Technikatörténeti szemle 1-2. (1963)

Endrei Walter: A műszaki eszme csírája

S. Li Hey: Robert Recorde and the Idea of Progress. Renaissance and Modern Studies II. Nottingham, é. n. R. K. Merton: The role of genius in scientific advance. New Scientist. No 259. 1961. nov. 2. Walter Endrei: The bud of the technical idea The study demonstrates through the example of Watt' s centrifugal re gulator, considered as the fundamental element of cybernetical machines, the ramifying roots of a technical idea. This invention is far from being original: it came from the mill industry. But even there it was not the instantaneous notion of a genius. Its two fundamental principles: the feeding device regulated by the rotation of the grinding stones and the chain-and-ball governor can be traced back to the Middle Age. The study shows also how the idea of the self-aligning machine came. Besides the concept of the perpetuum mobile certain observations in the nature, e. g. the water-circulation theory of Lucretius were also suggesting to the designer of yore' the possibility of self-alignment. So the idea of all kinds of technical innovation goes through a metamorphosis. By all means, the first phase of this transformation is the conception of the idea. The human brain sets the objective and accepts the possibility of the solution. The second phase leads to the experiments or primitive part-solutions which may fall into oblivion if the overall level of the technique or the needs of the society do not favour the realization of the idea. i The third phase is that of the execution which generally coincides with the maturity of the technique and the social needs. At this time it.is an explosionlike course carried out mostly by the purposeful utilization of the achievements of the preliminary stages, though refined and improved as required by the actual circumstances. The three-phase course is obligatory but its realization in time may be most different according to the said circumstances of the social conditions and /