Abstract
This conclusion brings the four sections of the methodological framework together in order to discuss the legacies of design collaboration across the empire. We align our findings with postcolonial models that highlight the fluidity of the colonial world and forms of interaction within it. In addressing our initial research questions, we summarise firstly how imperial and British elites played prominent roles in technological initiatives, and secondly the tangible and traceable networks of communication that were the legacy of design activity. We conclude by considering the applicability of our findings beyond the British Empire, and the broader lessons regarding assumptions of knowledge and the circularity of communication networks during this period.
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- 1.
National Library of Scotland, MS 17956, Journal of a visit to Jamaica, ff. 23, 14 January 1824.
- 2.
D. Arnold, ‘Europe, technology and colonialism in the twentieth century,’ History and Technology, 21:1 (2005), pp. 98–100 (Arnold 2005); C. Andersen, British engineers and Africa, 1875–1914 (London, 2011), pp. 3–5, 57, 162–4 (Andersen 2011); R. A. Buchanan, ‘Institutional proliferation in the British engineering profession, 1847–1914,’ Economic History Review, 38:1 (1985), pp. 43, 46 (Buchanan 1985); S. J. Potter, ‘Webs, networks and systems: globalisation and the mass media in the nineteenth and twentieth century British Empire,’ Journal of British Studies, 46:3 (2007), pp. 622, 626, 634. (Potter 2007)
- 3.
A. Thompson and G. Magee, ‘A soft touch? British industry, empire markets, and the self-governing dominions, c. 1870–1914,’ Economic History Review, 56:4 (2003), p. 690 (Thompson and Magee 2003); A. Thompson, The empire strikes back? The impact of imperialism on Britain from the mid-nineteenth century (Harlow, 2005), pp. 170–1. (Thompson 2005)
- 4.
Arnold, ‘Europe, technology and colonialism,’ pp. 98–100. (Arnold 2005)
- 5.
D. R. Headrick, The tools of empire: technology and European imperialism in the nineteenth century (Oxford, 1981), pp. 11, 206. (Headrick 1981)
- 6.
Arnold, ‘Europe, technology and colonialism,’ pp. 98–100. (Arnold 2005)
- 7.
P. J. Cain and A. G. Hopkins, British imperialism: innovation and expansion, 1688–1914 (London, 1993), pp. 238–9, 241. (Cain and Hopkins 1993)
- 8.
B. Attard and A. Dilley, ‘Finance, empire and the British world,’ Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 41:1 (2013), pp. 1–10. (Attard and Dilley 2013)
- 9.
Andersen, British engineers and Africa, pp. 3–5. (Andersen 2011)
- 10.
There are numerous examples, but symbolised here by Museum of English Rural Life, [hereafter MERL], John Fowler & Co., TR FOW, ET, 1/1 ‘Book of facts: Drawing Office,’ c. 1853–1877.
- 11.
See for example, records of John Fowler & Co.’s partnerships in MERL, TR FOW, AD/7 (Cuba); AD7/30 (Hawaii); and those of Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies Ltd: TR RAN, AD7/47 (Peru and Columbia).
- 12.
See for example, University of Glasgow Archive Services, Smith Mirrlees (and associated companies), GB248, UG/D118/1/7/5/16, ‘Details book’, 1851–60.
- 13.
G. Magee and A. Thompson, Empire and globalisation: networks of people, goods and capital in the British world, c. 1850–1914 (Cambridge, 2010), p. 117. (Magee and Thompson 2010)
- 14.
For example, in sugar production technologies: A. H. Adamson, Sugar without slaves: the political economy of British Guiana, 1838–1904 (London, 1972), pp. 6, 9, 171–2 (Adamson 1972); M. Craton and J. Walvin, A Jamaican plantation: the history of Worthy Park, 1690–1970 (London, 1970), pp. 156, 219–22. (Craton and Walvin 1970)
- 15.
For example see, P. S. A. Berridge, Couplings to the Khyber: the story of the north western railway (Newton Abbot, 1969), pp. 80, 209 (Berridge 1969); D. R. Headrick, The tentacles of progress: technology transfer in the age of imperialism, 1850–1940 (Oxford, 1988), pp. 51–2, 82 (Headrick 1988); F. Lehmann, ‘Great Britain and the supply of railway locomotives to India: a case study of “economic imperialism”,’ Indian Economic and Social History Review, 2 (1965), pp. 298, 301–2. (Lehmann 1965)
- 16.
M. Adas, Machines as the measure of men: science, technology and ideologies of western dominance (Oxford, 1989), pp. 144, 310. (Adas 1989)
- 17.
- 18.
Both of these ploughs were marketed as having features suitable for their specific colonial contexts, for example, light, sandy soil and simple structures which could be easily repaired without specific parts: MERL, Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies Ltd, TR 5RAN, SP3/1; for John Fowler & Co., see MERL, TR FOW, Publicity records, PI/A4, A6 – advertisements and catalogues; MERL, Ransomes, Sims & Jefferies Ltd., TR RAN, AD7/63, Letters from India and Ceylon, ff. 26, 25 November 1875; see also British Library, India Office, Public Works Department, L/PWD/3/22, files 189; 201 (1875), for similar debates over irrigation equipment and S. Bhattacharya, ‘Cultural and social constraints on technological innovation and economic development: some case studies,’ Indian Economic and Social History Review, 3:3 (1966), pp. 251, 255. (Bhattacharya 1966)
- 19.
Cain and Hopkins, British imperialism, pp. 116–24. (Cain and Hopkins 1993)
- 20.
A. Tindley and A. Wodehouse, ‘The role of social networks in agricultural innovation: the Sutherland reclamations and the Fowler steam plough, c. 1855–c. 1885,’ Rural History, 25:2 (2014), pp. 205–14.
- 21.
R. J. Henry, ‘Technology transfer and its constraints: early warnings from agricultural development in colonial India,’ in R. MacLeod and D. Kumar (eds), Technology and the Raj: Western technology and technical transfers to India 1700–1947 (London, 1995), p. 65 (MacLeod and Kumar 1995); D. Arnold, Everyday technology: machines and the making of India’s modernity (Chicago, 2013), p. 114 (Arnold 2013); Tindley and Wodehouse, ‘The role of social networks in agricultural innovation,’ pp. 205–14.
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Tindley, A., Wodehouse, A. (2016). Conclusion: An Empire Connected?. In: Design, Technology and Communication in the British Empire, 1830–1914. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59798-4_6
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