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Article ID: CBB576212218

Unspoken Modernity: Bamboo-Reinforced Concrete, China 1901-40 (2021)

Shu, Chang-Xue (Author)

HOST: Journal of History of Science and Technology
Volume: 15
Issue: 2
Pages: 88-120

URI: https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/host-2021-0014

DOI: 10.2478/host-2021-0014

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Crafts and craftspeople Engineers Engineering Structural engineering Cement; lime; concrete 20th century, early China Bamboo Publishing

Engineering science in the China of 1901-40 had unique characteristics that disrupt the idea of a universal approach to its history.1 The following case study describes the ideas and trials of introducing bamboo into the seemingly globalised technology of reinforced concrete—an innovation developed across the borders of mechanical, naval, civil, and aeronautical engineering. The article showcases a way of knowing and working by twentieth century engineers that has not been fully acknowledged, and is not only a phenomenon of China. While bamboo was a complicated and somewhat marginal object for engineering, it did make the European concrete technology more viable in the construction sites of China, and stimulate engineers’ experimental and resourceful spirit in mobilising both craft and scientific knowledge. It also opened up a challenge to engineering science of the time.

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Article Francesca Bray; Gregory Clancey; Annapurna Mamidipudi (2021) Introduction: Building Sites, Crafting Knowledge. HOST: Journal of History of Science and Technology (pp. 1-16). unapi

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB576212218/

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