The Development and Diffusion of Telephone Technology in Britain,1900–1940
James S. Foreman-Peck · Transactions of the Newcomen Society · 1991
Six fairly general principles of technology explain much of the pace of absorption and nature of the evolution of British telephony in the first half century of state ownership. First, at any particular time, some technologies have more development potential than others. Technological histories tend to focus on 'firsts', but these ideas are usually crude and expensive. Only when worked upon by many scientists and engineers do they become means of spreading the technology. Development is time consuming and expensive. The second principle is therefore that the balance of advantage from being an innovator rather than a copier can depend on the patentability of the technology and on how cumulative is the technical knowledge obtained by research teams or individuals. Third, the economy with largest market or strongest demand for a technology is likely to devote the most resources to development and to remain the source of the secondary innovations that enhance the effectiveness of the technology. Fourth, technologies allow a variety of methods or techniques of implementation, more or less appropriate to national conditions. Fifth, the effectiveness of engineering technology depends upon what might be called social or organisational technology, which can vary substantially between nations. Sixth, certain technologies, such as telecommunications, necessarily work in large networks. This characteristic strongly influences their development and poses distinctive questions for society.