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2021 | OriginalPaper | Buchkapitel

The Influence of Science and “Industrial Enlightenment” on Steelmaking, 1786–1856

verfasst von : Keiichiro Suenaga

Erschienen in: Innovation, Catch-up and Sustainable Development

Verlag: Springer International Publishing

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Abstract

Scientific knowledge is crucial to opening up new possibilities for major technological advances. However, the role of science has not been regarded as important in the innovations leading to modern steelmaking. In addition, how did science begin to play an important role? Mokyr focuses on the “Industrial Enlightenment,” which has its origins in the Baconian program of the seventeenth century. This paper examines the process through which modern steelmaking emerged and clarifies the role of science and “Industrial Enlightenment.” When much time elapses between scientific and technological advances, the role of science is often not regarded as important and sensational innovations such as the Bessemer process are emphasized. However, this is not a proper evaluation. The role of “Industrial Enlightenment” on the supply side must also be recognized as significant in the emergence of modern steelmaking technology.

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Vorheriges Kapitel Correction to: Innovation, Catch-up and Sustainable Development

Nächstes Kapitel Science and Technology Relatedness: The Case of DNA Nanoscience and DNA Nanotechnology

Kuznets (1966) places importance on the application of science to economic production as the main characteristic of modern economic growth, but does not suggest that modern technological innovation is triggered by scientific discovery. Rosenberg (1982) also insists that technological knowledge has preceded scientific knowledge, and that, even in industries founded on scientific research, practical experience with new technology often precedes scientific knowledge.

It is particularly important, however, to mention that the relationship varies, subject to the stage of industrial development. The role of science is more important in its initial stages. Although at least the first ten years of the history of the semiconductor industry were characterized by a crucial interrelationship between science and technology, the distance between the two has increased since the 1960s. Basic semiconductor technology has become established and its development path no longer needs a direct “coupling” with “Big Science” (Dosi, 1984, p. 28). In addition, technological paradigms are driven by the main scientific advances and the interval between scientific discovery and innovations in some cases is more than 50 years (Coccia, 2015, p. 30).

Although there are many arguments about the relationship between science and technology, a chain linking science and technology forms an evolutionary system and the hierarchical evolution of the chain generates industrial and economic development. In addition, “science and technology were both endogenous to a third set of factors that determined the direction and intensity of the intellectual pursuits that led to advances in both” (Mokyr, 2005, p. 290). See Suenaga (2015b) in detail. In Suenaga (2015b), the relationship between science and technology is classified into four models: the Price, Bush (linear), Rosenberg and Dosi models.

See also Fox et al. (2020), Lyu et al. (2020) and Suenaga (2012, 2015a, 2015b, 2019a).

About this section, see Suenaga (2015b).

See also Bronson (1986) for steel in the Muslim medieval world.

Réaumur also acquired and verified wootz (Réaumur, 1722, p. 176), and Heath (1839, pp. 391–393) also described in detail the manufacturing method (the crucible process) of wootz. Ranganathan and Srinivasan (2006) states the following: “Modern metallurgy and materials science rest on the foundation built by the study of this steel during the past three centuries” (p. 67).

Smith also insists that “[t]his knowledge arose out of and contributed to the Chemical Revolution in an intimate way” (1964, p. 150).

See Percy (1864), Ashton (1939, p. 48) and Feuerbach (2006).

See also Mushet (1805) for the influences of Bergman and Reynolds on D. Mushet.

‘With this view, he returned to England, and placed himself in the chemical school of Dr. E. Turner, of the University of London, one of the most accomplished professors of that day, here he was permitted to erect a furnace of his own, and assisted by Dr. Ure and by the late David Mushett, the most distinguished of modern British authors and workers in this class of subjects, he became familiar with the most approved means of chemical analysis and manipulation’ (Webster, 1856, p. vii). See also Gill (1828) for further information about Heath.

Furthermore, Wertime (1962) describes that “[p]ractical students of cementation and cast steel quickly learned that the carbide-forming qualities of manganese made it an ideal “regulator” in iron (however not in quantities to produce brittleness): and this knowledge was made the basis of important improvements in English cast-steel manufacture by William Reynolds and Josiah Heath” (p. 279).

See Poznanski (1986) for the rise and fall of each technology.

See also Suenaga (2019a) on the time lag from Huygens’ invention of the internal combustion engine to its commercialization in forms such as Newcomen’s engine.

Jacob and Stewart (2004, p.63) insist that “The scientific revolution thus entered a distinctly new phase characterized by the public disputes of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment.” In addition, Jacob (1997, p.113) emphasizes that “English science in the form of Newtonian mechanics directly fostered industrialization.”

Mokyr (2002) also insists that ‘Bessemer knew enough chemistry to realize that his process had succeeded and similar experiments by others had failed’ (p. 86).

See also footnote 9 of this paper for the relationship between Ure and Heath.

The term, “chain of science and technology,” is not just synonymous with “co-evolution.” Science and technology are not a unified evolutionary system, but a chain of their actions forms an evolutionary system. See also Yamaguchi (2006) and Suenaga (2015b) for discussion.

Due to its complexity, Figure 2 does not show the 2-b technological paradigm.

See also Yamaguchi (2006) regarding this point.

See also Suenaga (2019a) for the Parisian Science Academy.

See also Suenaga (2015b; 2019) about theoretical, political, and strategical implications in this paper.

Needless to say, science’s degree of importance differs depending on the characteristics of the industry in question.

See also Etzkowitz and Leydesdorff (2000), Siedlok et al. (2015) and Perry et al. (2016).

See also Van den Ende and Dolfsma (2005) regarding to the role of demand on the emergence of technological paradigms.

The discussions of Allen (2011), Clark (2007) and Pomeranz (2000) are interesting, but the discussion in this paper is similar to that of Mokyr (2002, 2005). However, Mokyr (2002) emphasizes the reduction of the cost of access to knowledge as a result of the ICT revolution, while Suenaga (2015a) analyses the chained evolution of science and technology as generating the ICT revolution as in this paper. In addition, Jin (2016) emphasizes the existence of ‘artificial skepticism’ as a factor that prevented China and India from developing modern steelmaking technology.

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Titel: The Influence of Science and “Industrial Enlightenment” on Steelmaking, 1786–1856
verfasst von: Keiichiro Suenaga
Verlag: Springer International Publishing
Buch: Innovation, Catch-up and Sustainable Development
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-84930-6

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-84931-3

Copyright-Jahr: 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84931-3_2

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