ABSTRACT
Science and technology are still happily married and will probably remain so. Since 1895 scientific breakthroughs have amazed us, and new technologies, especially in communication, have changed our lives. However, the technologies that originated between 1870 and 1914 have a special importance because they have transformed our everyday lives. The generator, the electric motor, the light bulb, the steady production of new pharmaceuticals and medical appliances, the automobile, the airplane, are the fruit of the insights and ingenuity of that faraway time. Nikolaus Otto, the self-taught son of an innkeeper, built the first practical four-stroke internal combustion engine and exhibited it in 1867. Like Watt's steam engine, it was stationary at first; automobiles came later. By 1890 the Germans were giving the British strong competition in science and technology. The Germans had seen opportunities to develop markets for new kinds of goods and services, and they used the best scientific knowledge available.
