Takehiko Hashimoto

The Wind Tunnel and the Emergence of Aeronautical Research in Britain

The wind tunnel has been an essential instrument for the development of the airplane. From the time of the Wright brothers to the present, it has served aeronautical investigators as an indispensable tool for the improvement of aerodynamic performance. With the emergence of practical aviation on the eve of World War I, European and American countries set up their research programs and built laboratories with wind tunnels to conduct their investigations.

The Adoption and Adaptation of Mechanical Clocks in Japan

This chapter examines the introduction and subsequent evolution of mechanical clocks in Japan. The mechanical clock was first brought by Jesuit missionaries as a gift to the rulers of Japan and China in the sixteenth century. After the prohibition of Christianity in Japan in the early years of the Tokugawa period, the clock evolved quite differently in the two countries. In China, increasingly elaborate Western clocks were either brought from the West or constructed in shops locally. In Japan, mechanical clocks were constructed exclusively by domestic craftsmen who modified them to indicate a seasonally variable system of hours. Although mechanical clocks were not owned and used widely, they were used by time-keepers at castles as well as at time-bell towers, to tell the time to city dwellers.