从“工业启蒙”到“创造性破坏”——英国早期电报史中的知识、技术与产业互动

From“Industrial Enlightenment”to“Creative Destruction”:Interaction of Knowledge,Technology and Industry in Early History of British Telegraph

19世纪英国早期电报史呈现了科学知识、技术实践与产业建设之间的密切关联与互动。启蒙时期欧洲流行的电学讲座与电学知识相互推动发展,为电报仪器的实用性改进提供了知识交流网络。19世纪上半叶,英国科学界的“工匠式学者”以其工程技术实践联结了电报仪器与电报技术的接口,但绅士科学家对盈利的抵制阻碍了其在产业层面获得突破;与此同时,产业界的“工匠式企业家”借助新兴铁路产业,重新整合技术、资金与市场等经济要素,推动了英国电报技术的产业化进程。英国早期电报史是从“工业启蒙”到“创造性破坏”的进程,也是知识经济起源的典型代表,为研究早期工业革命中科学、技术与产业的关联提供了新范例。

The history of British telegraph in the early 19th century shows the interaction between scientific knowledge,technical practice and industrial construction.During the Age of Enlightenment,electric lectures and electric knowledge promoted each other and provided a knowledge network for the practical improvement of telegraph instruments.In the first half of the 19th century,the“artisan scholars”of the British scientific community connected telegraph instrument and telegraph technology by their engineering practice,but the resistance to profit prevented gentleman scientists from making breakthroughs at the industrial level.At the same time,with the help of the new railway industry,the“artisan entrepreneurs”reintegrated the economic factors such as technology,capital and market,and promoted the industrialization process of telegraph in Britain.The early history of British telegraph is a process from“industrial enlightenment”to“creative destruction”,an important case of the origin of knowledge economy and provides a new example for the study of the relationship between science,technology and industry in the early Industrial Revolution.