Critical theories of technology

Feenberg, A. (1991). The critical theory of technology. Oxford Oxford University Press. 

The important stimuli for the development of the non-linear kinetic theory of steady-state catalytic reactions are 1) necessity to explain the critical phenomena that are experimentally observed in the steady-state kinetic experiments and 2) needs of chemical technology to understand and to apply the advantages of non-linear regimes. 

The growing importance of catalysis was reflected in the formation of the Committee on Contact Catalysis in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Technology of the National Research Council in 1922 (21). The committee, chaired by Cornell physical chemist Wilder Bancroft, published periodic review articles although some of the early ones mainly summarized the theories of the author. In the Fifth Report (1927), Emmett Reid of Johns Hopkins criticized the previous reviewer, Taylor, for giving his own theories instead of surveying the literature (22). The author of the Eighth Report (1930), J. C. W. Frazer, pointed out that Taylor s theory had been anticipated by Fusineri in 1825 (23). 

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