Fostering a new industry in the Industrial Revolution: Boulton & Watt and gaslight 1800–1812

2012 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-229 ◽  
Author(s):  
LESLIE TOMORY

AbstractGaslight emerged as a new industry after 1800 in Britain, but not in other countries in Europe where the technology existed as well. Among the many groups trying, it was only the firm of Boulton & Watt that succeeded in commercializing the invention for two important reasons. The first was that they possessed skills and experience related to ironworking and to making scientific instruments, both of which they used as they developed gaslight apparatus. This development involved an extensive series of experiments that ultimately had its root in James Watt's own work with pneumatic chemistry. The second reason was that they possessed many resources such as access to capital, their existing network of industrial customers, and their abilities to publicize their work. As with the steam engine, the firm proved adept at advertising. Boulton & Watt did not give their full attention to gaslight except in two spurts between 1805 and 1809, and by around 1812 they had lost almost all interest in the technology. By this time, however, they had solved many problems associated with scaling up gaslight apparatus for industrial use, they had trained many people who would go on to do further important work in the early years of the industry, and they had drawn extensive public attention to the new invention. Finally, their advertising involved elevating the status of William Murdoch as an inventor while minimizing the role of the firm.

2020 ◽  
pp. 68-90
Author(s):  
I. Vietrynskyi

The article examines the prerequisites for the creation and early stages of development of the Commonwealth of Australia from the founding of the first European colonies prior to the legal formalization of the federation. Also mentioned are the variability of approaches to the development of Australia’s historiography, in particular from the positions of classical English and modern Australian views. Also, the early stages of the development of the continent that preceded the discovery of Australia by Europeans are considered. It analyzes the wide context of geopolitical processes in Europe in the era of imperialism (XVI-XIX centuries), as well as the circumstances of the formation of large colonial empires. In particular, features of the status, place and role of England in the international political processes of the XVIІ and XVIII centuries are shown, and the stages of the formation of the British colonial empire are also considered. The complex of internal socio-economic as well as foreign policy prerequisites for the beginning of the colonization of Australia by Great Britain is analyzed, in particular the attention paid to the consequences of the British Industrial Revolution XVIII. The stages of formation of the British colonies in Australia, as well as the development of the mainland from the establishment of the first settlement - New South Wales until full control of the continent are investigated. The characteristics of the economic, social, political, demographic and other aspects of the development of Australian colonies are analyzed. The article discusses the evolution of trade and administrative relations between individual colonies, as well as the stages of preparation for the creation of a federation, which was called the Commonwealth of Australia and changed the country's colonial position to the dominion status in the British Empire. Particular attention is paid to the international political processes that accompanied the development of the Australian continent, as well as the role of colonial administrations in regional geopolitical processes, in particular the colonization of New Guinea.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Florencia Breitman ◽  
Ramiro Jesús Neyro Martinez ◽  
Luciano Javier Avila ◽  
Jack Walter Sites ◽  
Mariana Morando

Lizards from the Liolaemus lineomaculatus section are endemic to Patagonia, southern South America. Three main groups are recognized within this section, one of which, the L. kingii group includes eleven species. The two northernmost distributed species of this group, L. somuncurae and L. uptoni, are endemic to a small area that partly overlaps with the Provincial Protected Area Somuncurá Plateau (within the Somuncurá massif). Knowledge available for these species is based on limited sample sizes, and mostly limited to their original descriptions; also a recent molecular phylogenetic study showed evidence for a closely related candidate species (Liolaemus sp. 4). In this paper we morphologically and genetically characterize the species L. somuncurae, L. uptoni, and L. sp. 4, and present past demographic hypotheses. We studied eighty lizards, and collected morphological and genetic data for almost all of them. The specific status of L. somuncurae and L. uptoni is supported by molecular, morphological, and distributional evidence, as well as the status of L. sp. 4; for which we recommend further morphological comparisons with other species of the L. kingii group. We also identified two novel lineages from restricted areas south of the Chubut River that we propose as candidate species. We extend previously published evidence (from plants and rodents) supporting the role of the Chubut River as an allopatric barrier. Also, in agreement with previous results based on plants, we found evidence for two refugia in northwestern Chubut, for which we encourage conservation efforts.


2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-26
Author(s):  
Zebunnisa Hamid

In order to locate and contextualise the space women filmmakers occupy in what I refer to as New Pakistani Cinema (NPC), this article highlights the eight women directors of NPC, whose films were released between 2013 and 2018: Afia Nathaniel, Iram Parveen Bilal, Meenu Gaur, Mehreen Jabbar, Momina Duraid, Sabiha Sumar, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Shazia Ali Khan. In doing so, this article also touches upon women working behind the scenes as producers and writers (often in multiple roles on the same film as director, producer and/or writer) to illustrate how women filmmakers have played a key role in establishing NPC in its early years. Starting with initial releases in 2013, NPC functions within a complex terrain, informed in part by new industry players, the crossing of borders in the production of films, the role of foreign content in Pakistani cinemas and an engagement with regional and global themes situated within a local context. Therefore, NPC and the evolving cinema culture that surrounds it demand unique and innovative forms and avenues of production, distribution and exhibition, along with distinct emerging imaginaries that are an amalgamation of the local, national, regional and global. It is within the temporal and spatial intersections of these different processes that we can begin to situate these women filmmakers.


2014 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 182-187
Author(s):  
Clare Southall

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the changing role of OD practitioners. Given the many significant challenges faced by organisations and their leaders, never has the role of OD been more important; it is vital that OD practitioners are able to identify the paradigm shift that is required if they are to provide the relevant challenge and support that organisations and leaders need. Design/methodology/approach – The OD role is explored through the Challenger pattern of behaviour known as Witnessing the Establishment – the ability, and the willingness, to see things as they really are, not as we wish them to be. The authors are often so much a part of the organisational system ourselves that the underpinning assumptions, beliefs, routines and rituals that exist are so transparent we can not see them for what they are. Findings – This paper focuses on one of the six patterns of behaviour identified in Challenger leaders in the book “Challenger Spirit: Organisations that disturb the status quo” by Khurshed Dehnugara and Claire Genkai Breeze, LID Publishing, 2011. Research limitations/implications – This is not an academic paper but instead a consultant/practitioner perspective grounded in day-to-day work with leaders and OD professionals in client organisations. Originality/value – A number of suggestions are given for applying the perspectives discussed, through a series of questions, diagnostic processes and models. These are directly applicable to OD practitioners themselves and can also form the basis of further conversations with the leaders and colleagues.


1982 ◽  
Vol 6 (06) ◽  
pp. 102-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. N. Wig

The progress of psychiatry in India during the last 35 years is indeed impressive. At the time of Independence in 1947, there were just a handful of Indian psychiatrists looking after some 20 odd mental hospitals scattered throughout the country. Colonel M. Taylor (1946), who reviewed the status of mental health services for the Bhore Committee on Health Survey Development in India, ruefully noted the gross inadequacy of mental health services. A major recommendation of the Committee (1946) was to start local training facilities for doctors and other health professionals in the field of mental health. The first landmark was the opening of the All India Institute of Mental Health at Bangalore in 1954. The role of Dr Mayer-Gross, who was closely associated with the development of this Institute in its early years, will be long remembered by many Indian psychiatrists.


Author(s):  
Тамара Белаловна Джамбекова ◽  
Джамиля Салавдиевна Товсултанова

Творчество выдающегося чеченского писателя, мастера лирического и убеждающего слова, Магомеда Мамакаева (1910-1973) в наши дни вновь притягивает внимание общественности и приобретает статус объекта не только для отклика критиков, но и для научного исследования в связи с актуализацией многолетней проблемы социально-политических конфликтов, охватывающих весь мир, а также в связи с новой волной переоценки исторических событий в России начала ХХ века, в частности роли Октябрьской революции 1917 г. в истории горских народов. Целью исследования является характеристика жизненных и эстетических событий романов «Мюрид революции» и «Зелимхан» М. Мамакаева. В задачи исследования входит анализ сюжета и стиля романов, характеристика образов главных героев, определение особенностей художественного мастерства писателя. Полученные результаты подтверждают мысль о единстве противоположностей в структуре повествования, о диалектической сбалансированности частей целого в произведении, о доминирующем тоне автора, что придает художественной структуре «дух целого», придавая всем элементам признаки фрактальности. The work of an outstanding Chechen writer, master of lyrical and persuasive speech, Magomed Mamakaev (1910-1973), nowadays again attracts public attention and acquires the status of an object not only for the response of critics, but also for scientific research in connection with the actualization of the many-year problem of social political conflicts covering the whole world, as well as in connection with a new wave of reassessment of historical events in Russia at the beginning of the twentieth century, in particular, a reassessment of the role of the October Revolution of 1917, including its role in the history of mountain peoples. The aim of the study is to characterize the life and aesthetic events of the novels "Murid of the Revolution" and "Zelimkhan" by M. Mamakaev. The research objectives include: an analysis of the plot and style of the novels; characterization of the images of the main characters; determination of the features of the writer's artistic skill. The results obtained confirm the idea of the unity of opposites in the structure of the narrative, of the dialectical balance of the parts of the whole in the work, of the dominant tone of the author, which surrounds the artistic structure with the “spirit of the whole”, giving all elements the signs of fractality.


2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 48-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanjeev K. Saini ◽  
C. N. Krishnan ◽  
L. N. Rajaram

This paper reports the preliminary results of a study conducted to assess and quantify the adoption of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) by organisations and enterprises. While almost all organisations use FOSS in some form today, there is a wide variation in the manner and extent to which they do so, and presently no quantitative measure exists that can capture the true picture. The present work has built a model with two sets of parameters that, when fed with relevant data about an organisation, generates a single number, the FOSS Adoption Index (FAI), for that organisation. The index is so defined that the higher its value for an organisation, the greater is the extent of FOSS adoption in that organisation. Beyond the single measure FAI that gives a coarse assessment, the model also allows drilling down to finer levels of granularity that provides deeper insights into the status and role of FOSS within a given organisation. Primary data collected for two classes of organisations through questionnaire based surveys and interviews have been used to demonstrate the working of the model as well as its potential usefulness for real world situations.


Author(s):  
Thomas Neville Bonner

The years around 1830, as just described, were a turning point in the movement to create a more systematic and uniform approach to the training of doctors. For the next quarter-century, a battle royal raged in the transatlantic countries between those seeking to create a common standard of medical training for all practitioners and those who defended the many-tiered systems of preparing healers that prevailed in most of them. At stake were such important issues as the care of the rural populations, largely unserved by university-trained physicians, the ever larger role claimed for science and academic study in educating doctors, the place of organized medical groups in decision making about professional training, and the role to be played by government in setting standards of medical education. In Great Britain, the conflict over change centered on the efforts of reformers, mainly liberal Whigs, apothecary-surgeons, and Scottish teachers and practitioners, to gain a larger measure of recognition for the rights of general practitioners to ply their trade freely throughout the nation. Ranged against them were the royal colleges, the traditional universities, and other defenders of the status quo. Particularly sensitive in Britain was the entrenched power of the royal colleges of medicine and surgery— “the most conservative bodies in the medical world,” S. W. F. Holloway called them—which continued to defend the importance of a liberal, gentlemanly education for medicine, as well as their right to approve the qualifications for practice of all other practitioners except apothecaries. Members of the Royal College of Physicians of London, the most elite of all the British medical bodies, were divided by class into a small number of fellows, almost all graduates of Oxford and Cambridge, and a larger number of licentiates, who, though permitted to practice, took no part in serious policy discussions and could not even use such college facilities as the library or the museum. “The Fellows,” claimed a petition signed by forty-nine London physicians in 1833, “have usurped all the corporate power, offices, privileges, and emoluments attached to the College.”


2022 ◽  
pp. 1-31
Author(s):  
Stuart Hargreaves

Abstract Typically one member of a sitting panel of Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal is a senior jurist drawn from another common law jurisdiction. In the Court's early years, these ‘overseas judges’ were responsible for writing approximately one quarter of the lead opinions across a vast range of cases. This article demonstrates, however, that this practice has changed. The overseas judges now write a smaller share of lead opinions and no longer write lead opinions related to issues of fundamental human rights or the relationship between Hong Kong and the rest of China. This article suggests this change has been made for good reason. Though valid questions about the legitimacy of the role of the overseas judges can be made, they also continue to perform a valuable communicative role regarding the status of Hong Kong's judicial independence under the ‘one country, two systems’ framework. A recent rise in attacks on overseas and other ‘foreign’ judges in Hong Kong can be understood as part of a broader project that seeks to constrain the role of the independent judiciary. By continuing to invite overseas judges to sit on the Court of Final Appeal but reducing their public prominence, the Court has sought not only to reduce avenues for attacks on the legitimacy of particular decisions, but to protect the autonomy and independence of the judiciary more broadly.


1976 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 98-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. Coats

During the past two or three decades economic and social historians have displayed a sustained interest in the pre-conditions of the Industrial Revolution in England, and among the many explanations of this remarkable break-through into modern industrialization the role of labour (including population) has been accorded a prominent place. Yet although questions about wages, labour supply, productivity, poverty, and poor relief have been staple ingredients in the economic and social historian's diet ever since his discipline began to take shape in the late nineteenth century, there are still serious gaps in our knowledge of the size, composition, quality and living standards of the English labour force in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Some of these gaps may eventually be filled, at least partially, by detailed empirical studies of local and regional demographic, economic and social conditions. But even the most sanguine researcher must admit that there will continue to be deficiencies of data and unanswerable questions, so the need for interpretative, even speculative, studies will remain. The present paper falls within this latter category, for it is mainly concerned with the relationships between ideas, policies and conditions affecting the English labouring poor in the period under examination. It combines a review of the present state of knowledge of these matters with some speculative observations about causal connections and the possibilities of future research.


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