Berliet Foundation
On the Cover: The Berliet T 100 in the Sahara Desert
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26750535
Alexandre Herlea
ICOHTEC: 50 Years, Tribute to Maurice Daumas and Petre Sergescu
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26750536
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Essays
What are the most exciting horizons for the History of Technology?
Erik van der Vleuten
Technology, Societal Challenges, and Global Sustainability History, pp. 34-52
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26750537
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Hans-Joachim Braun
Sounding Objects, Collaborative Creators, Improvising Engineers: Suggestions for Research, pp. 53-64
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26750538
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Martina Hessler
Techno-Humanity: A Plea for a Historical Anthropology of Technology, pp. 65-77
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26750539
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Research Articles
Artemis Yagou
Novel and Desirable Technology: Pocket Watches for the Ottoman Market (late 18th – mid 19th c.), pp. 78-107
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26750540
[read more=”Show abstract” less=”Hide abstract”]During the long eighteenth century, English and continental firms produced large numbers of pocket watches with Ottoman numerals intended for the markets of the Ottoman Empire. These products, both technical novelties and fashionable accessories, were highly popular among the local multiethnic populations. It is argued that the pocket watches for the Ottoman market may be classified as an example of a popular luxury, expressing the rise of the individual, the growing significance of pleasurable consumption and the emergence of new forms of socialisation through product use. [/read] Full text:
Maria Elvira Callapez, Sara Marques da Cruz, Marta Martins Neto
Plastics Hand in Hand with Consumers – A Route in Portugal, pp. 108-126
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26750541
[read more=”Show abstract” less=”Hide abstract”]Plastics represented a revolutionary landmark during the twentieth century in many aspects of our everyday lives. They are seen as the result of technological, scientific, industrial and engineering developments, thus playing an increasingly important and sophisticated role in areas such as medicine, electronics, aeronautics, automobile industry, food, construction industry, among others. The strong relationship between plastics and the social, cultural, economic, aesthetic and industrial spheres has been very visible. In addition to their initial acceptance and popularity, these materials are generating a range of feelings and emotions all over the world, crossing different people, economies and geographies. After the Second World War, plastics were widely adopted by the society but in these days their image is associated with its growing environmental impact.
This paper is part of an ongoing research project where we intend to analyse the role of plastics in Portuguese society between the 1950s and 1990s, at a time of great political, industrial and technological changes. We aim to explore how, and if, consumers’ habits and attitudes influenced industrial production, namely, creating novel materials or new products. The connections between consumerism, attitudes, and the limit of plastics in Portugal are going to be analysed as well. [/read] Full text:
Richard Vahrenkamp
The Computing Boom in the US Aeronautical Industry, 1945–1965, pp. 127-149
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26750542
[read more=”Show abstract” less=”Hide abstract”] An extended version of this paper
is available under www.vahrenkamp.org/files/Vahrenkamp_Computing_Boom_WP5_2018.pdf [/read] Full text:
Sławomir Łotysz
Hot Commodity: Designing, Making and Selling Electric Irons in post-war Poland, pp. 150-184
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26750543
[read more=”Show abstract” less=”Hide abstract”]The clothes iron is the most basic item of household equipment. It has been present in European homes for the last two hundred years; long enough to have become part of popular culture. The advent of electric irons in the first few decades of the 20th century was welcomed as a revolutionary change, making household duties less exhausting. Electric irons are believed to be the most persistent of household items in terms of the continuity of industrial design. According to Japanese designer Yokho Uga, it takes twenty-seven years before the design of an iron is morally worn out. However, until very recently, customers in Poland could buy an iron that has hardly changed since the late 1960s, when it was first marketed as the ‘model C-28’. Over time, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, Polish designers and engineers worked on refining the immortal C-28, but none of its subsequent reincarnations were any better than the original. Nevertheless, the producer of the C-28, the Dezamet company, monopolized the domestic market for decades, selling millions of irons every year at home and abroad. And yet, they were unable to pioneer any new design trends or to catalyze any significant technological innovations. This paper uses a case study of the C-28 to reconstruct how innovation, quality, functionality and aesthetics were negotiated in a state-controlled economy. It also analyzes the relation between the communist party leaders, ministries, institutes of industrial design, management of factories and the customers. [/read] Full text:
Research Briefs
Klaus Staubermann
Museum Research Databases for the History of Science and Technology, pp. 186-195
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26750544
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Olga Melnichenko
A joint effort to limit water pollution from the silk industry in the Industrial Region of Moscow (second half of the 19th c. to the beginning of the 20th c.), pp. 196-204
https://www.jstor.org/stable/26750545
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Book Reviews
Full text of all book reviews listed below:
Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi
Review of The Routledge Handbook of Language Learning and Technology, Fiona Farr and Liam Murray, eds., pp. 206-208
Guillaume de Syon
Review of The Imagineers of War. The Untold Story of DARPA, the Pentagon Agency that Changed the World, Sharon Weinberger, pp. 209-211
Richard F. Works
Review of Social Capital 2.0, Rick Mask, pp. 211-212
Samantha Whatley
Review of Faxed: The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine, Jonathan Coopersmith, pp. 212-215
Roberta Biasillo
Review of Future Remains. A Cabinet of Curiosities for the Anthropocene, Gregg Mitman, Marco Armiero, Robert S. Emmett, pp. 216-217
Louise Horvath
Review of Invisible Bicycle. Parallel Histories and Different Timelines, Tiina Männistö-Funk and Timo Myllyntaus, eds., pp. 217-219
Elena Kochetkova
Review of Technology and Environment in State-Socialist Hungary: An Economic History, Viktor Pál, pp. 219-222
Saara Matala
Review of Cold War Energy: A Transnational History of Soviet Oil and Gas, Jeronim Perović, ed., pp. 222-224
Per Lundin
Review of Gods på vej (Goods on the way): Vejtransportens danmarkshistorie, Jørgen Burchardt, pp. 225-226
Viktor Pál
Review of Documenting Aftermath: Information Infrastructures in the Wake of Disasters, Megan Finn, pp. 226-229
Inna Sukhenko
Review of Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe, Serhii Plokhy, pp. 229-232
Viktor Pál
Review of The Body Populace: Military Statistics and Demography in Europe before the First World War, Heinrich Hartmann, pp. 232-234
Colin Garvey
Review of Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, Yuval Noah Harari, pp. 234-236
Jonathan Neale
Review of Burning Up: A Global History of Fossil Fuel Consumption, Simon Pirani, pp. 237-238.