Dick van Lente

Machines and the Order of the Harbour: The Debate About the Introduction of Grain Unloaders in Rotterdam, 1905–1907

In 1905, dockworkers in Rotterdam harbour organized a great strike against the introduction of machines for the transhipment of grain. The initial success of this strike was a profound shock to the leaders of political parties and national labour organizations, who, in spite of many differences of opinion, shared a positive attitude towards mechanization and regarded strikes against machinery as reactionary. The conflict in Rotterdam provoked a national debate about the implications of mechanization, which clearly exposed the strains and contradictions in this “dominant ideology of technology”. The article shows how several local labour leaders questioned the legitimacy of this ideology and why they failed in the end to persuade their superiors.

Ideology and Technology. Reactions to Modern Technology in the Netherlands 1850-1920

textabstractThe article discusses the debate among the main ideological groups in the Netherlands about the social impact of modern technology during the first phase of industrialization, 1850-1920. It provides an explanation of the convergence of opinion towards approval of modern technology after 1890, while earlier there was much opposition, especially from roman catholic and orthodox protestant leaders.

Three overviews of the history of technology

Three recent overviews of the history of technology, by Misa, Hard and Jamison, and Lintsen e.a. are discussed in the context of the western tradition of thought about the social meaning of technological change. English version of the article published in Gewina 2006

Innovation in paper making: The Netherlands 1750–1850

Abstract Until the middle of the eighteenth century Dutch paper makers had a leading position on the international paper market, both commercially and technically. From around 1700 a decline set in, which became dramatic after 1780. The introduction of new machinery and processes from Britain and elsewhere during the nineteenth century was slow, but when it came about, the Dutch paper industry regained an important part of the international market. This article attempts to explain the technological aspects of this development in the light of theories about the economic and technological history of the Netherlands in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Nuclear Power, World Politics, and a Small Nation: Narratives and Counternarratives in the Netherlands

When articles about nuclear power appeared in Dutch illustrated magazines, they usually reported on developments taking place in the leading countries, and hardly reported those in the Netherlands itself, even though Dutch scientists and technicians made some contributions to nuclear physics and technology.1 The same can be said of popular fiction about atomic matters: the action always took place either in some nondescript place, or in the United States, Britain, or France. This international orientation was colored, however, by the Netherlands’ specific position in the nuclear age: highly advanced in science and technology, rapidly industrializing and therefore increasingly dependent on foreign oil, wielding very little influence in international politics, and, with its large international port in Rotterdam and a marine base in Den Helder, clearly a potential target for nuclear attack.

Conclusion: One World, Two Worlds, Many Worlds?

The idea of countering the threat of nuclear war with the establishment of “one world government” gained popularity after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but by 1950 succumbed to the realities of the Cold War. The world was seemingly split in two, a democratic-capitalist West squaring off against a Communist world. These and other divisions contributed to differing views of the emerging nuclear age. Developing nations were charting a course between East and West, exploring their options, including the creation of a nonaligned movement, and developing their own perspectives on the nuclear age. The perspective of members of the “nuclear club” and of countries with nuclear power was different from that of their nonnuclear neighbors. Superpowers saw the world differently than did “mere” great powers, not to mention small countries. Were these differences reflected in popular media depictions of nuclear power and nuclear war? Did commonalities or differences prevail? Do the magazines analyzed in this volume fall into categories? But popular media were by no means mere receptors of structural forces. Rather, they actively molded popular perceptions of the nuclear age. How did they portray the nascent nuclear age, and thus encourage their readers to see the changing world, and did this happen in nationally or regionally specific ways?

Introduction: A Transnational History of Popular Images and Narratives of Nuclear Technologies in the First Two Postwar Decades

Among the great technological innovations that were developed during the Second World War, none made as strong an impression around the world as the atom bombs that destroyed two Japanese cities in August 1945. Commentators spoke of the “atomic age” that had now begun, as if the atom would, all by itself, shape a new world. Two diametrically opposed visions soon developed about the nature of this new phase in human development. On the one hand, it was commonly assumed that before long other nations would create their own nuclear weapons. A new world war would therefore be even more devastating than the one that had just ended, possibly putting an end to all human life on earth. On the other hand, the applications of nuclear fission in medicine, agriculture, engineering, and power provision promised to create a utopian world. Vehicles, from family cars to interplanetary rockets, would be propelled by cheap nuclear power, canals and harbor basins would be created by “peaceful nuclear explosions,” diseases would more easily be diagnosed and cured, food would be produced more efficiently and cheaply, and deserts would be transformed into agricultural land—in brief, material comfort for all people on earth became a realistic prospect, and with it, an end to conflict and war.1

Teaching Children Confidence in a High Tech World: The Netherlands 1950-1962

The article addresses the question how modern technologies were represented in a widely read illustrated magazine, Panorama, and in the comic for children which appeared on its final page. The article shows how technologies such as airplanes, robots and nuclear power, which were depicted and described in the magazine, also make their appearance, in a transformed way, in the comic story at the end of the magazine. This transformation is analyzed and it is argued that the childrens stories may be read as an answer to the fears and uncertainties about these modern technologies that were common among adults at the time.