More than a century ago, the Wright Brothers reached a milestone that mankind had dreamt of for thousands of years. In 1903 in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, their flying machine roared into the skies and successfully completed its maiden flight. Critical to this success was their invention of a three-axis control system which enabled the pilot to steer the aircraft effectively and to maintain its equilibrium. A few years later, the brothers received a patent for a system of aerodynamic control, which subsequently inspired the birth of the aviation industry. Today, more than 200,000 flights transport millions of passengers and supplies from remote corners of the globe, sustaining trade and commerce. Not many decades later, history was made again when the Apollo Lunar Module landed on the moon and ushered in a new era of space exploration, communications, and software engineering. Since then, the pace of technological innovation has intensified, becoming all pervasive in today’s world. Wireless communication networks connect billions of internet users, enabling conversations, education, and social engagement at an unprecedented scale. Innovation has also empowered us to successfully face challenges - during the current pandemic, researchers have collaborated across national borders to invent a completely new way to build vaccines which will not only fight the corona virus, but also open novel avenues to fight many other debilitating diseases.
Through the ages, civilization has witnessed a parallel and continual growth in innovation and technology. We see innovation flourishing and accelerating amidst collaboration, competition and diversity. However, evolving technology also impacts individual industries, often causing dislocations to existing patterns of labor and employment. Technology has improved our lives in so many different dimensions, however we need to develop a better appreciation of how it interacts with existing social equilibrium and what we can do to manage disruptions caused by its evolution. A collection of books from the Mercer County Library System provides new insights into the history of technology and innovation and what tomorrow holds for us.
In this engaging and engrossing book, author Ainissa Ramirez, a materials scientist who worked at Bell Labs and taught at Yale, presents readers with fascinating stories of eight different inventions - clocks, steel rails, copper communication cables, photographic film, light bulbs, hard disks, scientific labware, and silicon chips. Based on extensive research, Ainissa Ramirez’s narrative covers multiple facets -the scientific breakthroughs that enabled these inventions; the inspiration behind these inventions; and how these inventions profoundly changed our lives. Readers learn about the tenacity of the innovators and the ingenuity of the entrepreneurs who had the foresight to recognize the transformative impact and potential of these inventions. Throughout the book the author successfully highlights how the emergence of new materials has also shaped human behavior and economic engagements. An example is the dramatic change in transportation and commerce that followed the capacity to build railway networks with steel. There is a fascinating story of Reverend Hannibal Goodwin, an Episcopalian pastor who experimented for 10 years in his attic to invent a method to make photographic film; and Samuel F. B. Morse, the inventor of the telegraph machine whose work changed the face of journalism, as well as diplomacy. A stimulating discussion about the invention of silicon chips reveals a generation of scientists who worked to manipulate material properties at a microscale - an invention which ushered in the modern digital age. Through her exceptional narrative, the author highlights the collaborative nature of innovation and the immense promise that future advances in materials science holds for us.
In this fascinating book, award winning journalist and opinion columnist for Bloomberg, Virginia Postrel tells the rich story of textiles and how its technology has evolved during the last one thousand years. Through the ages, textiles have played a pivotal role, recognized as an exquisite expression of cultural creativity, as well as a symbol of economic vitality and trade. The history of different fabrics woven from cotton, flax, silk and wool has evolved as a series of innovations shaped by farmers, weavers, artists, traders, and technologists, across many countries, spanning many centuries. Textiles have been at the center of continuous exploration and development - the quest for vibrant colors led to myriad experiments in chemical dyes and plant extracts; the demand for generating intricate patterns led to the discovery of advanced tools and machineries; new methods in farming and material sourcing opened avenues to meet the rising demand. The fabrics that we produce are deeply embedded in our cultural identities and we see the history of textiles closely mirroring the evolution of human consciousness, while also reflecting the intertwining of shared values arising from trade and social interactions. It is remarkable that significant progress in textile engineering was made well before the arrival of the Industrial Revolution in England; the birth of the factory system happened almost two centuries earlier in Italy. The book is based on extensive research and provides new insights into the many facets of the textile manufacturing process, showing how at different time periods in history, the state of technology has transformed the modes of production of textiles.
The book provides a glimpse of incredible technologies that are in the process of being created. They hold the potential of transforming our lives as well the business landscape in industries like healthcare, transportation, entertainment, education, and retail, providing solutions to some of the most challenging problems we face today. Innovations in different industries are moving at an accelerating pace at multiple levels. For example, communication is being dramatically transformed with 5G networks, and at same time low orbit satellite networks are being rapidly built to reach 4 billion users who are not yet integrated in the current internet infrastructure. In the space of transportation, innovations like the self-driving vehicle will dramatically improve supply logistics, while artificial intelligence will simplify the complexity of healthcare systems, enhancing outcomes while optimizing costs. The authors leverage their extensive experience in engineering, consulting, and business development to provide a compelling blueprint of emerging technology and outlining a roadmap of how this vision could be realized. Multiple accelerating technological innovations could create a unique synergy – an example is when the convergence of high bandwidth networks and augmented reality would together create an exciting online shopping experience. The authors envision that the pace of technology’s change will continue to accelerate for several decades and business leaders must become adept at collaborating extensively as well as recognizing the necessity for attaining continual improvements in technology and business infrastructure. This riveting narrative gives us an appreciation of the extraordinary progress we have made in science and engineering over the last century and the exciting new possibilities waiting for us in the not-so-distant future.
- by Nita Mathur, West Windsor Branch