Alfred D Chandler jr.: Inventing the Electronic Century: The Epic Story of the Consumer Electronics and Computer Industries (2001/2005)
Filed under book | Tags: · business, computer industry, consumer electronics, consumer electronics industry, history of technology, technology
Consumer electronics and computers redefined life and work in the twentieth century. In Inventing the Electronic Century, Pulitzer Prize-winning business historian Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. traces their origins and worldwide development. From electronics prime mover RCA in the 1920s to Sony and Matsushita’s dramatic rise in the 1970s; from IBM’s dominance in computer technology in the 1950s to Microsoft’s stunning example of the creation of competitive advantage, this masterful analysis is essential reading for every manager and student of technology.
With the assistance of Takashi Hikino, Andrew Von Nordenflycht
Publisher Harvard University Press, 2005
Volume 47 of Harvard studies in business history
ISBN 0674018052, 9780674018051
Length 321 pages
Kristen Haring: Ham Radio’s Technical Culture (2007)
Filed under book | Tags: · history of technology, radio, technology
Decades before the Internet, ham radio provided instantaneous, global, person-to-person communication. Hundreds of thousands of amateur radio operators—a predominantly male, middle- and upper-class group known as “hams”—built and operated two-way radios for recreation in mid twentieth century America. In Ham Radio’s Technical Culture, Kristen Haring examines why so many men adopted the technical hobby of ham radio from the 1930s through 1970s and how the pastime helped them form identity and community.
Ham radio required solitary tinkering with sophisticated electronics equipment, often isolated from domestic activities in a “radio shack,” yet the hobby thrived on fraternal interaction. Conversations on the air grew into friendships, and hams gathered in clubs or met informally for “eyeball contacts.” Within this community, hobbyists developed distinct values and practices with regard to radio, creating a particular “technical culture.” Outsiders viewed amateur radio operators with a mixture of awe and suspicion, impressed by hams’ mastery of powerful technology but uneasy about their contact with foreigners, especially during periods of political tension.
Drawing on a wealth of personal accounts found in radio magazines and newsletters and from technical manuals, trade journals, and government documents, Haring describes how ham radio culture rippled through hobbyists’ lives. She explains why hi-tech employers recruited hams and why electronics manufacturers catered to these specialty customers. She discusses hams’ position within the military and civil defense during World War II and the Cold War as well as the effect of the hobby on family dynamics. By considering ham radio in the context of other technical hobbies—model building, photography, high-fidelity audio, and similar leisure pursuits—Haring highlights the shared experiences of technical hobbyists. She shows that tinkerers influenced attitudes toward technology beyond hobby communities, enriching the general technical culture by posing a vital counterpoint.
Publisher MIT Press, 2007
Series: Inside technology
ISBN 0262083558, 9780262083553
Length 220 pages
Sungook Hong: Wireless: From Marconi’s Black-Box to the Audion (2001)
Filed under book | Tags: · communication technology, history of communications, history of technology, radio, technology, telegraphy, wireless networks
By 1897 Guglielmo Marconi had transformed James Clerk Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetic waves into a workable wireless telegraphy system, and by 1907 Lee de Forest had invented the audion, a feedback amplifier and oscillator that opened the way to practical radio transmission. Fifteen years after Marconi’s invention, wireless had become an essential means of communication, as well as a hobby for many.
This book offers a new perspective on the early days of wireless communication. Drawing on previously untapped archival evidence and recent work in the history and sociology of science and technology, it examines the substance and context of both experimental and theoretical aspects of engineering and scientific practices in the first years of this technology. It offers new insights into the relationship between Marconi and his scientific advisor, the physicist John Ambrose Fleming (inventor of the vacuum tube). It includes the full story of the infamous 1903 incident in which Marconi’s opponent Nevil Maskelyne interfered with Fleming’s public demonstration of Marconi’s syntonic (tuning) system at the Royal Institution by sending derogatory messages from his own transmitter. The analysis of the Maskelyne affair highlights the struggle between Marconi and his opponents, the efficacy of early syntonic devices, Fleming’s role as a public witness to Marconi’s private experiments, and the nature of Marconi’s “shows.” It also provides a rare case study of how the credibility of an engineer can be created, consumed, and suddenly destroyed. The book concludes with a discussion of de Forest’s audion and the shift from wireless telegraphy to radio.
Publisher MIT Press, 2001
Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology series
ISBN 0262082985, 9780262082983
248 pages
PDF (updated on 2013-3-30)
Comment (1)