Abstracts 2009

Constitution as description of technology

Pasi Pohjola

The research of technology emphasises that technical devices and applications are hybrids, where technical characteristics are combined with cultural practices. The idea of constitution is to describe the connection between use and material structure. The prerequisite of the existence of a technical device is that it has a commonly known status connected to a specific purpose of use.

The role of Hangö-based companies during the 1940s lubrication oil crisis

Yngve Malmén

Because of the war, in autumn 1940, Finland encountered shortage of lubricants and oils, and severe rationing had to be practiced. This led to the emergence of a substantial tar-based industry in Finland. The article describes how two Hangöbased companies, Finska Forcit- Dynamit Ab and Oy MEK-KEM Ab, took measures in facilitating the lubricant shortage at the time.

Henrik Probus Ossian Solitander – Finnish hydraulic engineer

Panu Nykänen

The technological culture in Finland is in many cases based on the work and engagement of individual teachers and researchers. H.P.O. Solitander, a legend in his own time, was a second-generation Finnish engineer, whose mission in life turned out to be the modernization of Finland's ports and canal networks, guiding the country's hydraulic engineering through times of war, and educating a new, postwar generation of engineers.

Professor Pentti Kaitera – pioneer of water resources engineering and developer of Northern Finland

Pertti Vakkilainen

Pentti Kaitera's life was characterized by idealism and straightforwardness. In his lifetime he saw Finland turn from an agrarian society into an industrialized one. Kaitera is first of all remembered as the founder of Oulu University and its first president. He was also a pioneer of development cooperation.

History of technology on postage stamps

Veijo Kauppinen

The first themes connected to the history of technology and industry appeared on postage stamps in the 1930s. Especially countries that boast with important inventions or prominent pioneers of technology publish stamps displaying these themes. Good-quality stamps also educate larger public on the history of technology.

History of acoustics from the antiquity to the modernity

Mikko Kylliäinen

Sound has always interested philosophers and scientists. Since the 17th century, the science of sound has been known as acoustics. Today, the results of acoustics as science and technology concern practically all aspects of our everyday life.
As a physical phenomenon, sound is quite complex to be described mathematically. This was one of the two problems concerning the development of acoustics. Based on the work of the great scientists of the 17th and 18th centuries, these mathematical problems could be resolved during the 19th century. In the second half of the 19th century, it was possible to formulate mathematical expressions for the most important acoustical phenomena. However, it was impossible to test these theories empirically. There were no means for measuring sound or for reproducing it accurately. This had been the second problem in the development of acoustics. The development of electricity made it possible to measure, produce and reproduce sound in such a way that the theories could be tested.
In the beginning of the 1930s, acoustics had given birth to industry producing acoustical materials, standardized measurement methods and acoustical testing, as well as regulation dealing with noise and sound insulation. Engineers specialized in planning of sound reinforcement systems and acoustics for different kinds of buildings. Acoustical phenomena were utilized also in telecommunications, radio, sound recording, sound reproduction and sound films.

The development of acoustic planning of concert and oration halls in the 20th century

Alpo Halme

The first actual concert halls were built at the end of the 18th century. By the beginning of the 20th century numerous concert, theatre and opera houses with excellent acoustic qualities had been built. The main principle of planning and implementation was to follow good and functional examples and to avoid bad ones.
The period between the beginning of the 20th century and the Second World War was decisive for acoustic planning of concert and theatre halls. A new dimension, time, came along. Radio broadcasting set new acoustic demands for these spaces. The intensity and frequency division of sound could be measured. In architecture, functionalism changed building traditions thoroughly. Unfortunately, it turned out that acoustic knowledge concerning planning and building of music halls was not sufficient, and many unsuccessful outcomes were produced.
By the 1960s, measuring techniques had developed in such a way that acoustic measurements with scale models became possible. By the 80s, improved acoustic knowledge concerning music halls made possible the implementation of spaces with good acoustic qualities. Computer aided modelling became common. Nowadays an acoustic expert takes part in the planning and designing process of concert halls from the very beginning.

History of education and teaching of acoustics in Finland

Matti Karjalainen

The teaching of acoustics in Finland properly began in 1950, when Gubert R. von Salis, visiting professor from Switzerland, gave lectures about electroacoustics in the Helsinki university of technology for four years. The acoustics laboratory was founded in the 1950s. When the relocation of the university to Otaniemi, Espoo, became actual, a whole wing for acoustics with excellent measuring rooms was planned in connection with the electricity department. Professorship of acoustics was founded in 1974. In the 1980s, speech processing and signal processing were emphasized in teaching.
The beginning of the 90s was still relatively quiet in sound technology. The actual boom in the laboratory started around 1995, along with the expansion of Nokia. The rapidly growing mobile phone industry made the company also part of sound technology. The period of rapid growth in 1995–2003 in the acoustics laboratory gave possibilities for diversification of teaching. During recent years, around 10–15 students per year graduate from the laboratory, and 2–3 doctoral dissertations are produced.

Perceptions of our soundscapes

Outi Ampuja

The article discusses the change in our sound environment through the increase of noise in the cities, and debates if tolerance of noise has become a normal part of urban life. In addition, the writer presents criteria, through which citizens have evaluated the quality of the urban soundscape and the sufficiency of noise control. The challenges and strengths of environmental history in general and the importance of theory in relevant research are also being discussed.

The Finnish Precast Concrete System

Yki Hytönen & Matti Seppänen

The first Finnish precast concrete system (betonielementtisysteemi, BES) was developed at the change of the 1960s and 70s to resolve the problems in the production of concrete elements, resulting from the rapid growth of residential building construction. BES has been considered a turning point in the industrialization of the Finnish construction domain.
The development of BES aimed at better modification possibilities in planning and construction of flats. However, BES did not determine facades as part of the system, thus it did not offer tools for developing the outer design of buildings.
Despite its problems BES set the standards for the whole rapidly growing market of precast concrete elements.

Development project of residential and office buildings 1987–1990

Antero Kajava

At the end of the 1980s, the biggest Finnish building companies and material industry started a large research and development project for studying new possibilities in designing and constructing office and residential buildings. The project was carried out in co-operation with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland. One aim of the project was to develop the quality of residential buildings, for example architecture of facades, sound insulation and indoor climate. Prefabricated construction technology was the basis of the program, but it aimed at developing new solutions for constructing dwellings.
Despite the fact that the objectives of the project were ambitious and the contribution of participating parties was substantial, the application of its results has been quite insignificant especially concerning residential buildings. One of the reasons for this was probably the long and deep economic depression in Finland in the beginning of the 1990s, when the volume of construction industry was halved, 40 % of the workplaces disappeared, and a significant part of the Finnish building companies and material industry was sold abroad.
Why developed building systems never became an innovation? Probably one important reason was the fact that the project was too theoretical. Even though a building system has to be based on theory, in a practical building project the objectives have to be as clear as possible. Theoretical concepts and ideas do not necessarily work in the actual building site.

The effect of technology transfer on the Finnish sound insulation requirements of 1967

Mikko Kylliäinen

The Finnish Association of Civil Engineers published the first Finnish sound insulation requirements of buildings in 1967. These requirements set the sound insulation level of Finnish dwellings for over 30 years as the requirements remained same until the year 2000. The drawing up of the requirements was first suggested in 1948, and several drafts were outlined in the 1950s and 1960s. At the same time, there was no chair for building acoustics in Finland, neither a modern acoustical laboratory. Thus, the possibilities to do research were quite limited.
The profession of engineers specializing in acoustical design of buildings emerged in Finland in the 1930s. During the Second World War, Finland had scientific contacts mainly with Germany and Sweden. German methods of sound insulation measurement were adopted and used through the 1950s and 1960s.
At the end of the 1950s, the Nordic countries tried to make a common draft for sound insulation requirements, but consensus dealing with the measurement methods was not achieved. After that, Finland decided to follow the standard draft of the international organization for standardization ISO. In 1960, the Finnish sound insulation committee published their suggestion for sound insulation requirements. This draft was, however, considered too theoretical and complicated. When international standardization went on in the 1960s, the idea of common Nordic requirements rose up again. Consensus was not found this time either, but when Sweden decided to publish new requirements on the basis of ISO standards, Finland made a similar decision.

Masculine technology and female personality: Women as technology students in Finland 1879–1939

Johanna Vähäpesola

The first women had started their studies in the Polytechnic Institute in 1879. In 1908, the institute got university status and the name was changed into Helsinki University of Technology. There were no formal obstacles for women to study technology, but technology still stayed a very masculine field throughout the beginning of the 20th century.
From the male point of view, technology, however, started to be feminized, and in the 1930s there was a vivid debate in the student magazines about women’s aptitude for the technological field. Technology was believed to require the kind of mental qualities that women inherently did not have. Because of this, women were thought to manage their studies not by the means of their skills, but relying on their diligence.
Architecture and chemistry were considered suitable fields of technology for women, because within these women were believed to be able to use their female virtues. Women acting in the field of technology made the environment to label them with masculine features, but they also had to actively adopt manners and dressing habits that were considered masculine in order to adapt to the masculine culture.

The challenge of freerunning steam road vehicles to the railways in Britain in the 1830s

Tuomas Värjö

When the first railway was taken into use between Manchester and Liverpool in August 1830, steam road vehicles had long been in traffic in the streets of London. At the beginning of the 1830s, The National Institution of Locomotion for Steam Transport and Husbandry was founded for the promotion of steam carriages, with the aim to challenge the railway by starting a regular traffic communication in central England.
Despite all the publicity and the work of the steam carriage engineers and theorists, free-running steam road vehicles did not become common in the 1830s. By 1840, development of steam carriages was generally abandoned. There were several reasons for this, the most important of which was that reliable technical components needed for constructing steam carriages were simply not invented yet.

From analogue to digital – the case of television sound

Ahti Korhonen

The research of the sound of new media and television is connected to the discourse about the convergence of means of communication. Digital television is an outcome of the technological evolution of analogue television. As for sound, the convergence that has happened after the 1960s seems to lead to segmentation and divergence of technology and contents. Divergence of functions and new distribution channels changes the relationships between production companies and consumers. Sound is in a state of change, and especially television sound is going through a thorough transition.