AC/DC

AC/DC
Author: Tom McNichol
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 187
Release: 2011-01-06
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1118047028

AC/DC tells the little-known story of how Thomas Edison wrongly bet in the fierce war between supporters of alternating current and direct current. The savagery of this electrical battle can hardly be imagined today. The showdown between AC and DC began as a rather straightforward conflict between technical standards, a battle of competing methods to deliver essentially the same product, electricity. But the skirmish soon metastasized into something bigger and darker. In the AC/DC battle, the worst aspects of human nature somehow got caught up in the wires; a silent, deadly flow of arrogance, vanity, and cruelty. Following the path of least resistance, the war of currents soon settled around that most primal of human emotions: fear. AC/DC serves as an object lesson in bad business strategy and poor decision making. Edison's inability to see his mistake was a key factor in his loss of control over the ?operating system? for his future inventions?not to mention the company he founded, General Electric.

Networks of Power

Networks of Power
Author: Thomas Parke Hughes
Publisher: JHU Press
Total Pages: 492
Release: 1993-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780801846144

Awarded the Dexter Prize by the Society for the History of Technology, this book offers a comparative history of the evolution of modern electric power systems. It described large-scale technological change and demonstrates that technology cannot be understood unless placed in a cultural context.

The Development Of Large Technical Systems

The Development Of Large Technical Systems
Author: Renate Mayntz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 238
Release: 2019-07-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000315878

This book is an outcome of the conference on the development of large technical systems held in Berlin in 1986. It focuses on the comparative analysis of the development of large technical systems, particularly electrical power, railroad, air traffic, telephone, and other forms of telecommunication.

The Social Construction of Technological Systems

The Social Construction of Technological Systems
Author: Wiebe E. Bijker
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 428
Release: 1989
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780262521376

"The impact of technology on society is clear and unmistakeable. The influence of society on technology is more subtle. The 13 essays in this book have been written by a diverse group of scholars united by a common interest in creating a new field - the sociology of technology. They draw on a wide array of case studies - from cooking stoves to missile systems, from 15th-century Portugal to today's Al labs - to outline an original research program based on a synthesis of ideas from the social studies of science and the history of technology. Together they affirm the need for a study of technology that gives equal weight to technical, social, economic, and political questions"--Back cover.

Electric and Hybrid Cars

Electric and Hybrid Cars
Author: Curtis D. Anderson
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 269
Release: 2010-03-30
Genre: Transportation
ISBN: 0786457422

This illustrated history chronicles electric and hybrid cars from the late 19th century to today's fuel cell and plug-in automobiles. It describes the politics, technology, marketing strategies, and environmental issues that have impacted electric and hybrid cars' research and development. The important marketing shift from a "woman's car" to "going green" is discussed. Milestone projects and technologies such as early batteries, hydrogen and bio-mass fuel cells, the upsurge of hybrid vehicles, and the various regulations and market forces that have shaped the industry are also covered.

Mechanics: The Science of Machinery

Mechanics: The Science of Machinery
Author: A. Russell Bond
Publisher: Good Press
Total Pages: 476
Release: 2021-05-19
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

The book is written not just for a mechanical engineer but also for the layman who would learn of the mechanical contrivances that contribute to his material welfare. The author has avoided the use of technical terms, as far as possible, and where inescapable, the technical words have been explained and defined. The book covers topics from "Tool Making Animals" to "Engines of Destruction". Through this work, the author has aimed to give a detailed and thorough view of the whole story of human progress in all things mechanical. It's the entire story of machinery, from primitive man's first tries to expand his physical powers with mechanical aids down to that era of early 1900s where massive, steel-muscled machinery and marvelously complex mechanisms, is the story of human advancement.