Authority, Liberty, and Automatic Machinery in Early Modern Europe

by Otto Mayr

Book Overview

Perhaps never in history has society been so fascinated with a single machine as when, in early modern Europe, the clock evolved into a major cultural image, widely used in literature, science, and especially Cartesian philosophy. Yet in England, there was greater interest in a different class of technology-the feedback device, such as the safety valve on a steam engine, that could control itself internally;self-regulating systems were hallmarks...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801839394
• ISBN13: 9780801839399
• Release Date: August 1989
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.3"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher