Joseph Needham's Research on Chinese Machines in the Cross-Cultural History of Science and Technology

Using cross-cultural comparison, Joseph Needham composed a "connected history" of Chinese science and technology in global context, so that his Science and Civilisation in China (SCC) offered a refreshing view of science and technology to readers. In the SCC's subvolume on mechanical engineering (vol. 4, part 2), for example, the authors identified many inventions in premodern China, including the efficient harness, the gimbal, and the waterwheel linkwork escapement. Needham further tried to verify the possible origin and transregional dissemination (including stimulus diffusion) of such inventions as the astronomical clockwork and the interconversion of rotary and rectilinear motion in Eurasia. Although it was difficult to make satisfying arguments about the impact of Chinese knowledge on any European invention, Needham's methodologies, and even his enlightening speculations, are of real significance for present and future scholarship.