Creating and Transforming the Twentieth Century, Revised and Expanded

Abstract

Abstract The greatest technical discontinuity in history took place between 1867 and 1914. This era was distinguished by the most extraordinary concatenation of scientific and technical advances, the synergy of which produced bold and imaginative innovations resulting in profound socioeconomic impacts. Detailed examinations of these epoch-making advances start with electricity (dynamos, steam turbines, transformers, light bulbs, electric motors, power plants, transmission) and internal combustion engines (automotive designs by Otto, Diesel, Daimler, Maybach, Benz, Ford, aeroengines) before looking at inventions in material production, from metallurgy (affordable steel, aluminum) and cement to powerful explosives and the synthesis of ammonia, and at advances in information (from papermaking and typesetting to photographs and movies) and communication (from telephones, phonographs and records to radio). Post-World War I inventions and innovations transformed all of these techniques by making them more efficient, durable, reliable, affordable, and environmentally more acceptable and brought new accomplishments in energy conversions (oil and gas industry, gas turbines, nuclear electricity generation), materials (new ways of steel production, plastics, herbicides, pesticides, silicon), rationalized production (automation, robotization, quality control), and transportation (freeways, jetliners, rapid trains, large tankers, container shipping), while advances in solid-state electronics enabled the age of computing, microprocessors, and access to instant global communication and information (personal computers, mobile phones, World Wide Web). The Age of Synergy and the post-1914 technical transformations created a new, increasingly anthropogenic world of high-energy societies whose most worrisome obverse has been large-scale environmental degradation.