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Titre L'économie des passerelles technologiques et l'évolution des réseaux. Leçons apprises de l'histoire de la distribution de l'électricité. 2ème partie
Auteur Paul A. David, Julie Ann Bunn
Mir@bel Revue Flux
Numéro no 6, octobre-décembre 1991
Page 33-51
Résumé anglais Paul A. DAVID & Julie A. BUNN, The economics of gateway technologies and network evolution: Lessons from electricity supply history Part 2. This paper is concerned with the role played by so-called gateway technologies in the development of network industries. They rest their argument on a real-life example: the influence of the rotary converter innovation on the expansion of a.c. technology (and the eviction of d.c.) in the power supply industry in the US at the turn of the century (189О-19Ю). Part I of this article waspublished in FLUX 4. First the authors suggested modified definitions, based on different technical examples, of widely-used concepts, such as innovation, standard, compatibility, and introduce a new concept, that of gateway technologies (between incompatible syb-systems). And secondly they examined the historical context of the 'Battle of the Currents' that burst into public view in the US at the end of the 1880s, as well as subsequent interpretations of it in scientific literature. In the second part of the paper, published here, the authors re-examine these historical events, while more particularly laying stress on the influence of the rotary converter, viewed as a gateway innovation.
Source : Éditeur (via Persée)
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