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"No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

construction-physics.com

111–120 of 249 posts

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#111
post #30

One of the ideas that seems to be missed from the study of history and economy, was the effect on the total destruction of the Japanese and German industrial base - during WWII. Britain and USA, were left with their archaic industrial systems. After WWII, the Japanese and the German steel industry had to be completely reborn. (At the cost of primarily USA financing.) Those two countries had no more relics of the past…

> North American industry was in a slow evolution from the 1900's, but Germany and Japan, had a hot start from the 1950-60's

You forgot that US took every German and Japanese engineer as prisoner. As a friend said, US chemical industry worked 40 years after the WWII with German patents.

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#112
post #111
post #30

One of the ideas that seems to be missed from the study of history and economy, was the effect on the total destruction of the Japanese and German industrial base - during WWII. Britain and USA, were left with their archaic industrial systems. After WWII, the Japanese and the German steel industry had to be completely reborn. (At the cost of primarily USA financing.) Those two countries had no more relics of the past…

> North American industry was in a slow evolution from the 1900's, but Germany and Japan, had a hot start from the 1950-60's You forgot that US took every German and Japanese engineer as prisoner. As a friend said, US chemical industry worked 40 years after the WWII with German patents.

> You forgot that US took every German and Japanese engineer as prisoner.

This is not even slightly true.

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#113

I'm not sure innovation is really the issue, this article never actually goes into the alloys US Steel developed (of which there are many), and alloys are what makes steel steel really. It's always been fascinating to me how the just a tiny percent of another element in a metal can have an absolutely dramatic affect on the strength/resilience of the material. And they tried more complicated alloys, for instance they…

> More than anything this article shows US Steel simply couldn't compete with foreign suppliers

Because the only inovation came from stolen patents from eastern europe.

You can survive doing nothing until your competitor comes with something new.

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This all depends on victory conditions. The U.S. "won" Korea, Iraq, Vietnam, and Afghanistan in the same sense that they "won" WW2 - those countries were bombed back into the stone age and the existing governments fell. But WW2 was fought as the U.S. was an ascendant (but not dominant) power among a number of peer rivals, and the U.S. was not the aggressor. It felt like a victory, because we emerged as the dominant p…

> The U.S. "won" Korea, Iraq, Vietnam, and Afghanistan in the same sense that they "won" WW2 - those countries were bombed back into the stone age and the existing governments fell. This might be taught in US schools, but outside the US we have a rather different take on how the Vietnam war ended - the US-backed government fell and the North Vietnamese government took over the rest of the country. And we learned that…

You're missing the forest for the trees. Reality is the US won it's war against communism by the early 1970's. There wasn't much reason to continue the war in Vietnam after that. Not the least because the communists in Vietnam had no intention of being a Russian or Chinese vassal state. Suited the US just fine.

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A small country winning the war against post WW2 USA seems like it would be a bit of a plot hole.

Which war did the US win post WW2? Afaict they all ended in stalemates and eventual retreat (Korea,Iraq,Vietnam,Afghanistan,..)

Gulf War 1. Invasion of Panama. The 1994 invasion of Haiti, debatably. The Kosovo war, kinda.

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#117
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gotta say, I'd live in that steel modular house in a heartbeat.

There's a reason that house isn't pictured in the snow.

I can be insulated. People have built small houses from marine containers for long time.

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#118
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes you are thinking of Syd Mead - here’s the series https://sydmead.com/category/gallery/us-steel/

Gotta say, I'd live in that steel modular house in a heartbeat.

Then you'll love the article OP wrote about Lustron stamped-steel houses: https://www.construction-physics.com/p/the-lustron-home

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#119
post #5

Wasn't US Steel who commissioned the books from a SciFi illustrator to ensure that lots of reference drawing illustrations would have steel in the future and got these books for free available to anyone who called, and they ended up getting famous in the film industry so people ended up always designing futuristic movies with things made of steel like ships and vehicles?

Makes me wonder who supplies the stainless steel used for the starships and cybertrucks. US steel might just turned out to be prescient.

Re: "No inventions; no innovations" A History of US Steel

#120
post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a comedy, one I feel I ought to watch at some point. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouse_That_Roared_(film)

Peter Sellers playing 3 different roles. Poor guy really did get type cast in the weirdest way.

"Comedies involving diamonds and/or nuclear weapons"
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