I enjoyed Edgertons book this week. I thought that his dissection of the relations between technologies was very interesting, especially his discussion of the horse. I have always been under the impression that the rise of trains and horses correlated with an immediate decrease in the numbers of beasts of burden. However, as Edgerton points out, the rise of trains and railroads actually necessitated an increase in numbers of horses because there was a general increase in goods of all sorts.

Edgertons book is full of those sorts of quirky discoveries, his revelations on teflon will definitely serve for a great deal of kitchen conversations for me.