172
9 Reinforcement in the Twenty-First Century
it is not certain when the crossing is observed, by the end of this century, or in the
twenty-second century.
This question is not simply on the usage of words, innovation, or revolution, nor
simply on technological issues. It is to be discussed from much wider viewpoints
including social and economic ones. Let us introduce an interesting report appeared
on Internet in Japan [22]. A questionnaire survey was conducted questioning, ‘Which
Japanese companies will manage to survive for 100 years or more from now on?’ The
questionnaire was sent to main enterprises of various industry, business, and trade
arenas in Japan, and the respondents’ reaction was somewhat unexpected: Among the
top ten companies, three automobile companies (the first, second, and sixth), three
railway ones (two-thirds and ninth), and three food ones (fifth, seventh, and ninth)
were included. The rest was an electronics company (eighth). The most surprising is
that none of IT companies are found among the top ten. This is remarkably against
a popular belief that nowadays IT industries are the most influential to our daily life
hence to our society in general. One of the reasons may be the fact that the IT age is
still young (about half a century old), and the company level stability has not been
established yet. Which IT companies are surviving is an unpredictable issue, and it
may be very difficult to name a specific company name. One more possibility is no
Japanese IT companies are sure of their survival, since IT industries are at the center
of the globalizing turmoil. The high ranking of food companies is possibly based on
a simple fact that food is indispensable for us to live regardless of the time or era.
From the viewpoint of rubber reinforcement, the topics of this book, the transportation industries’ occupying the six seats among the top ten are deserving special
mention. To begin with, the steam engine was invented during the Industrial Revolution, and at its later stage steam locomotives and steamships were widely navigating
in order to carry people, freights, and cargoes in the second half of the nineteenth century. Near to the end of the century, automobiles with an internal combustion engine
appeared on the roads. They spread so rapidly that horse carriages were expelled
from the road in almost ten years in big cities [8]. It is notable that the carriage had
been used over three thousand years by the privileged minority people. The cars were
followed by aircraft early in the twentieth century, to provide people with air traffic. The development of transportation in these one hundred years enabled ordinary
people to travel far away, which drastically changed the traditional society having
thousands of year history [8, 9, 23]. In Ref. [23], it is described as follows:
Most people believed that they should stay in their place and live according to their means.
They were supposed to know and accept their lot in life.
In other words, ‘A farmer’s son is to become a farmer plowing the father’s fields,
and a nobleman’s son is to become a nobleman inheriting the father’s fortune’ had
been normal at the traditional society for over several thousand years before the
Transportation Revolution described above, which started at the middle of the nineteenth century. A farmer manages to travel a long way to see his or her friends on
the train or by car nowadays. This kind of change at the ordinary people’s level was
due to the Transportation Revolution, and the trend continues to this century. Now,
we are living in a transportation society, and the delocalization of transportation is
9 Reinforcement in the Twenty-First Century
it is not certain when the crossing is observed, by the end of this century, or in the
twenty-second century.
This question is not simply on the usage of words, innovation, or revolution, nor
simply on technological issues. It is to be discussed from much wider viewpoints
including social and economic ones. Let us introduce an interesting report appeared
on Internet in Japan [22]. A questionnaire survey was conducted questioning, ‘Which
Japanese companies will manage to survive for 100 years or more from now on?’ The
questionnaire was sent to main enterprises of various industry, business, and trade
arenas in Japan, and the respondents’ reaction was somewhat unexpected: Among the
top ten companies, three automobile companies (the first, second, and sixth), three
railway ones (two-thirds and ninth), and three food ones (fifth, seventh, and ninth)
were included. The rest was an electronics company (eighth). The most surprising is
that none of IT companies are found among the top ten. This is remarkably against
a popular belief that nowadays IT industries are the most influential to our daily life
hence to our society in general. One of the reasons may be the fact that the IT age is
still young (about half a century old), and the company level stability has not been
established yet. Which IT companies are surviving is an unpredictable issue, and it
may be very difficult to name a specific company name. One more possibility is no
Japanese IT companies are sure of their survival, since IT industries are at the center
of the globalizing turmoil. The high ranking of food companies is possibly based on
a simple fact that food is indispensable for us to live regardless of the time or era.
From the viewpoint of rubber reinforcement, the topics of this book, the transportation industries’ occupying the six seats among the top ten are deserving special
mention. To begin with, the steam engine was invented during the Industrial Revolution, and at its later stage steam locomotives and steamships were widely navigating
in order to carry people, freights, and cargoes in the second half of the nineteenth century. Near to the end of the century, automobiles with an internal combustion engine
appeared on the roads. They spread so rapidly that horse carriages were expelled
from the road in almost ten years in big cities [8]. It is notable that the carriage had
been used over three thousand years by the privileged minority people. The cars were
followed by aircraft early in the twentieth century, to provide people with air traffic. The development of transportation in these one hundred years enabled ordinary
people to travel far away, which drastically changed the traditional society having
thousands of year history [8, 9, 23]. In Ref. [23], it is described as follows:
Most people believed that they should stay in their place and live according to their means.
They were supposed to know and accept their lot in life.
In other words, ‘A farmer’s son is to become a farmer plowing the father’s fields,
and a nobleman’s son is to become a nobleman inheriting the father’s fortune’ had
been normal at the traditional society for over several thousand years before the
Transportation Revolution described above, which started at the middle of the nineteenth century. A farmer manages to travel a long way to see his or her friends on
the train or by car nowadays. This kind of change at the ordinary people’s level was
due to the Transportation Revolution, and the trend continues to this century. Now,
we are living in a transportation society, and the delocalization of transportation is