Coal and Canvas: The Social and Technological Origins of the Steamship Era, circa 1700--1838.

摘要

This thesis presented a detailed examination of steam-powered vessels development before 1838 by utilizing the thick description of technological growth as promoted by recent trends in social constructivism, thus filling a considerable gap in historical enquiry about the subject. It has been demonstrated that the development of early steam-powered vessels was a very prolonged and regional process that commenced in England during the 1600s with the publications of French physicist Denis Papin and culminated in the early 1800s with the formation of a new technological system along the River Clyde.;This thesis addressed one of the fundamental questions in the history of technology, namely, how does a new technology supplant an existing technology?;The process of establishing a new technological system in the realm of steam navigation was characterized by the slow evolution of social ideas and technical components rather than a sharp and rapid revolution. As has been shown this system was initiated by work of Patrick Miller, William Symington and Lord Dundas. They created more than a mechanical device, they established financial connections, and financial expectations. They created the beginnings of a production network for steam engines and purpose-built vessels, and pioneered the creation of a new technological system that was to produce three vital innovations in water transport --- the steamboat, the steamship and the transatlantic ocean liner.