SOCI 235 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Bessemer Process, Organic Chemistry, Final Good
8 Jun 2018
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SOCI 235 – Technology and Society
Science and Technology – Sept 13th
Science and technology
• Science (originate in individuals or scientific research laboratories) leads to technology
which in turn leads to product and process innovations
• We can observe from late 19th to early 20th century, scientific discoveries are crucial to
development
• Example: plant genetics and crop characteristics → biotechnology takes this a step
further y aipulatig the gees of seeds of plats GMO’s
o Plant genetics: selective breading/cultivation to produce livestock and crops
with desirable characteristics has a very long history but became more
systematic from the late 18th century
o Biotechnology: manipulate genes to accelerate the process of moving to more
desirable characteristics
o This movement to science – often identified and associated with Gilchrist and
Thomas
o Observed and reviewed the basis of steel making – learned that you could
extract phosphorus by adding limestone to furnaces
▪ Their process made it cheaper to use iron oars
▪ Refining process improved predictability and the importance of output
There is some evidence that there has been a historical shift: the role of science is producing
technology gets progressively larger
Sometimes cited evidence of this shift – case of Gilchrist and Thomas
• To make steel, impurities have to be removed, including carbon
o Removing impurities requires melting ore
• Mid – 19th century, Henry Bessemer developed procedure that forced air through the
furnace which succeeded in raising the temperature of the molten metal → this was
blast furnace
• This process failed to remove phosphorus which occurred in ore in varying quantities
and caused brittleness in steel
• G & T reviewed basic research on the chemistry of steel-making and concluded that
lining a furnace with limestone would cause the phosphorus to form slag on the surface
• This is an early example of application of science in development of technology
o Distinguished from earlier history of the industry by i) previously, research in
steel chemistry was substantially detached from refining processes, ii) implicit in
this division of labour, G&T did the science, industry used knowledge they
generated
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Document Summary
There is some evidence that there has been a historical shift: the role of science is producing technology gets progressively larger. Elementary education was more widely available: literary became increasingly important for the economy, 2. Training in applied technology (craftsmen, mechanics) was more widely available: 3. There was a well-developed system of engineering schools: 4. Implicit in this is a model of the innovation process. Science technology product and process innovations: at technology stage inventors and industrial research laboratories take the available science and apply it to the solution of practical problems, this model suggests that technology is exogenous to science. Rosenberg argues that technology should not be considered to be only exogenous to science: main points made by rosenberg, 1. Measurement is critical in sciences: measurement requires instrumentation, which is a form of technology, example: various sorts of microscopes, use of computers in all sorts of contexts. Rosenberg argues that technology is becoming increasingly more important to science: 1.
