Networked Machinists

High-Technology Industries in Antebellum America
Erscheinungsjahr 2006
ISBN: 978-0-8018-8471-9
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 328 Seiten, Format (B × H): 155 mm x 248 mm, Gewicht: 603 g

Reihe: Johns Hopkins Studies in the History of Technology

A century and a half before the modern information technology revolution, machinists in the eastern United States created the nation's first high technology industries. In iron foundries and steam-engine works, locomotive works, machine and tool shops, textile-machinery firms, and firearms manufacturers, these resourceful workers pioneered the practice of dispersing technological expertise through communities of practice.

In the first book to study this phenomenon since the 1916 classic, English and American Tool Builders, David R. Meyer examines the development of skilled-labor exchange systems, showing how individual metalworking sectors grew and moved outward. He argues that the networked behavior of machinists within and across industries helps explain the rapid transformation of metalworking industries during the antebellum period, building a foundation for the sophisticated, mass production/consumer industries that figured so prominently in the later U.S. economy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Meyer, David R

Fachgebiete

• Technische Wissenschaften Technik Allgemein Technikgeschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Arbeitsmarkt
• Technische Wissenschaften Maschinenbau | Werkstoffkunde Maschinenbau

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Machinists' Traces
Part I: The Formation of the Networks, 1790-1820
1. Iron Foundries Become Early Hubs of Machinist Networks
2. A Networked Community Built by Cotton Textile Machinists
3. The Federal Armories and Private Firearms Firms Operate in Open Networks
Part II: The Elaboration of the Networks, 1820-1860
4. Iron Foundries Rule the Heavy Capital Equipment Industry
5. Networked Machinists Build Locomotives
6. Resilient Cotton Textile Machinist Networks
7. The Cradles of the Metalworking Machinery Industry
8. Machine Tool Networks
9. Machinists' Networks Forge the Pivotal Producer Durables Industry
Abbreviations
Notes
Essay on Sources
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Meyer, David R
David R. Meyer teaches sociology and urban studies at Brown University.

David R. Meyer teaches sociology and urban studies at Brown University.