A Modern Book of Aesthetics: An Anthology by Melvin Rader (review)

on technology, with particular reference to ecology. The third paper treats the influence of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls on Jewish biblical studies and the fourth the transmutation of an artistic statement through technology in Louis Sullivan’s bold conception of skyscrapers. The third part, man and machines, has six papers on the ambivalent attitude of man towards machines, which although his own creations, either help him by augmenting his muscle power or threaten his quality of life and life itself. The last part, invention and innovation, points out the complex socio-technical steps leading to invention and innovation, whose ultimate application is controlled not by technologists but by social, economic and cultural forces. The editors had no easy task selecting papers to be included in the book, however I missed a consideration of Indian and Arabic technology, the impact of technology on religion and literature and the possible implications of space technology on the future of mankind. There remains the vexing general question regarding the need to republish in book form papers that are already available in journals. I feel that the editors would have performed a service, if, instead of merely reproducing the papers, they had included discussions of them to take into account developments that have occurred since they were written. The Sources of Invention. John Jewkes, David Sawers and Richard Stillerman. 2nd ed. W. W. Norton, New York, 1969. 372 pp., illus. Paper $2.75. Reviewed by S. K. Ghaswala* The first edition was published in 1958 and this second edition appeared ten years later. What the authors intend is a searching analysis of the causes and consequences of industrial innovations based on important inventions recorded in the 19th and 20th centuries. While the inventions are directly of a technical and scientific nature, it may seem surprising that none of the authors has any training in these subjects on which they apparently write with authority. The answer to this ironical situation is given by the authors in the opening section, which also clearly throws light on the basic nature of inventions. They state: ‘ . . .answers now being proffered to a question of great intellectural interest . ..reveal . . . that this study, impinging as it does upon history, science, technology, economics and law, is a kind of everyman’s land, and therefore no-man’s-land, in which perhaps no one can hope to be fully equipped at all points for the exploration.’ It becomes evident as one reads through this text that the bases of scientific and industrial innovation lie more in economics and the social environment of the times rather than in technology or science itself. There is nothing in the history of technology in the past two centuries to show that infallible methods of invention have been discovered or are, in fact, discoverable. With technological sophistication, a prudent society and increasing corporate wealth, the individual inventor is being replaced by groups of inventors in large research organizations having ample funds and facilities. In one way or the other every society makes decisions about the proportion of its resources that is to be devoted to research and invention. The most interesting part of the book comprises the last 120 or so pages covering summaries of some 60 case histories of actual inventions, their inventors and the background against which the innovations were made. Thus, from the discussion of the automatic transmission device, the reader learns that the combination of hydraulic coupling and an automatic epicyclic gear-box in the form of the ‘Hydra Matic’ drive arose through the cooperation of a gifted individual and a large corporation. On the other hand, the work of an individual inventor, Leo Baeckeland, resulted in a new product Bakelite, which paved the way for several other developments. *Edena, 97 M. Karve Road, Bombay 400020, India. All of these examples, neatly presented with portraits of their inventors, add a vivid touch of absorbing interest and throw light on many questions, such as the influence of large research institutions and the concept of teamwork, the arguments for monopoly in industry and the possibility of predicting inventions. The book should interest a wide circle of readers-scientists, technologists, inventors, economists, historians and futurologists...