The Technical Alliance was a group of engineers, scientists, and technicians based in New York City, formed towards the end of 1919 by American researcher

Howard Scott Howard Scott may refer to: * Howard Scott (engineer) (1890–1970), American engineer and founder of Technocracy Incorporated and the Technical Alliance * Howard Scott (translator), Canadian literary translator *Howard Scott (1902–1983), American ...

. The Alliance started an ''Energy Survey of North America'', intended to document the wastefulness of the

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their use for the purpose of obtaining profit. This socioeconomic system has developed historically through several stages and is defined by ...

system. The Technical Alliance advocated a more rational and productive society directed by technical experts, but their survey work failed to have a significant effect. Although some waste was documented, the "prosperity and conservatism of the 1920s undermined the political orientation of the Technical Alliance", and it disbanded in 1921. The energy survey was not completed.

Members

The Technical Alliance was by no means a mass organization, but it did have some notable members and technical experts. Apart from Scott, other members of the Technical Alliance included: * Frederick L. Ackerman * Carl C. Alsberg *

Alice Barrows Alice Prentice Barrows (November 15, 1878 – October 2, 1954) was a secretary of Dr. William A. Wirt, who headed the U.S. Office of Education in the early days of the New Deal of President Franklin Roosevelt. Barrows had been a member of the Com ...

* Allen Carpenter *

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* L.K. Comstock * Bassett Jones * Robert H. Kohn * Benton MacKaye *

Leland Olds Leland Olds (December 31, 1890 – August 5, 1960) was an American economist interested in labor, development of public electric power, and ecology. Education Olds was a son of George Olds, president of Amherst College. He studied mathematics ...

* Charles P. Steinmetz *

Richard C. Tolman Richard Chace Tolman (March 4, 1881 – September 5, 1948) was an American mathematical physicist and physical chemist who made many contributions to statistical mechanics and theoretical cosmology. He was a professor at the California Ins ...

* John C. Vaughan *

Thorstein Veblen Thorstein Bunde Veblen (; July 30, 1857 – August 3, 1929) was an American Economics, economist and Sociology, sociologist who, during his lifetime, emerged as a well-known Criticism of capitalism, critic of capitalism. In his best-known book ...

* Charles H. Whitaker

References

Sources

* * * {{Cite book, last=Akin, first=William E., title=Technocracy and the American Dream: The Technocrat Movement, 1900-1941, publisher=

University of California Press The University of California Press, otherwise known as UC Press, is a publishing house associated with the University of California that engages in academic publishing. It was founded in 1893 to publish scholarly and scientific works by faculty ...

, year=1977, isbn=978-0-520-03110-4, location=

Berkeley Berkeley most often refers to: *Berkeley, California, a city in the United States **University of California, Berkeley, a public university in Berkeley, California *George Berkeley (1685–1753), Anglo-Irish philosopher Berkeley may also refer to ...

Technocracy movement