Summary - TST 23
TRANSPORTES, SERVICIOS Y TELECOMUNICACIONES
Serge Paquier
Les trajectoires d’innovation des infrastructures suisses pour les services urbains d’eau et d’énergie au XIXème siècle: un processus de réversibilité technologique.
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SUMMARY TST 23
Key Words:
Water supply, Electricity supply networks,
Infrastructures, Technology development.
[ Abstract ]
This article addresses the innovation paths of Swiss urban infrastructures dedicated to water and energy supply. Considering a large XIXth century it focuses upon Genève and Zurich cities. At the opposite of a dominant vision that underlines definitive locking leading to irreversibility within the history of urban transportation and services systems, it shows the deep instability of technical choices; the competition between urban systems of water and energy supply, determined by short-term cycles, led to a technical reversibility process within the Swiss cities during the XIXth century. Thus the hydromecanic system, thanks to the design of a mass water supply system reaching the top levels of the buildings, developed several flourishing cycles in Switzerland during the XIXth century, struggling against thermic energy choices (coal and gas). According to this perspective, hydroelectricity at the beginning of the XXth century was only an incremental innovation rather than radical, which established top-rank standards for Swiss urban services and public utilities.
[ Abstract ]
This article addresses the innovation paths of Swiss urban infrastructures dedicated to water and energy supply. Considering a large XIXth century it focuses upon Genève and Zurich cities. At the opposite of a dominant vision that underlines definitive locking leading to irreversibility within the history of urban transportation and services systems, it shows the deep instability of technical choices; the competition between urban systems of water and energy supply, determined by short-term cycles, led to a technical reversibility process within the Swiss cities during the XIXth century. Thus the hydromecanic system, thanks to the design of a mass water supply system reaching the top levels of the buildings, developed several flourishing cycles in Switzerland during the XIXth century, struggling against thermic energy choices (coal and gas). According to this perspective, hydroelectricity at the beginning of the XXth century was only an incremental innovation rather than radical, which established top-rank standards for Swiss urban services and public utilities.