Prime Movers of Globalization

In Prime Movers of Globalization, author Vaclav Smil gives a history of two key technical developments that have driven globalization: diesel engines and gas turbines. Engineered by Rudolf Diesel in the 1890s and Frank Whittle and Hans-Joachim Pabst von Ohain in the 1930s, high-compression non-sparking internal combustion engines power everything from trucks to jets. Gas turbines—air-breathing jet engines like those pioneered by Whittle and von Ohain—have enabled aircraft to travel almost anywhere on the planet within twenty-four hours.