
Power Struggles
Scientific Authority and the Creation of Practical Electricity Before Edison
Michael Brian Schiffer(Author)
MIT Press
Published on 2. September 2008
Book
Hardback
432 pages
978-0-262-19582-9 (ISBN)
Description
The development of electrical technologies that laid the foundation for Edison's work: their invention, commercialization, and adoption. In 1882, Thomas Edison and his Edison Electric Light Company unveiled the first large-scale electrical system in the world to light a stretch of offices in a city. This was a monumental achievement, but it was not the beginning of the electrical age. The first electric generators were built in the 1830s, the earliest commercial lighting systems before 1860, and the first commercial application of generator-powered lights (in lighthouses) in the early 1860s. In Power Struggles, Michael Brian Schiffer examines some of these earlier efforts, both successful and unsuccessful, that paved the way for Edison. After laying out a unified theoretical framework for understanding technological change, Schiffer presents a series of fascinating case studies of pre-Edison electrical technologies, including Volta's electrochemical battery, the blacksmith's electric motor, the first mechanical generators, Morse's telegraph, the Atlantic cable, and the lighting of the Capitol dome. Schiffer discusses claims of "practicality" and "impracticality" (sometimes hotly contested) made for these technologies, and examines the central role of the scientific authority-in particular, the activities of Joseph Henry, mid-nineteenth-century America's foremost scientist-in determining the fate of particular technologies. These emerging electrical technologies formed the foundation of the modern industrial world. Schiffer shows how and why they became commercial products in the context of an evolving corporate capitalism in which conflicting judgments of practicality sometimes turned into power struggles.
More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge, Mass.
United States
Publishing group
MIT Press Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Interest Age: From 18 years
Product notice
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
45 s/w Abbildungen, 1 Tabelle
45 b&w illus., 1 table
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 178 mm
Thickness: 29 mm
Weight
862 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-262-19582-9 (9780262195829)
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Michael Brian Schiffer
Power Struggles
Scientific Authority and the Creation of Practical Electricity Before Edison
Book
01/2011
MIT Press
€4.95
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Person
Michael Osman is a Ph.D. student in the History, Theory, andCriticism section in the Department of Architecture at MIT.
Lauren Kogod is Lecturer in Architectural History and Theory at the School of Architecture at Yale University.
Michael Brian Schiffer is Fred A. Riecker Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona and Research Associate at the Lemelson Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. He is the author of six previous books on technology.
Lauren Kogod is Lecturer in Architectural History and Theory at the School of Architecture at Yale University.
Michael Brian Schiffer is Fred A. Riecker Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of Arizona and Research Associate at the Lemelson Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. He is the author of six previous books on technology.
Author
Fred A. Riecker Distinguished Professor of AnthropologyThe University of Arizona