Copper Wire and Electrical Conductors: The Shaping of a Technology

In charting the development, manufacture and use of copper wire, the book describes how a traditionally made product, applies to traditional purposes in arts and trades, evolved into something which, in property and quality, was entirely different: electrical conductors.
In addition to a history of the product and its applications, the book provides a full discussion of the growth and changing fortunes of the industry itself during the period of its greatest change and expansion (1750-1900).
This book critically examines the principal events and circumstances which influenced the evolution of copper wire as a crucial component in modern electrical technology. The puropose of the study is to provide a history of a material that has undergone a radical transformation of application and to consider this in the wider context of industrial development and culture.