Van Lieshout Carry
Technol Cult. 2016;57(4):780-805. doi: 10.1353/tech.2016.0107.
By the end of the eighteenth century the majority of households in London received a piped water supply. This article examines the geographical, technological, and environmental challenges that London's private water companies faced as they created and expanded the large technological networks necessary to provide the growing city's water supply. It identifies geography and drought as the main drivers of innovation in London's water supply neworks, and argues that the main impediment to expansion for the majority of the water companies was overcoming the differences in elevation between their intake points and customer bases, with major improvements often made as a result of water shortages. The timing and the success or failure of a company's technological improvements proved pivotal in the subsequent development of the water market.
到18世纪末，伦敦的大多数家庭都用上了管道供水。本文探讨了伦敦的私营自来水公司在创建和扩展为这座不断发展的城市供水所需的大型技术网络时所面临的地理、技术和环境挑战。文章指出地理因素和干旱是伦敦供水网络创新的主要驱动力，并认为大多数自来水公司扩张的主要障碍是克服取水点与客户群之间的海拔差异，而重大改进往往是由于缺水而做出的。一家公司技术改进的时机以及成败在随后的水市场发展中被证明至关重要。
