Contenu du sommaire

André GUILLERME, Network: the genesis of a catégorie in engineering thought during the Restoration in France. In France the conceptualization of network closely follows that of territory, in a clear socio-economic context, dominated by the power of the State. Starting from military space - topographical and mathematical - it was extended, during the Restoration, to the civilian sector and, in the course of the period 1825-1835, to cities being renovated by means of water supply, gas and public lighting and through the pavement system.

Hermann KORTE, The development of "infrastructure" in the Ruhr, 1840-1990, Part 2: Water and land development management. Infrastructure, that is, basic economic functions under public control, develops according to an unplanned process, made of a succession of decisions forming a structured sequence of events. The study of the social and economic history of the Ruhr from the beginning of industrialization illustrates this theoretical point of view. Thus, the railroad evolves according to increasing concentration phases. The State progressively organizes and controls private initiatives into nationalization and eventually, monopoly (Part I, published in FLUX 4). Part П, published here, considers the case of water distribution and purification, in which the State merely plays the role of encouraging cooperation. In addition, the institution of the union can also be found, in the case of the Rurh, a typical compromise, in which the State is merely the solicitor with respect to cooperative agreements between local partners.

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.