La force motrice hydraulique au service du développement économique helvétique : L'exemple du réseau d'eau sous pression à Lausanne 1868-1914

The success story of hydroelectricity long influenced and dominated Swiss scholarly literature devoted to the history of technology. This means of conducting power, which emerged at the end of the 19th century and is still dominating today, has attracted much more attention than technologies that have been shadowed by its success. In spite of their important contribution to Swiss economic development, the distribution networks of pressurized water have been neglected by scholars. This article contributes to close this historiographic gap by analyzing the introduction of pressurized water distribution in 1876 in Lausanne, in the context of the building of the first Swiss cable funicular between Lausanne and Ouchy. This article shows how pressurized water distribution transformed socio-economic practices in the urban areas in which it was adopted. Indeed, this innovation, which allowed the use of distant hydraulic resources, enabled the rationalization of industrial and artisanal production as well as improved the density of the urban industrial base. By facilitating the introduction of electric lighting, pressurized water networks played a key role in the early development, and further successes, of the Swiss hydroelectric industry.

La voix de M. Paul Deschanel, Président de la Chambre des députés : discours prononcé le 22 décembre 1914

[Discours. 1914-12-22]

La voix de M. Paul Deschanel, Président de la Chambre des députés : discours prononcé le 25 octobre 1916. La voix de M. René Viviani, Président du Conseil des ministres : discours de clôture, séance du 4 aôut 1914

Collection : Série des documents historiques

La voix de M. René Viviani, Président du Conseil des ministres : discours prononcé le 22 décembre 1914

[Discours. 1914-12-22]

Trabajadores portuarios en Dakar:Organización, legislación laboral e Instituciones (1914-1939)

Este artículo pretende analizar la evolución y actuaciones de los miembros de la comunidad portuaria en Dakar entre 1914 y 1939. En este caso, el objeto de análisis serán los miembros de la clase obrera (estibadores, obreros, amarradores, conductores) y sus relaciones con los demás miembros de la comunidad portuaria del puerto de Dakar. Además, estableceremos las condiciones de trabajo así como el tipo de oferta de trabajo y el impacto que ello tuvo sobre la actividad sindical. El marco temporal viene definido por la elección de Blaise Diagne como primer diputado senegalés en la Asamblea Nacional, los comienzos de un sindicalismo visible en la ciudad senegalesa y el final del análisis motivado por la interrupción de la acción modernizadora tras la derrota del Frente Popular en Francia.

Humanismo e Técnica segundo o Princípio Responsabilidade de Hans Jonas

Segundo Hans Jonas,a acção humana adquiriu um novo sentido. Ela tornou-se técnica, ou seja, a própria existência humana, como afirmara Heidegger, tornou-se uma dessiminação de relações técnicas: vivemos com a técnica, mas não da técnica. Este pensamento, que encontramos em Hans Jonas estava já presente na Meditação sobre a Técnica de Ortega y Gasset, cujas origens do pensamento sobre a técnica remontam a Oswald Spengler. A técnica como a táctica vital que visa diminuir os nossos esforços, mas será que nesse esforço não estamos a correr o risco de pôr em causa a própria humanidade?

Growing at the production frontier. European aggregate growth, 1870-1914

The view of a 1870-1913 expanding European economy providing increasing welfare to everybody has been challenged by many, then and now. We focus on the amazing growth that was experienced, its diffusion and its sources, in the context of the permanent competition among European nation states. During 1870-193 the globalized European economy reached a silver age . GDP growth was quite rapid (2.15% per annum) and diffused all over Europe. Even discounting the high rates of population growth (1.06%), per capita growth was left at a respectable 1.08%. Income per capita was rising in every country, and the rates of improvement were quite similar. This was a major achievement after two generations of highly localized growth, both geographically and socially. Growth was based on the increased use of labour and capital, but a good part of growth (73 per cent for the weighted average of the best documented European countries) came out of total factor productivity efficiency gains resulting from not well specified ultimate sources of growth. This proportion suggests that the European economy was growing at full capacity at its production frontier. It would have been very difficult to improve its performance. Within Europe, convergence was limited, and it only was in motion after 1900. What happened was more the end of the era of big divergence rather than an era of convergence.