The Technical Transformation of the Late Nineteenth-Century Gas Industry
以英国为例，分析了1900年前后煤气制造的技术转型，指出创新时机由技术互补性决定，扩散速度受技术关联、旧设备报废和工资成本影响，各国选择新技术时主要考虑与现有设备的兼容性和原材料成本。
This article analyzes, with particular reference to Britain, the technological transformation in coal gas manufacture around 1900. The timing of the innovation seems to be explained by the nature of the technology itself, by Rosenberg's “technical complementarity.” The rate of diffusion is analyzed by means of an inter-firm model which points to the importance of technical interrelatedness and the need to scrap old plant and of wage costs, which encouraged some firms to hasten scrapping. Different countries chose between the range of new technologies available largely on the basis of compatibility with existing plant and the cost of raw materials.