I think I might have sent a note earlier I didn't mean to send. If so, oops and sorry.
There is a wonderful piece that is not about bicycles per se, but rather uses of the example of the bicycle to explain a wider point about the analysis of technological systems. I was very impressed by this book ten years ago when I read it, and I think it was very ahead of its time (it came out in 1987, and I have the sixth printing from 1997).
The book is called The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions on the Sociology and History of Technology, edited by Weibe E. Bijker, Thomas P. Hughes, and Trevor Pinch.
The chapter in question is the first one called The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts: Or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology Might Benefit Each Other. by Pinch and Bijker.
Unlike some contemporary work in this vein, which has become decidedly shrill and aloof to the nuts and bolts of serious social research, this is readable, logical and I think very valuable. To explain, they use the bicycle as its progression (or evolution if you prefer) to illustrate their approach.
Do take a look.
Derek.
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Derek B. Miller
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On Thursday, August 11, 2011 at 2:17 PM, Peter Jones | Redesign wrote:
> Fil - Is there a definitive history of anything? ;) All histories are
> narratives from a perspective, definitive from that storyteller's viewpoint
> at most. My question would be, is there an innovator's history of bicycles?
> And why focus on bicycles as the only artifact?
>
> As a Daytonian before a Torontonian, it's incumbent on me to remind the
> bicycle historians that the origination of the first stable flying machine
> was constructed in Dayton by bicycle innovators. The structures and precise
> balancing of the Wright Flyer was made possible by the brothers' experience
> with inventing and repairing bicycles, which were reportedly a "craze" at
> the turn of the last century. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers
> The recent innovation of the "safety bicycle" then has remained a stable
> design for > 100 years.
>
> As you may know as a Torontonian, there's a bicycle film festival this week,
> and Dexter Ico in our studio here has a piece in the program:
> http://www.bicyclefilmfestival.com/toronto/ Worth seeing the site just for
> the variety of stories.
>
> Going back to Dayton, I will purport a working theory of Dayton as one of
> the first major US innovation clusters
> http://www.isc.hbs.edu/econ-clusters.htm and it was the Silicon Valley of
> the machine age, now celebrated and fantasized in steampunk retrospective.
> It was the leading city for new patents during a period then, and it still
> has a famous Engineer's Club downtown.
>
> The Wright Brothers were no accident. Dayton was home of the first assembly
> line mechanical computer firm (NCR), the company founded by James Patterson
> who literally "fired" IBM founder TJ Watson in front of their original HQ
> building on Main Street. Before the Ford assembly line, Dayton had the
> largest number of bespoke auto shops in the US, over 100 by some accounts,
> and the machining and machine tool industry were uniquely capable in the
> world from that time through the 1970's, when the industrial infrastructure
> was "Shumpetered." Dayton was the US home of the Enigma codebreakers, and
> in WWII was the home of human factors engineering, as jet aircraft were also
> designed and managed from the new US Air Force in Dayton. The capacity to
> drill the 16" gun bores for the WWII battleships was only found in Dayton
> (which I remember but have not confirmed), and so on. There are numerous
> examples like this.
>
> Needless to say, even with a significant high tech economy in Dayton, it did
> not evolve to Silicon Valley. But will Silicon Valley be the leading
> innovation cluster in North America after another century? If the secular
> era of long-term innovation and development drives regional clusters, we may
> not be able to predict what developments and capacities will drive the next
> age's innovation center. Has anyone on the group list studied clusters and
> these regions, or have longitudinal theories about these innovation eras?
>
> Peter
>
> Peter Jones, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor, Faculty of Design
> Strategic Foresight and Innovation
>
> T 416 799-8799
> E [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
>
> OCAD University
> 205 Richmond Street West, Toronto, Canada M5V 1V6
>
>
> Hello Filippo
> Im running the gallery at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. I
> don't know anything about bikes, but I just thought ill let you know that we
> are planning to display a few of the 500 bikes in a private collection of
> Norwegian bikes that now is hidden in a cellar here in Oslo. So for that we
> would need some general and local history. I would certainly be interested
> in keeping a dialogue on the theme.
> Best
> Birger Sevaldson
> Professor
> Oslo School of Architecture and Design
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: PhD-Design - This list is for discussion of PhD studies and related
> research in Design [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Filippo
> A. Salustri
> Sent: 11. august 2011 04:45
> To: [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
> Subject: the history of the bicycle
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'm wondering if anyone can direct me to a definitive history of the design
> of the bicycle.
> I've been made aware of several histories, but there are some conflicts in
> certain aspects.
>
> Much obliged.
> Fil
>
> --
> \V/_
> Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.
> Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
> Ryerson University
> 350 Victoria St, Toronto, ON
> M5B 2K3, Canada
> Tel: 416/979-5000 ext 7749
> Fax: 416/979-5265
> Email: [log in to unmask] (mailto:[log in to unmask])
> http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/
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