Dawn of the Electronic Age: Electrical Technologies in the Shaping of the Modern World, 1914 to 1945

1. The Great War and Wireless Communications.

1.1 Land-Bound Communications.

1.2 Communication Through the Ether.

1.4 The Art and Science of Radio.

2. Electrical Technologies in Total War.

2.1 Remote and Automatic Control.

2.2 Military Research and Development.

2.3 Mobilization for Total War.

3. Electrifi cation in the Interwar Period.

3.1 Lenin’s Program of Development Through Electric Power.

3.2 Generators, Power Lines, and Motors.

3.3 Power Engineering.

3.4 Technology Transfer to the Soviet Union.

3.5 Worldwide Dissemination of Technology.

3.6 Rural Electrifi cation.

4. The Jazz Age and Radio Broadcasting.

4.1 Radio in the Twenties.

4.2 The Establishment of Broadcasting in the United States.

4.3 The Establishment of Broadcasting in Other Countries.

4.4 Radio Engineering.

4.5 How Good is this Radio?

4.6 Radio’s Golden Age.

5. Postwar Recovery and the Great Depression: Electrical Technologies in Industry and Commerce.

5.1 Electrifying the Factory.

5.2 Processing Information.

5.3 Electrifying Transportation.

5.4 Fostering Economic Growth.

6. Electrical Technologies and the Consumer Culture.

6.1 Electricity in the Home.

6.2 Mass Entertainment.

6.3 The Consumer Culture.

7. Communication Technologies in Democratic and Totalitarian Countries.

7.1 New Communication Technologies.

7.2 Telephone Technologies and Services.

7.3 Technology, Politics, and Governance.

8. Electrical Engineering in an Age of Science.

8.1 An Age of Science.

8.2 Measuring and Imaging Instruments.

8.3 Calculating Machines.

8.4 The Profession of Electrical Engineering.

9. World War II and Electrical Technology.

9.1 The World War Resumed.

9.2 Electrical Technology in Battle.

9.3 Control Systems and Computers.

9.4 The Battle of the Atlantic, Codebreaking, and Sonar.

10. Radar, the Weapon That Decided the War.

10.1 The Battle of Britain.

10.2 Radar Countermeasures.

10.3 The Proximity Fuse.

10.4 The Radar-Computer Combination.

10.5 Electronic Navigation.

10.6 Government-Industry-Academia Collaboration.

Conclusion: Dawn of the Electronic Age.

Notes on the Illustrations.

Sources.

Index.