An history of inventors the anglo-saxon trail Hervé Legenvre This presentation was developped as an easy to read e-book capturing the mainlessons from my Ph. D thesis You can send your feedback at the e-mail adress underneath, I am currently planning to publish a book on this topic
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Who changed our world?
Politicians Army Generals Thinkers
Source: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/HistSciTech/
Or Inventors?
Inventors…
History of inventions: a timeline
to large scale systems….
From machines….
… and deep into the matter
The cradle of creativity
Attention
A: Attentiveness Grab and gather ideas, information, knowledge
E: Experimentation Create new ideas, information, knowledge, artefact
P: Persuasion Sell your ideas and invention
Persuasion
Expérimentation
Alexander Fleming-attentiveness
"When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic, or bacteria killer, but I guess that was exactly what I did." Fleming
Wright brothers- experimentation
I confess that in 1901 I said to my brother Orville that man would not fly for fifty years. Two years later we ourselves made flights. This demonstration of my impotence as a prophet gave me such a shock that ever since I have distrusted myself and avoided all predictions. Wilbur Wright (1867-1912)
Semmelweis - persuasion
Semmelweis was his own worst enemy: • He delayed publishing and presenting his observations. • He had an inferiority complex and became paranoid • He was lacking the pedigree lineage and language mastery to convince his peers
The cradle of creativity in Perspective
Known
Unknown
Attentiveness
Experimentation
Persuasion
Lucky observations
Scouting for information
Systematic search
Trial and error
Analogiy Means-end analysis
Theory Simulation Calculus
Glibness
Partenaires visibles
Established facts
The age of the machines England, late 18th century
A passion for experimentation “One day when Miss Cunegund went to take a walk in a little neighboring wood which was called a park, she saw, through the bushes, the sage Doctor Pangloss giving a lecture in experimental philosophy to her mother’s chambermaid, a little brown wench, very pretty, and very tractable. As Miss Cunegund had a great disposition for the sciences, she observed with the utmost attention the experiments, which were repeated before her eyes; she perfectly well understood the force of the doctor’s reasoning upon causes and effects. She retired greatly flurried, quite pensive and filled with the desire of knowledge, imagining that she might be a sufficing reason for young Candide, and he for her.” Voltaire, Candid
Experimentation and Entertainment
700 Monks electrified At french court
Balloons everywhere The age of hope
Experiments represented on paintings
Religion, experimentation, invention
“Truth about God’s creation was to be found through experimental practices”
Collaboration : the Lunar society
•Boulton •Darwin •Whitehurst •Galton •Small •Edgeworth •Day •Watt •Keir •Wedgwood
Arkwright
A: Chating in pubs – stealing ideas… E: Tinkering with machines P: Fashionning oneself as a great man
Wedgwood
A: Scouting for ideas in the streets of London E: A laboratory in a kitchen P: The patronage of the queen
Watt
A: Observation and friends E: Developing the concept of the ‘perfect engine’ to measure how far you are from an ideal P: Using models and associates to convince people you are on the right track
The age of the system United States, 19th century
Stephenson - Rail
From England to The United States
Networks of inventors - Rail
A Giant experiment Machine shop culture Network of machinists/inventors who owned the patent Strong informal relationships with railroad companies Ad hoc experiments
Inventive hierarchy - rail
Re-assignment of patents to railroad companies Challenge from suppliers Quality control needed Systematic experiments Corporate departments staffed with professional engineers Standardisation – cost reduction
Bell
A: family and Boston E: Analogy of the piano; cross fertilization systematic debugging P: Partners, public demonstration, eloquence
Edison
A: Systematic search E: First modern laboratory P: The wizard of Menlo park... Prophet of his time
Sperry
A: Understanding when to enter a specific field of activity E: Managing breakthrough innovation and fine tuning in parralel P: Courting the rich and governement
The age of the predictive science United States, 20th century
The rise of industrial laboratories
•General Electric (G.E.), •American Telephone and Telegraph Co. (A.T.T.), E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co. (DuPont) •Eastman Kodak (Kodak), •General Chemical •Dow •Standard Oil of Indiana •Goodyear •American Cyanamid
Attentiveness-Experimentation-Persuasion in industrial laboratories
But Early 20th century
Midgley (G.M.)
A: His company brought him the problems E: The power of the periodic table of elements P: Contributing to public disinformation
Coolidge (G.E)
A: continuous search for information and skills outside of the firm E: serendipity and systematic analysis of design parameters P: The house of Magic
Carothers (DuPont)
A: Picking the ripe fruits of science E: Theory and practice as friends P: building the case for Pure science
Science the endless frontier "New frontiers of the mind are before us, and if they are pioneered with the same vision, boldness, and drive with which we have waged this war we can create a fuller and more fruitful employment and a fuller and more fruitful life." -Franklin D. Roosevelt November 17, 1944
From a passion for basic science…
American R&D expenditures were multiplied by more than three between 1945 and 1955
In 1952 two thirds of the Nation’s R&D expenditures were spent in the private industry while being funded by the government
…To myopia
Ivory tower Loss of connection with reality, the users and other technical fields Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove (1964).
New winners Development teams in specialised firms
Attentive to the customer &market needs and to technical developments Engineers focus on practical challenge such as the ability to deliver defect free products Engineers need to persuade customers that they can deliver the technical performance they promise
And to the networks of the Silicon valley
“The Apple I and II were designed strictly on a hobby, for-fun basis, not to be a product for a company. They were meant to bring down to the club and put on the table during the random access period and demonstrate: Look at this, it uses very few chips. It's got a video screen.You can type stuff on it. (...) There was a lot of showing off to other members of the club. Schematics of the Apple I were passed around freely, and I'd even go over to people's houses and help them build their own” Steve Wozniak about the Homebrew club
Some conclusions
An ecosystem of inventive organisations Networks of independant inventors Research lab Development teams Inventive Hierarchy
User Unknown
Known
Questions ahead ` ` `
Is the american dominance at stake? More or less predictive science ahead of us? Is science and its impacts too complex to understand for society?