Machines, modernity, and sugar: the Greater Caribbean in a global context, 1812–50

• Published in: Journal of Global History
• Main Author: Ortega, José Guadalupe
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 2014
• Subjects: Sociology and Political Science; History; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1740022813000478; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S1740022813000478

Abstract This article examines the diffusion of evaporation technology along multi-centred and overlapping scientific, industrial, and commercial knowledge networks. It follows the circulation of vacuum pan (steam evaporator) technology in the Greater Caribbean, the North Atlantic, and the East Indies in order to understand the dual processes of invention and globalization. The article demonstrates that the tropical sugar plantation served as an experimental laboratory and, as such, vital inventions and engineering developments that took place in this space were subsequently incorporated into manufacturing designs in the North Atlantic, helping to modernize European industries in the process. As transient intermediaries, scientists, industrialists, and engineers modified and adapted vacuum pan technologies to meet the local demands of planters in the Greater Caribbean, thereby integrating this area into an increasingly globalized economy.