Technology and Knowledge Transfer in the Machine Tool Industry - The United States and Germany, 1870-1930

Abstract

Machine tools play central in the discussion about economic growth. It is widely believed that the production and use of different types of machine tools in the US and Europe indicate the predominance of different production systems on each side of the Atlantic. By examining the technology and knowledge transfer in the machine tool industry between the US and Germany, the paper challenges this dichotomous model. It can demonstrated that, instead of fundamentally different paths of development, there was a highly interdependent machine tool community exchanging technology and knowledge on an extraordinary level.