Bridging the Seas: The Rise of Naval Architecture in the Industrial Age, 1800-2000 (Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology)

**How the introduction of steam, iron, and steel required new rules and new ways of thinking for the design and building of ships.**In the 1800s, shipbuilding moved from sail and wood to steam, iron, and steel. The competitive pressure to achieve more predictable ocean transportation drove the industrialization of shipbuilding, as shipowners demanded ships that enabled tighter scheduling, improved performance, and safe delivery of cargoes. In __Bridging the Seas__, naval historian Larrie Ferreiro describes this transformation of shipbuilding, portraying the rise of a professionalized naval architecture as an integral part of the Industrial Age. Picking up where his earlier book, __Ships and Science__, left off, Ferreiro explains that the introduction of steam, iron, and steel required new rules and new ways of thinking for designing and building ships. The characteristics of performance had to be first measured, then theorized. Ship theory led to the development of quantifiable standards that would ensure the safety and quality required by industry and governments, and this in turn led to the professionalization of naval architecture as an engineering discipline. Ferreiro describes, among other things, the technologies that allowed greater predictability in ship performance; theoretical developments in naval architecture regarding motion, speed and power, propellers, maneuvering, and structural design; the integration of theory into ship design and construction; and the emergence of a laboratory infrastructure for research. "Bridging the Seas portrays the rise of naval architecture as an integral part of the Industrial Age, describing how shipbuilders, ship owners and navies sponsored and incorporated ship theory into design and engineering in order to gain a competitive edge over their adversaries. It picks up the history of naval architecture where his previous book, Ships and Science, left off: at the turn of the 19th century, when the structures of Europe's Scientific Revolution came crashing down as the result of the Napoleonic Wars, while a new British-dominated Industrial Revolution was restructuring commerce and empires around the world. Bridging the Seas frames these developments around the fundamental change in shipbuilding from sail and wood to steam, iron and steel. Bridging the Seas shows that the introduction of steam, iron and steel required new rules for designing and building ships, which meant that characteristics of performance had to be first measured (e.g., horsepower), followed by new theories developed to predict them. The book then explores how ship theory led to quantifiable standards that would ensure adequate safety and quality as demanded by industry and governments, and how this in turn led to the professionalization of naval architecture as an engineering discipline. The book considers the changeover from laissez-faire research in naval architecture in the 19th century, to more structured approaches in government-sponsored testing tanks and laboratories in the 20th-century. Finally, it shows how computer-aided design has altered the social order of engineering design and project management, and how those changes will likely affect the discipline of naval architecture at the dawn of 21st-century Information Age." --Provided by publisher How the introduction of steam, iron, and steel required new rules and new ways of thinking for the design and building of ships. In the 1800s, shipbuilding moved from sail and wood to steam, iron, and steel. The competitive pressure to achieve more predictable ocean transportation drove the industrialization of shipbuilding, as shipowners demanded ships that enabled tighter scheduling, improved performance, and safe delivery of cargoes. In Bridging the Seas , naval historian Larrie Ferreiro describes this transformation of shipbuilding, portraying the rise of a professionalized naval architecture as an integral part of the Industrial Age. Picking up where his earlier book, Ships and Science , left off, Ferreiro explains that the introduction of steam, iron, and steel required new rules and new ways of thinking for designing and building ships. The characteristics of performance had to be first measured, then theorized. Ship theory led to the development of quantifiable standards that would ensure the safety and quality required by industry and governments, and this in turn led to the professionalization of naval architecture as an engineering discipline. Ferreiro describes, among other things, the technologies that allowed greater predictability in ship performance; theoretical developments in naval architecture regarding motion, speed and power, propellers, maneuvering, and structural design; the integration of theory into ship design and construction; and the emergence of a laboratory infrastructure for research. In the 1800s, shipbuilding moved from sail and wood to steam, iron, and steel. The competitive pressure to achieve more predictable ocean transportation drove the industrialization of shipbuilding, as shipowners demanded ships that enabled tighter scheduling, improved performance, and safe delivery of cargoes. In 'Bridging the Seas', naval historian Larrie Ferreiro describes this transformation of shipbuilding, portraying the rise of a professionalized naval architecture as an integral part of the Industrial Age. 0Picking up where his earlier book, 'Ships and Science', left off, Ferreiro explains that the introduction of steam, iron, and steel required new rules and new ways of thinking for designing and building ships. The characteristics of performance had to be first measured, then theorized. Ship theory led to the development of quantifiable standards that would ensure the safety and quality required by industry and governments, and this in turn led to the professionalization of naval architecture as an engineering discipline. Ferreiro describes, among other things, the technologies that allowed greater predictability in ship performance; theoretical developments in naval architecture regarding motion, speed and power, propellers, maneuvering, and structural design; the integration of theory into ship design and construction; and the emergence of a laboratory infrastructure for research