grew into a "historical fact," Olmstead wrote, even though it ignored "extremely knowledgeable historians who emphasized how a host of technological changes transformed an experimentally crude, heavy, unwieldy, and unreliable prototype of the 1830s into the relatively finely engineered machinery of the 1860s."

For those who would like to go back to original sources, Paul David's article was "The Mechanization of Reaping in the Ante-Bellum Midwest," published in a 1966 volume edited by Henry Rosovsky, , Industrialization in Two Systems: Essays in Honor of
Alexander Gerschenkron, pp. 3-39. Alan L. Olmstead's essay is "The Mechanization of Reaping and Mowing in American Agriculture, 1833-1870," in the June 1975 issue of the Journal of Economic History, pp. 327-352.

The slow diffusion of technology is a widespread finding: for example, I've posted on thisKent seeks partnership with Kent State on fracking ban

February 25, 2013

KENT, Ohio -- The northeast Ohio city of Kent is reaching out to Kent State University in an attempt to create a joint anti-fracking policy.

The city council unanimously approved a motion to contact university officials to work together on banning the gas drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on public land in Portage County.

The Kent-Ravenna Record Courier reports that Councilwoman Heidi Shaffer said she ``really want(s) the public to know we're taking this seriously.''

A Kent State spokeswoman said that while the state sets the rules for oil and gas drilling, the university's board of trustees would have to approve any proposed drilling. None has been proposed.

Environmentalists have raised concerns about the effects of the process, although