Item – Thèses Canada

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Numéro d'OCLC
1019475905
Auteur
Lebiedowski, Lech.
Titre
Coal and Canvas : the Social and Technological Origins of the Steamship Era, circa 1700--1838.
Diplôme
Ph. D. -- University of Alberta, 2011
Éditeur
Ottawa : Library and Archives Canada = Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, 2012.
Description
microfiches
Notes
Includes bibliographical references.
Résumé
<?Pub Inc> This thesis presented a detailed examination of steam-powered vessels development before 1838 by utilizing the thick description of technological growth as promoted by recent trends in social constructivism, thus filling a considerable gap in historical enquiry about the subject. It has been demonstrated that the development of early steam-powered vessels was a very prolonged and regional process that commenced in England during the 1600s with the publications of French physicist Denis Papin and culminated in the early 1800s with the formation of a new technological system along the River Clyde. The process of establishing a new technological system in the realm of steam navigation was characterized by the slow evolution of social ideas and technical components rather than a sharp and rapid revolution. As has been shown this system was initiated by work of Patrick Miller, William Symington and Lord Dundas. They created more than a mechanical device, they established financial connections, and financial expectations. They created the beginnings of a production network for steam engines and purpose-built vessels, and pioneered the creation of a new technological system that was to produce three vital innovations in water transport -- the steamboat, the steamship and the transatlantic ocean liner. This thesis addressed one of the fundamental questions in the history of technology, namely, how does a new technology supplant an existing technology?
ISBN
9780494809631
0494809639
9780494809631