Wheels, Clocks, and Rockets
A History of Technology
Donald Cardwell

This is a fascinating book, but it isn't a simple read. Cardwell covers the history of technology from antiquity to yesterday, and what's even more impressive, shows how the past and present are tied together, and how many different fields interact with one another. There is much here for the interested reader, and even a casual reader will find it interesting to browse through.

After a brief introduction, Cardwell starts off with Christianity and clocks, Greek gears, and slavery. Certainly I've never seen these three topics addressed together. From there he moves on to Galileo, the printing press, steam engines, the textile industry, water wheels, ship building, the chemical industry, electricity, aircraft, nuclear energy, and computers, touching on related societal impacts. The fascinating part is how these are all related, and how improvements in one area affect others.

Cardwell's prose is clear and straightforward, but not dry. His descriptions are a good balance between explaining the function of some piece of equipment, and placing it in the context of it's time. Every now and then I wondered if he had let his topic get away, but he is in full control. Everything is there for a reason.

At the same time, he is talking about the people who made these advances, and places them in context as well. He explains who they worked with, and who's works they might or might not have been influenced by. I've been somewhat interested in this all my life, and have never heard of some of these people.

I bought this book, and am very pleased that it will find a home in my library. People interested in technology will at least want to take it out of the library, and may well want to buy it.

 

WW Norton & Company, 2001
ISBN 0-393-32175-4