. Conant and was later cotaught by Thomas S. Kuhn, who would publish The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Professor Nash and Thomas Kuhn developed many of the ideas together that would later appear in Kuhn s pathbreaking work, including a focus on the scientific revolution initiated by Copernicus and expounded by Galileo.
In later decades, as I was teaching in the History Department at Rutgers University in Camden, our college adopted a similar approach to general education requirements as that established by Conant. To provide a course titled Science, Technology, and Society, I approached a colleague in the Chemistry Department, Professor Sidney Katz, and together we offered a sweeping history of science and technology, which we often taught in summer sessions, reflecting Thomas Kuhn s focus on the revolutions in scientific thought, as well as investigations into the social impact of innovation.
Of course, a great deal has happened in the disciplines of the history of science and technology over the past decades, and our readings in the subject took us to a finer appreciation of the complex crosscurrents between these two progressing fields. As Derek de Solla Price has remarked, the two fields are sister disciplines, each progressing sometimes independently, sometimes one helping the other. Although it became fashionable among government policymakers after World War II to believe that technology sprang from the advances of science, historical studies had shown a much more complex interweaving of the two fields over the centuries.
My debts of gratitude include not only those to Professor Nash for teaching the course at Harvard, taken nearly half a century ago as an undergraduate, and to Professor Katz at Rutgers for coteaching with me but also to the many students who took our own course in recent years. Although some faculty are loath to admit it, it is often the case that teachers learn more by attempting to answer the questions posed by students than they have gained by preparing their lecture notes. Often what has puzzled students about the subject can lead into the most fruitful courses of scholarly inquiry. More than once the questions they asked led to thought-provoking discussions between Professor Katz and myself over coffee in his laboratory-office. The collaboration of Professor Katz and myself was so interesting and we both learned so much that we looked forward to the courses with pleasurable anticipation. Later, Professor Katz made a number of contributions to my Encyclopedia of the Atomic Age. Using ideas we had honed in discussion, I later individually taught a course, Galileo and Oppenheimer, that again led to new insights from students.
Surprisingly, it was a much older book that I found in a used-book store, Lewis Mumford s 1934 study Technics and Civilization , that helped formulate my thinking about the relationship of science and technology. I had the opportunity to work with the ideas stimulated by reading that work when, through a contract at History Associates Incorporated of Rockville, Maryland, I produced a study for the Navy Laboratory/Center Coordinating Group. Due to the wisdom of Howard Law, who served as the executive of that group, I was commissioned to produce a small bibliographic work evaluating more than 150 books and articles in the fields of science and technology. Our intent was to bring many of the insights and perspectives of historians of both fields to the community of naval researchers and science and technology managers.
Working on other studies for the U.S. Navy through History Associates Incorporated contracts helped hone my thinking about the complex interplays among the disciplines of science, engineering, and technology more generally. My studies of the history of naval science and technology shore facilities included the Naval Surface Warfare Centers at Carderock, Maryland, Indian Head, Maryland, and most recently at Dahlgren, Virginia. The work of researchers, past and present, at those facilities required that I think through those changing relationships. Similarly, projects for the Department of Energy, also on contracts with History Associates, shaped my thinking. In particular, a study of nuclear production reactors for the Office of New Production Reactors, and recent work on fuel cells for automotive use for the Office of Advanced Automobile Technology at that department, deepened my appreciation for the practical side of technology policy at work. Ideas formulated decades ago by Mumford and Kuhn helped inform the books I produced for all those clients and others.
Among the many people I met in these tasks who assisted me in my thinking were Dominic Monetta, William Ellsworth, Steve Chalk, Dennis Chappell, Mary Lacey, and Jim Colvard. At History Associates, bouncing ideas off colleagues and gaining their insights were always profitable, and that community of active scholars made working with them a pleasure. They included Phil Cantelon, Richard Hewlett, James Lide, Brian Martin, Jamie Rife, and Joan Zenzen, among many others over a period of more than 20 years. I had the pleasure of working with J. Welles Henderson on a history of marine art and artifacts, based on his magnificent collection of materials, which exposed me in much greater depth to the history of the age of sail and its technologies. Much of the work we produced together reflected a melding of Henderson s intimate knowledge of the materials and my growing interest in technology and its impacts. We tried to illustrate the consequences of 200 years of maritime innovation on the life of the sailor.
More immediately, for this encyclopedia, I was assisted by Bruce Wood, an indefatigable researcher who tracked down literal reams of information about almost all of the 418 inventions and discoveries covered here. Joanne Seitter also helped dig up some interesting material. A reading of part of the encyclopedia by former Rutgers col