General accounts of the history of science and technology (or, more narrowly, of inventions) are scarce. The few that are available are also of fairly recent origin: obviously, the idea of a history of science (where science has been identified with Galilean science) and technology (identified with industrial technology) could not have appeared much earlier than this century. Not many people even know that the word “scientist” was first used by William Whewell in 1833.
Also, most available histories have remained the work of western scholars. This has not been an entirely happy circumstance. On the contrary, it has afflicted these histories with certain methodological and other infirmities which have had the effect of reducing them to mythological works. This is especially so when they are studied with regard to aspects of the history of science, technology, and medicine in the non-Western world.
One of the first is a history of technology and engineering written by Dutch historian Forbe ..