Article ID: CBB771776947

From following to improving technology: the case of the Swiss gas industry in the 19th century (2011)

unapi

Paquier, Serge (Author)


Quaderns d'Història de l'Enginyeria
Volume: 12
Pages: 171-199

ISSN: 1135-934X

Publication Date: 2011
Edition Details: Special Issue: MONOGRÀFIC: EVOLUCIÓ CIENTÍFICA I TÈCNICA DE LA INDÚSTRIA DEL GAS
Language: English

On adoption of the new lighting technology during the 1840s and 1850s, Swiss cities form part of the second wave of diffusion, together with German, Austro-Hungarian, Spanish and Italian cities. Although Swiss cities were followers, the general tendency was to establish national control over these new infrastructures. In some cities, however, the process developed further due to technicians from a fertile milieu where science and technology were converging. This dynamic was particularly strong in Geneva, where from the last third of the Enlightenment useful knowledge was produced on the basis of the English and French models, and later the German model. From this milieu came the creative technician Daniel Colladon (1802-1893), whose first qualification was in physics, one of the main sciences, which together with chemistry enabled the development of new technical networks such as gas lighting, railways, and mass water adduction. Colladon regarded infrastructures as “outdoors laboratories” from which according to Mokyr’s view at least “sustained improvement” should emerge, to be followed eventually by new technological components, or better still a new technological system well adapted to the Swiss situation, where there was no coal but enormous reserves of water power. The sustained improvements acquired in Geneva spread to other European cities in a process that involved the “haute banque protestante”. The analysis borrows concepts recently developed by the historians François Caron and Joel Mokyr.

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Article Pere-A. Fàbregas (2011) Introducción de la Fundación Gas Natural Fenosa. Quaderns d'Història de l'Enginyeria (pp. 7-9). unapi

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Authors & Contributors
Singer, Peter A.
Sarkar, Smritikumar
Thorsteinsdóttir, Halla
Moyano Jiménez, Florentino
Melnick, Daniel
Arroyo, Mercedes
Concepts
Technological innovation
Diffusion of innovation; diffusion of knowledge; diffusion of technology
Gas Industry
Conference proceedings
Infrastructure
Coal Gas
Time Periods
20th century
19th century
Modern
20th century, early
18th century
Places
India
United States
Spain
Mumbai (India)
Barcelona (Spain)
Portugal
Institutions
United States. Defense Communications Agency
International Telecommunications Satellite Organization
United States. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
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