WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY?
Gentlemen,
I have been honoured by her Majesty with the first presentation to a Chair which is new to this University, and new to the other Universities of the country. The title of the Chair, also, is as novel as its creation, and the term "Technology," by which it is distinguished, is so unfamiliar to English ears, and so inexpressive to English minds, that I must, at the very outset, explain what the branch of knowledge is which I am called upon to profess.
The word "Technology" appears to have been first explicitly employed in the sense in which it concerns me, in 1772, by Beckmann, the famous author of the History of Inventions, who was for many years "Professor of Economy in the University of Göttingen." [1] Availing himself of the liberty conceded to professors in German Universities, to lecture on any subject within their Faculty, he chose the Industrial Arts as the topic of a series of prelections, and entitled the science of these arts—"Technology." The word had long been in use among the Germans in various senses, but since Beckmann's time has been pretty generally accepted as signifying what he denoted by it; and a certain fixity has been given to this meaning by the establishment of Chairs of Technology in several of the German Universities, among others in that of Giessen, where Dr Knapp (since transferred to the corresponding Chair in Munich) acquired great celebrity as professor of this branch of knowledge. Through him the word Technology has been introduced into our language, his well known work, "Chemical Technology,
- ↑ Knapp's Chemical Technology. 1848. Vol. i., p. 1.
