Laudatio – Katowice July 2019

As probably known to most of you, the Turriano ICOHTEC Prize is an Early Career Prize for Books on the history of technology, awarded by the International Committee for the History of Technology (ICOHTEC). Concerning the Book Prize, ICOHTEC is interested in the history of technology, focusing on technological development as well as its relationship to science, society, economy, culture and the environment. The history of technology covers all periods of human history and all populated areas. There is no limitation as to theoretical or methodological approaches.

Eligible for the Prize are original book-length works in English, French, German, Russian or Spanish in the history of technology: published or unpublished Ph.D. dissertations or other monographs written by scholars in the early stages of their career. If the work is a Ph.D. thesis, it should have been accepted by your university in either 2017 or 2018; the same goes for the year of publication if it is a published work.

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the Turriano Prize Committee 2019 has unanimously decided to grant the 2019 Turriano Prize to:

Maria Rikitianskaia, European Radiotelegraphy and World War I: A Transnational Perspective, 1912 – 1927. PhD thesis, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, October 2018.

There certainly were also other very good books in the final round, some of which were granted an ‘Honorable mention’.

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Honorable mention:

Because of the overall high quality of the works submitted this time the Prize Committee decided to grant an “Honorable Mention” to three other works, one published book, and two dissertations:

- Jaroslav Švelch, Gaming the Iron Curtain: How Teenagers and Amateurs in Communist Czechoslovakia Claimed the Medium of Computer Games (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2018.)

- Pauline Lewis, Wired Ottomans: A Sociotechnical History of the Telegraph and the Modern Ottoman Empire, 1855-1911. PhD thesis, University of California, Los Angeles, December 2018.

- and Barbara Berger for her excellent contribution to the field of Industrial Heritage Studies: Der Gasbehälter als Bautypus. Baukonstruktionsgeschichte des 19. und frühen 20. Jahrhunderts. In England entwickelt, in Deutschland optimiert, weltweit verbreitet - gezeigt am Beispiel Italiens. PhD thesis, Technische Universität München, May 2018.

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Barbara Berger’s, Der Gasbehälter als Bautypus is a delight for anyone interested in industrial heritage. It is thoroughly researched, based on many archival documents and published sources, and well-structured. After providing an overview of the history of technology of gaslighting and gas-production, this dissertation concentrates on the rather unknown construction history of gas factories, and in particular on the construction of gasometers or gasholders. It analyses in depth all the different building types and its constructive part, and traces the diffusion of technologies and prototypes across Britain, Germany and Italy. The book ends with a case study of Italian gasometers, and focuses in particular on the industrial heritage aspects of those that still exist.

The book is wonderfully illustrated, both with period pictures and sketches and technical drawing by the author. It brings together previously unknown content and will serve as a reference for many years to come. Overall it is as an encouraging example to follow for any future work in the field of Industrial Heritage Studies.

 

Members of the Turriano-ICOHTEC Book Prize Committee 2019 were Irina Gouzevitch (Paris), Per Lundin (Gothenburg), Darina Martykánová (Madrid), Klaus Staubermann (Berlin), and Ernst Homburg (Maastricht), chairperson.

Darina Martykánová, on behalf of the Committee