74 



Science Policy Task Force Hearings 



International Cooperation in Science 



June 18, 1985 



Dr. Walter A. McDougaU 



Associate Professor of History 



University of California, Berkeley 



In 1828, 21 years after Robert FixLton's steamboat plied the 

 Hudson, the British First Lord of the Admiralty reported: "Their Lordships 

 felt it their bounden duty to discourage to the utmost of their ability the 

 use of steam vessels, as they considered that the introduction of steam 

 was calculated to strike a fatal blow at the naval supremacy of the 

 Empire." The same executive blindness afflicted other governments, until 

 a series of French parliamentary commissions first debated appropriations 

 for research and testing for a steam-powered navy. After 1848, when 

 Louis Napoleon came to power, the British Parliament responded with 

 inquiries on the new technology and the French threat, and decided, 

 momentously, to rely on private industry to perform research, since the 

 British private sector was technically superior and more efficient. But the 

 legislators wisely continued some funding for state arsenals to monitor 

 the performance of contracts. When the French approved construction of 

 ironclad steamships in 1857, Great Britain, thanks to her Parliament, 

 responded with vigor and preserved naval leadership. 



