Research on how new technologies are evaluated, funded, and adopted in national security. The current study examines selected records from the U.S. Board of Ordnance & Fortification, which operated from 1888 to 1920.
The Board of Ordnance and Fortification archive collects selected proposal transcriptions, appropriations, research allotments, and technology reviews. It provides a record of proposals submitted to the Board and the actions recorded in its reports.
The dashboard makes these records searchable by subject, proposer, period, and category. The archive guide documents coverage, sources, and the differences between the datasets.
Which proposals received support? How were allocations distributed across technologies? How did the recorded actions change across reporting periods? The public records support descriptive comparisons within the collection. They do not establish why a proposal succeeded, how representative the collection is, or whether funding led to adoption.
The main views cover proposals, Army and Navy appropriations, technology reviews, and Board appropriations and allotments. Search a record to read the transcribed action, compare periods, or export matching rows.
Research collections include funding summaries, technology prevalence charts, and a historical events timeline. The reading room contains report excerpts, biographical timelines, technology records, and research memos. These materials have different source sets and should be read with their coverage notes.
Built the data pipeline and dashboard, assembled the master ledger, and produced the historical events timeline.
Analyzed allotments by technology, annual funding patterns, and proposal comparisons. Related charts are available on the source research site.
Curated and classified the technology review records. The dashboard groups 202 technologies across 28 reporting periods, with recorded actions available for individual entries.
Grouped proposal counts into thirteen technology types and compared their prevalence across reporting periods. The dashboard charts retain the data from the original R analysis.
The public exports contain transcribed records and derived fields. Source references, report periods, page numbers, or legislation links are retained where available. The archive guide links directly to the data used by the main views.
Proposal decisions, technology clusters, and proposer types are grouped by keyword rules. These categories are aids to navigation, not independent historical findings. Read the transcribed action before interpreting a label; approval can refer to funding or authorization rather than adoption.
Raw workbooks and scans are held in a private companion repository. The public exports support inspection of the derived records, but access to the originals is needed to verify transcription and reproduce all processing.
Allotments record allocations, not confirmed expenditure. Dates are shown as transcribed and may disagree. The source worksheet supplies the budget values in 2025 dollars; its adjustment method is not documented here.
The collection is incomplete and does not establish the Board's overall approval rate or the effectiveness of its spending. The data quality inventory records earlier review notes and known issues; it is not a certification of the underlying sources.