Research Catalog

Structures of change in the mechanical age : technological innovation in the United States, 1790-1865

Title: Structures of change in the mechanical age : technological innovation in the United States, 1790-1865 / Ross Thomson.
Author: Thomson, Ross.
Publication: Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, ©2009.

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Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	T173.8 .T498 2009	Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 432 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

The United States registered phenomenal economic growth between the establishment of the new republic and the end of the Civil War. Ross Thomson's fresh study accounts for the unprecedented technological innovations that helped propel antebellum growth. Thomson argues that the transition of the United States from an agrarian economy in 1790 to an industrial leader in 1865 relied fundamentally on the spread of technological knowledge within and across industries. Essential to this spread was a dense web of knowledge-diffusing institutions--new occupations and industries, the patent office, machine shops, mechanics' associations, scientific societies, public colleges, and the civil engineering profession. Together they composed an integrated innovation system that generated, disseminated, and employed new technical knowledge across ever-widening ranges of the economy. To trace technological change in fourteen major industries and the economy as a whole, Thomson analyzes 14,000 patents, the records of two dozen machinery firms, census data for 1,800 companies, and hundreds of business directories. This exhaustive research leads to his interesting interpretation of technological diffusion and development. Thomson's impressive study of the infrastructure that fueled and supported the young country's economic and industrial successes will interest students of economic, technological, and business history. --Publisher description.

Series Statement

Johns Hopkins studies in the history of technology

Uniform Title

Johns Hopkins studies in the history of technology (Unnumbered)

Subject

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. [403]-422) and index.

Contents

Structure and change -- Paths of initial mechanization, 1790-1835 -- Ongoing mechanization, 1836-1865 -- Contours of innovation -- Machinists as a technological center -- Science, mechanicians, and invention -- The patent system and the inventive community -- The social basis of innovation -- Technological leadership -- Fruition -- The first innovation system.

ISBN

9780801891410
0801891418

LCCN

2008021266

OCLC

ocn228427334
228427334
SCSB-1514982

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library