The Longue Duree of Abbott Payson Usher: A. P. Usher, A History of Mechanical Inventions

摘要

Revisiting this durable classic by the economic historian Abbott Payson Usher (1883-1965) was like going back to see an old friend, albeit one I understood only partially on first meeting. Originally published in 1929, A History of Mechanical Inventions was the first book I ever read or even saw in the history of technology. This initial encounter occurred in 1964 when I was a chemistry undergraduate taking what was then my university's first and sole history of science course, which turned out to be a history of technology in disguise. Consisting primarily of science and engineering majors, the class was taught not by a specialist in the field—a very scarce academic breed at the time—but by a medieval historian with a personal passion for technology. William Park Hotchkiss let on that his father had invented the Hotchkiss gear used in the rear axle of automobiles. It was clearly this paternal inspiration that beckoned him periodically from castle and cloister to rough industrial sites in England's Midlands. Saved lecture notes record his partiality for Usher's meticulous step-by-step elucidation of the evolution of the steam engine from its origins in mines to the railway locomotive, a tour de force of A History of Mechanical Inventions. I still vividly recall the enthusiasm with which he initiated us into the joys of technology and invention.