Science and Technology in the 19th Century

Iron, rail and steam, 1st Industrial revolution

“Second Industrial Revolution”, internal combustion engine, electrical technology and chemicals

Industrial developments were interdependent

The Merger of Science and Engineering

Scientific R+D was appropriated by industrial interests
Scientific research:
- Increased productivity
- New methods of production
- Required innovation and capital access
Scientific R+D was long, and expensive, this required excess capital from:
- Traditional manufacturing profits
- Financial speculation
- Industrial consolidation (vertical integration)
- 1920’s: over 500 corporate mergers
- Union Carbide, Dupont
- Union Carbide (carbon, alloys, oxyacetylene, liquid gas, bakelite and plastics)
- Dupont (explosives, gasoline, and automobile applications)
- Science, variety and industrial laboratories
- Petroleum, metallurgy, paper, cement, photography, fertilizers, steel

The Chemical Industry in the US

Medieval dye technology: plant extracts and acids
Industrial revolution: batch production, artificial substances
US industry: Acids, alkalis, inorganic salts
Industries that used chemicals: textiles, paper, leather, glass, soap, paint, petroleum, rubber, electrical equipment, fertilizers, insecticides, automobile
Dye industry, textiles and printing
Before WWI, German chemical companies:
- Initial lead
- Low cost chemicals
- Advanced university scientific research
- Ownership of patents
After WWI, German patents redistributed, tariff barriers
- US industry: catalytic, electrochemical, organic synthesis and liquifaction processes
- Electrolytic process used to produce salts, soda, chlorine and bromine

The Reciprocal Relationship between Science and Industry

Science, new processes, monopolies, and patent control
Science directed by industrial interests, curriculum
Science/engineering skills brought to mining, petroleum, steel, rubber, automotive industries

Electrical Industry

Turn of century electrical industry dominated by a few large companies, electrical power generation, lighting, transportation and communications
Engineers and scientists determined industrial model:
- Patents
- Research laboratories
- Technical training programs
- GE, Westinghouse and ATT
- 1876, Alexander Graham Bell, voice transfer over wires
- Reliable current, efficiency, standardization and reliability
- In 1885 Westinghouse, alternating current

Patents and Innovation

Patents lasted for 17 years
Securing of patents and mergers to gain control over patents
Thomas Edison: Menlo Park, New Jersey, market guide to innovation, diffuse patents
Complexity, technological systems and a network of innovations, mergers
Patent maintenance and patent pooling
Patent protection became more important as industry adopted more science and complexity

Vertical Integration

Vertical integration: When a supplier of a product merges with a user
Vertical integration used to reduce transaction costs and to guarantee supply and fixed prices in expensive R+D intensive industries
Suppliers of raw materials and users of manufactured products
Vertical integration: internal demand for purity, volume and variety
Dupont, war, explosives, dynamite, nitroglycerine and black powder

Conclusion: The “Scientific Revolution” in Industry