History of Technology

Abstract

THE seventh volume of the Transactions of the Newcomen Society conforms to the high standard that we have been led to expect. We are beginning to look forward with real pleasure to these annual volumes. The study of the history of technology and industry is, it seems, at last receiving the attention to which the importance and interest of the subject entitle it, and it is a matter of great gratification that Great Britain is now playing its part in the collection, sifting, and evaluation of the available evidence. Germany has hitherto been ahead of us in this respect, for the “Beiträge zur Geschichte der Technik”, a publication of the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, was started so long ago as 1909 and was followed a few years later by two other independent journals of similar scope, both of which are still running. But the Newcomen Society is, so far as we know, the only existing organised body devoted exclusively to the study of the historical side of technology, and as such it is in an excellent position to act as a clearing house for all information on the subject and, by suggesting lines of investigation hitherto but little explored, to stimulate whatever latent desire for research there may be amongst us. That the Society is fully alive to this position seems evident from the work it has already accomplished, and all concerned are to be congratulated on the conspicuous contributions it is making to our knowledge.

The Newcomen Society for the Study of the History of Engineering and Technology: Transactions,

Vol. 7, 1926–1927. Pp. xi + 159 + 21 plates. (London: Newcomen Society, 1928.) 20s.