Brett D. Steele

An economic theory of technological products

Abstract This paper presents the derivation and justification of a new economic theory of a manufacturing firm. It represents a mathematical extension of neoclassical economics in which the technological performance of a product is allowed to vary. The products unit production costs is presented as a function of its technological performance, production rate, and product-design and production investments. Likewise, the products unit sales price is presented as a function of its technological performance, sales rate, and advertising and marketing investments. By placing these price and cost functions in an elementary profit equation, a general theory of a manufacturing firms profitability is achieved. Its mathematical feasibility is confirmed through a numerical example. Its conceptual validity, on the other hand, is confirmed by using it to interpret historical episodes of technological change. The theory of technological products is also used to calculate the conditions for maximizing the long-term profitability of a firm. The results show that neoclassical microeconomics is a restricted case of this theory.

Instrumental in War: Science, Research, and Instruments between Knowledge and the World (review)

This is a major accomplishment. Never before has a scholarly volume presented the interactions of science, technology, and warfare as a continuum from the Renaissance through the cold war era—not, at least, since John U. Nef ’s War and Human Progress (1952). Since then, historians and scientists have studiously ignored (and sometimes passionately denied) that a mutually constructive relationship has flourished between science and warfare ever since the sixteenth century. Steven A. Walton’s volume suggests how much historians of science and technology have now transcended such ideological bias. The articles are united by their focus not on weapons, but rather on scientific instruments that are designed to enhance military capabilities. From a tactical perspective, the essays include: editor Walton’s study of sixteenthcentury gunnery instruments and the rise of military professionalism; Jamel Ostwald’s revelation of intense internal military resistance to Vauban’s rational system of fortress assault; David Alan Grier’s examination of Oswald Veblen’s generation of ballistics tables during World War I at Aberdeen Proving Grounds; and Kenton Kroker’s analysis of the attempt during World War II to use the electroencephalograph to measure the psychological suitability of aviation recruits. From operational and political perspectives, the essays include: a study by William Lynch of William Petty’s managerial innovations that enabled the surveying of Ireland following the Cromwellian reconquest; a description by James Fleming of the development of military telegraphy into a system of meteorology during the 1870s, with considerable strategic implications; and an analysis by Deborah Warner on the growth of gravimetry in response to the guidance and control demands of ballistic missile development. Finally, there is a series of essays on the use of instruments to enhance