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Informationen zum Autor FREDERIK NEBEKER, PHD, is currently Senior Research Historian at the IEEE History Center, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Klappentext A COMPREHENSIVE AND FASCINATING ACCOUNT OF ELECTRICAL AND ELECTRONICS HISTORY Much of the infrastructure of today's industrialized world arose in the period from the outbreak of World War I to the conclusion of World War II. It was during these years that the capabilities of traditional electrical engineering--generators, power transmission, motors, electric lighting and heating, home appliances, and so on--became ubiquitous. Even more importantly, it was during this time that a new type of electrical engineering--electronics--emerged. Because of its applications in communications (both wire-based and wireless), entertainment (notably radio, the phonograph, and sound movies), industry, science and medicine, and the military, the electronics industry became a major part of the economy. Dawn of the Electronic Age explores how this engineering knowledge and its main applications developed in various scientific, economic, and social contexts, and explains how each was profoundly affected by electrical technologies. It takes an international perspective and a narrative approach, unfolding the story chronologically. Though a scholarly study (with sources of information given in endnotes for engineers and historians of science and technology), the book is intended for the general public. Ultimately, it tells the story of the development of a new realm of engineering and its widespread applications during the remarkable and tragic period of two world wars and the decades in between. Zusammenfassung A comprehensive overview of electrical and electronics history Electrical power is supplied to virtually every home and workplace in our industrialized world. Providing a much-needed comprehensive overview of electrical and electronics history! Dawn of the Electric Age takes an international perspective within a chronological framework. Inhaltsverzeichnis Introduction 1 1. The Great War and Wireless Communications 11 1.1 Land-Bound Communications 11 1.1.1 The Battle of Tannenberg and the Electron Tube 11 1.1.2 The Telegraph 15 1.1.3 The Telephone and the Battle of Neuve Chapelle 17 1.1.4 Ground Telegraphy 20 1.2 Communication Through the Ether 21 1.2.1 Origins of Wireless Telegraphy 21 1.2.2 Wireless at Sea 24 1.2.3 Wireless on Land and in the Air 26 1.3 Eavesdropping 30 1.3.1 Military Intelligence 30 1.3.2 Cryptology and the Zimmermann Telegram 34 1.4 The Art and Science of Radio 37 1.4.1 The Manufacture of Electron Tubes 37 1.4.2 The Science of Electron Tubes 40 1.4.3 Radio Engineers 43 2. Electrical Technologies in Total War 47 2.1 Remote and Automatic Control 47 2.1.1 The Battle of Jutland and Electrical Technology at Sea 47 2.1.2 Fire Control and Analog Calculation 51 2.1.3 Gyroscopic Control 54 2.1.4 Sound Ranging and Other Systems of Control 58 2.2 Military Research and Development 62 2.2.1 Research Against the Submarine Threat 62 2.2.2 A War of the Engineers 66 2.2.3 Institutionalizing Military R&D 69 2.3 Mobilization for Total War 72 2.3.1 A War of Attrition 72 2.3.2 Electrical Technology and Mobilization 75 2.3.3 The War for Minds 77 2.3.4 The Legacies of World War I 78 3. Electrification in the Interwar Period 83 3.1 Lenin's Program of Development Through Electric Power 83 3.1.1 "Communism is Soviet Power Plus the Electrification of the Whole Country" 83 3.1.2 The State Adopts an Electrification Plan 85 3.1.3 Engineers Gain in Status 87 3.2 Generators, Power Lines, and Motors 88 3.2.1 Ge...
