The Productivity Race: British Manufacturing in International Perspective 1850-1990, and: The Conservatives and Industrial Efficiency, 1951-64: Thirteen Wasted Years? (review)

363 Thomson brothers, beginning their careers, took an early interest in the theory and practice of steam power. It was also in Glasgow that James Watt had earlier developed the separate condenser, a device that greatly increased the efficiency of steam engines by eliminating the need to cool and reheat the cylinder during each cycle. Crosbie Smith is director of the Centre for History and Cultural Studies of Science at the University of Kent. As coauthor of Energy and Empire (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), the recent study of Lord Kelvin, he is steeped in the work of the men who are central to this new book. He argues that Watt was strongly influenced by his Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) background; the kirk frowned on avoidable waste, and Watt sought to avoid wasting energy. Church influence was also strong in the Scottish universities, where many students, whatever their subject of undergraduate study, were intending to become clergymen. The Church of Scotland, in marked contrast to the Church of England, was going through a period of change that made it easier for new ideas to be accepted in the universities. The ideas arising from work in industry and universities were developed in discussion and correspondence, much of which is cited in this book. Papers such as Rankine’s “Outlines of the Science of Energetics” (1855) brought new ideas to a scientific audience, first in Scotland and later, through the British Association, to the wider scientific community. Smith takes the reader through the life and thought of each of his “energy” group. He wastes few words, even in almost four hundred pages of rather small print. This is not a quick read, but anyone who wishes to understand the history of the science of energy could do no better.