From: Lee Corbin (lcorbin@tsoft.com)
Date: Sun Sep 01 2002 - 12:58:44 MDT
Ron and others asked about why the English lost their world
supremacy in technology and economic power by 1920 or so.
A book I recently read presented some startling explanations,
which fit with some other observations.
First, there were several reasons that the English beat
out everyone in the first place: good infrastructure
(canals and good roads), receptiveness from overseas
ideas, and most relevantly, they were and still are a
nation of "tinkerers". They love to go fix stuff.
Even today, according to my boss who travels extensively,
ask a German or a Frenchman about his car, and he'll tell
you amazing statistics about its performance and a number
of scientific and theoretical features about its engine
and handling. But he won't even know how to change the
oil. Now an Englishman (typically) won't know all that
high falutin' stuff about compression ratio, but he'll
spend his weekends fiddling with his engine, sometimes
improvising this and that, and have an excellent hands-on
knowledge about how it all works.
While this helps explain why England came up with the
first steam engines and other apparatuses, it also explains
why by 1870 they were starting to lose out in engineering,
chemistry, and technology in general to the Germans. So
by this light, the English talent for "tinkering" came in
just at the right time for the industrial revolution, but
couldn't carry them further. The "theoreticians" on the
continent would finally build better naval guns or engines
(the Spitfire being an amazing exception).
Sure, there are many other reasons. One is that the labor
movement in England by 1920 and throughout the 20th century
also damaged them enormously.
Just my two cents.
Lee
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