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"Glass construction History 20th century."
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The glass state : the technology of the spectacle Paris, 1981-1998
A study of the technological, theoretical, and cultural significance of the transparency of the glass structures of François Mitterand's Grands Projects in Paris.
eBook
Industrial Consumers Versus Cartelized Producers: The French Carmaker Louis Renault and the Aluminium Cartel, 1911–1944
The repeated proliferation of restraints to competition should not overshadow the agency of downstream firms when confronted with the ability of cartels to challenge the established innovation strategies of their consumers. This article explores the relations between Renault and the aluminium cartels during the first half of the twentieth century, in peace and war. Strategies were similar on both sides: the creation and maintenance of a balance of power, compromise, and the reopening of competition. Yet, when the cartel set up an automotive department and then rallied to the idea of a people’s car, it attracted the interest of broader stakeholders—engineers, other suppliers, the government, and even trade unions—but failed to persuade carmakers. Large industrial consumers can limit the impact of cartels, and destabilize them, by resorting to vertical integration. However, their underlying aim is not necessarily to destroy the cartel but rather to obtain better terms for their own business. Ultimately, their market power enables them to achieve relative stability. Who derives the main benefits from these compromises, both vertically and horizontally, as they sometimes limit or extend the scope of action of both parties?
Journal Article
Poisoned Partnership: The International Mercury Cartel and Spanish–Italian Relations, 1945–1954
This article investigates the development of the Spanish–Italian mercury cartel from the end of World War II to the mid-1950s. Previous literature has singled out the cartel as one of the most robust international cartels of the twentieth century, but as this article shows, the cartel broke down toward the end of the 1940s, and although briefly reestablished in 1954, it quickly dissolved again. Building on access to original source material from archives in Spain, Italy, the United States, and United Kingdom, we investigate the underlying reasons why the cartel broke down, and how and why it was eventually reestablished. Because both the main Italian and the Spanish mercury producers were state-owned, this article pays special attention to the influence of the political relations between Spain and Italy on the development of the cartel. The study of the mercury cartel is used as a prism to investigate the point where industry strategies meet government strategies. This article thus contributes to two major strands of literature, both to the business history literature on international cartels in the post-1945 world and to the diplomatic history literature on the intricate relationship between Spain and Italy in the early phase of the Cold War.
Journal Article
Inching toward Modernity: Industrial Standards and the Fate of the Metric System in the United States
That the United States stands almost alone among nations in its failure to adopt the metric system has long been blamed on conservative, reactionary forces. This paper argues against this interpretation, which passes for conventional wisdom in both academic and popular circles. It instead contends that attacks on the metric system in the late nineteenth and twentieth century originated with progressive engineers, entrepreneurs, and industrialists who had taken the lead in setting the nation's first industrial standards. Far from being backward-looking reactionaries, they enjoyed reputations as cutting-edge leaders in the development of the machine-tool industry, the railroads, and the metal-working industries. Many of them pioneered new methods of management that privileged rationality, efficiency, and systemic approaches; indeed, they strongly influenced the development of what became known as scientific management. These individuals deftly advanced their cause through the nation's political institutions, thwarting the metric cause.
Journal Article
Secrets for Sale? Innovation and the Nature of Knowledge in an Early Industrial District
This article investigates innovation and knowledge circulation in the North Staffordshire Potteries during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. It evaluates new empirical evidence of formal and informal patterns of knowledge creation and dissemination in order to highlight tensions between forms of open knowledge sharing and the private appropriation of returns to innovative activity. By presenting new patent data, it shows that formal protection was not a widespread strategy in the industry. It uses patent specifications to determine what types of knowledge were, and could be, patented in the district, and by whom. A range of sources are used to demonstrate evidence of innovation and knowledge appropriation outside of the patent system. The article identifies distinct types of knowledge in the industry and shows how differences in these led to a range of strategies employed by potters, with the role of secrecy highlighted as a particularly prevalent and effective strategy.
Journal Article
Steel Metropolis: Industrial Manchuria and the Making of Chinese Socialism
According to a major Indian daily, Nehru was “very impressed” by this “giant metallurgical complex of some 40 plants which are the pride of the people of China.” Key business histories of modern China focused on private enterprises in China proper, especially in the Lower-Yangzi region during the pre-Communist period. 7 Other scholars have published important books on the history of Chinese SOEs, but they tend to focus mainly on the Nationalist period, although they also touch upon the Nationalist legacies in the early PRC. 8 While social scientists once produced important works on SOEs in the Mao period, 9 their focus has long moved to the SOE reform under Deng Xiaoping and his successors. 10 Recently, Hou Li and Covell Meyskens have each published important historical works on Chinese SOEs in the late Mao period. 11 While building on this body of literature, my dissertation fills in a historiographical gap by focusing mainly, though not exclusively, on the early Mao period, when the basic structure of the PRC’s SOE system was debated and formatted. 12 By examining one of the most important SOEs in China, I discuss several interrelated questions about the Chinese SOE system before, during, and after Mao Zedong’s leadership. [...]I contend that the late industrializers of the twentieth century such as the Soviet Union, Japan, and China had indeed much in common in their state-directed industrialization and reliance on imported technology. [...]I examine how the PRC state, SOEs, and their employees interacted with each other.
Journal Article
“A Bull in Our China Shop:” Japanese Imports and the American Pottery Industry
From its beginning, the American pottery industry had to contend with the presence of imports. At first, manufacturers coped by promoting their own products and striving to improve design and quality. However, when Japan began importing china in greater quantities, American potters faced a challenge unlike any before. Initial attempts to attack imports outright through boycotts met with limited success through World War II. Following the peace, Cold War economic policy designed to reintroduce Japan to the global market led to another round of increasing importation. U.S. potters decried the poor quality and low wages connected to Japanese china, yet could not agree on a strategy to overcome the growing number of imports. Some filed lawsuits over copied designs while others hoped to contract with the Japanese to import on their own terms. The failure of these manufacturers to unify in response to Japan proved one of the most damaging blows to this small industry.
Journal Article
Glass Construction Manual
Glass offers a wide variety of possible applications for the realization of even the most ambitious designs in architecture, and in the past two decades it has experienced an unparalleled burst of innovation. For planners, this means working constantly with this high-performance material. In compact and appealing form, the completely revised Glass Construction Manual presents the current state of the art on planning and building with glass, from the history through the technical foundations all the way to the most innovative applications. Astonishing perspectives on thermal insulation and solar protection and the addition of thoughtfully selected new practical examples round off this comprehensive reference work.
eBook