NOTES^549broadly applicable measures"—Carlton and Coclanis, "The Uninventive South?" pp.
304, 326. Aside from the question why culture should be deemed "intellectually un-
productive" or "essentialist" (it may be hard to quantify, but the real question is, does
it matter?), the problem with regression analysis is that it excludes what it omits and
can be specified so as to leave litde "unexplained" residual. It works well to measure
the relative importance of the factors specified, presumably quantifiable economic
variables, but is dumb on the rest.
- Jeremy, Transatlantic Industrial Revolution, p. 254.
- Gibb, Saco-Lowell Shops, p. 10, cited in Oliver, History of American Technology, p.
- See also Rosenberg, "Anglo-American Wage Differences," who suggests that al-
though American wages for unskilled labor were higher than British, Americans could
hire "best" machine makers for less. - On this reverse flow, see Musson and Robinson, Science and Technology, pp.
62-64. They cite Matthew Curtis, machine maker in Manchester, to a parliamentary
committee in 1841: "... I apprehend that the chief part ... of the really new inven-
tions, that is, of new ideas altogether, in the carrying out of a certain process by new
machinery, or in a new mode, have originated abroad, especially in America." - Jeremy, Transatlantic Industrial Revolution, p. 253.
- Ibid., p. 252.
- See Broadberry, "Comparative Productivity in British and American Manufactur-
ing." - See Eisler, ed., The Lowell Offering.
- On the negative aspects of factory labor, see Dublin, Women at Work, and Zon-
derman, Aspirations and Anxieties. - Quoted in Jeremy, Transatlantic Industrial Revolution, p. 253.
- Rosenberg, Perspectives on Technology, pp. 39-40.
- On the significance of the balloon house, see Giedion, Space, Time, and Architec-
ture; and Rosenberg, Perspectives on Technology, p. 38. It has been argued that the va-
riety of goods, including houses, available to British consumers, constituted an amenity
that does not show up in standard income or production figures but substantially en-
hanced the standard of living—cf. Prais, "Economic Performance and Education,"
p. 155. But a few stays in British stone and brick houses—cold even in August—would
suggest that American construction, however dull and utilitarian, provided more space
and comfort for the money. What is more, the nature of the balloon house is such
that plumbing and electrical wiring can easily be installed in the walls, and this con-
tributed to the early adoption of such amenities as hot and cold running water and cen-
tral heating. On the other hand, the European masonry and plaster construction is
significandy more resistant to fire, and this can make the difference between life and
death. - Rosenberg, Perspectives on Technology, p. 42.
- On the difference and on standards of interchangeability, see Landes, Revolution
in Time, pp. 283-85, and ch. xix: "Not One in Fifty Thousand." - Nathan Rosenberg, Perspectives on Technology, p. 17, calls this phenomenon tech-
nological convergence, because he sees different branches converging on the same tech-
niques. But I would prefer something like technological proliferation or interrelatedness,
the better to emphasize the spread of the techniques into multiple applications. - George Talcott, in S. V. Benêt, éd., A Collection of Annual Reports... Relating
to the Ordnance Department, I, 395, cited in Gordon, "Who Turned the Mechanical
Ideal," p. 746. - Cf. Rosenberg, American System of Manufactures.
- Erickson, American Industry, p. 132.
- Cited in Oliver, History of American Technology, p. 375.