Analog superpowers : how twentieth-century technology theft built the national security state / Katherine C. Epstein.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Epstein, Katherine C., 1982- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Pollen, Arthur Joseph Hungerford, 1866-1937.

Pollen, Arthur Joseph Hungerford.

Isherwood, Harold, 1877-1964.

Isherwood, Harold.

Fire control (Naval gunnery)--Technological innovations--Great Britain.

Fire control (Naval gunnery).

Analog computers--Great Britain.

Analog computers.

Patent infringement--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Patent infringement.

Patent infringement--United States--History--20th century.

Patent laws and legislation--Great Britain--History--20th century.

Patent laws and legislation.

National security--United States.

National security.

National security--Great Britain.

Inventors--Great Britain.

Inventors.

Physical Description:

xi, 366 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

How twentieth-century technology theft built the national security state

Place of Publication:

Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2024.

Summary:

"The technology at the center of this book marks a milestone in computing history. Until the late nineteenth century, naval gun crews aimed and fired at virtually point-blank ranges, but as warship speeds and battle ranges grew, it became necessary to predict where the target would be when a projectile landed. Two British civilian inventors, Arthur Pollen and Harold Isherwood, insisted that the only way to predict with sufficient speed and accuracy to enable hits in battle was to incorporate all the relevant variables into mathematical equations and to develop instruments for solving them instantaneously and continuously. This insight led them to build an integrated, gyro-stabilized system for gathering data, calculating predictions, and transmitting the results to the gunners. At the heart of their system was the most advanced analog computer of the day. In addition to being a landmark technological achievement, Pollen and Isherwood's invention also took on legal significance. Its value was so evident that first Britain's Royal Navy and then the US Navy paid them the compliment of pirating it. The inventors' attempts to gain compensation in the courts had rippling effects on how the two leading liberal societies of the modern era struggled to reconcile their ideological commitment to private property rights with the perceived imperatives of national security. Their story shows that the modern American national-security state and secrecy regime, which are often associated with atomic energy during the mid-twentieth century, had longer, trans-Atlantic roots. It also shows that the United States, in its rise to global hegemony, relied heavily on the acquisition of British technology by fair means or foul-much as Americans accuse China of doing to the United States today"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Naval fire control as beach reading

Invention as authorship

Infringement as plagiarism

Official secrets

Westward the course of piracy makes its way

Secret patents and the Pax Britannica

Breaking up is hard to do

Clocking the crown

Inside the military-industrial complex

Outside the military-industrial complex

State secrets and the Pax Americana

Conclusion: Everything old is new again.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780226831220

0226831221

OCLC:

1417599893