Smith, Crosbie W. (Author)
Transactions - Newcomen Society for the Study of the History of Engineering and Technology
Volume: 77
Pages: 191--215
The `science of energy', however, had always been about much more than the physics of prime movers. As exemplified by William Stanley Jevons's famous Coal Question, for example, `energy' --- and especially its economic supply --- had long been connected with political economy. Kelvin himself had often written of the `mechanical effect' (or useful work) delivered not just by machines but also by humans and animals. Directing both `machine power' and `man-power' for maximum effect was part of the same scientific and engineering cultures. Writing at the end of his life that `Of all the famous men I have known, Lord Kelvin had the greatest brain',83 Admiral Fisher had relentlessly exploited the energy culture in his celebrated campaign to reform the Royal Navy, whether in fuel, motive power, fire-power, or manning. Thus, the Dreadnought --- and her successors --- would become, if only for a time, the very embodiment of concentrated energy --- human, mechanical, chemical . . . --- poised to deliver maximum effect both in terms of speed and fire-power. No longer was it enough to keep the decks as white as snow and the ropes taut --- or the paint-work pretty. No longer was ceremonial sufficient to impress the rest of the world. Efficiency and economy had become `scientific' in the new age of the Dreadnought.
...MoreDescription On the British Navy's H. M. S. Dreadnought, built in 1906.
Similar Citations
Article
Harland, John H.;
(2013)
The Transition from Hemp to Chain Cable: Innovations and Innovators
(/isis/citation/CBB001421493/)
Book
Seligmann, Matthew S.;
(2012)
The Royal Navy and the German Threat, 1901-1914: Admiralty Plans to Protect British Trade in a War against Germany
(/isis/citation/CBB001421489/)
Book
Coad, J. G.;
(2011)
Support for the Fleet: British Naval Bases, 1700--1914
(/isis/citation/CBB001422517/)
Book
Cara New Daggett;
(2019)
The Birth of Energy: Fossil Fuels, Thermodynamics, and the Politics of Work
(/isis/citation/CBB510402598/)
Book
Willis, Sam;
(2011)
The Glorious First of June
(/isis/citation/CBB001421486/)
Article
Morriss, Roger;
(2014)
Ideology, Authority and the Politics of Innovation in the Royal Dockyards, 1796--1807
(/isis/citation/CBB001421378/)
Book
Dyndal, Gjert Lage;
(2012)
Land Based Air Power or Aircraft Carriers? A Case Study of the British Debate about Maritime Air Power in the 1960s
(/isis/citation/CBB001421383/)
Thesis
Badia, Lynn Ann;
(2014)
A Universe of Forces: Energy in Early Twentieth-Century Theory and Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB001567589/)
Book
Taylor, Miles;
(2013)
The Victorian Empire and Britain's Maritime World, 1837--1901: The Sea and Global History
(/isis/citation/CBB001422534/)
Article
MacLeod, Christine;
Stein, Jeremy;
Tann, Jennifer;
Andrew, James;
(2000)
Making Waves: The Royal Navy's Management of Invention and Innovation in Steam Shipping, 1815-1832
(/isis/citation/CBB000111818/)
Article
Gray, Steven;
(2015)
Coaling Warships with Naval Labour, 1870--1914: “I Wish I Could Get Hold of That Man Who First Found Coal”
(/isis/citation/CBB001422546/)
Article
Leggett, Don;
(2014)
Naval Architecture, Expertise and Navigating Authority in the British Admiralty, c.1885--1906
(/isis/citation/CBB001421387/)
Article
William Bunch, Alan;
(2014)
How Biotechnology Helped Maintain the Supply of Acetone for the Manufacture of Cordite during World War I
(/isis/citation/CBB001421778/)
Article
Malm, Andreas;
(2013)
Fleeing the Flowing Commons: Robert Thom, Water Reservoir Schemes, and the Shift to Steam Power in Early Nineteenth-Century Britain
(/isis/citation/CBB001213633/)
Article
Francesco Luzzini;
(2012)
L’industria principesca. Piero Ginori Conti e l’impianto geotermico di Larderello
(/isis/citation/CBB630407216/)
Chapter
Smith, Crosbie;
(2011)
“The “Crinoline” of Our Steam Engineers”: Reinventing the Marine Compound Engine, 1850--1885
(/isis/citation/CBB001231562/)
Thesis
Snyder, David Allan;
(2001)
Petroleum and Power: Naval Fuel Technology and the Anglo-American Struggle for Core Hegemony, 1889--1922
(/isis/citation/CBB001560706/)
Article
Steven Gray;
(2017)
Fuelling mobility: Coal and Britain's naval power, c. 1870–1914
(/isis/citation/CBB295663741/)
Book
William H. Garzke;
Jurens, William;
Cameron, James;
Julin, Robert O.;
(2019)
Battleship Bismarck: a design and operational history
(/isis/citation/CBB784557978/)
Book
Krasnov, Vladimir N.;
(2004)
Voennoe sudostroenie nakanune Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny.
(/isis/citation/CBB000750378/)
Be the first to comment!