The theme of materials in the history of technology has never been as well researched as other more popular areas like energy, production technology or transport and communication. The present collection of papers originating from the symposium on Materials: Science, Technology and Early Applications in conjunction with the 20th International History of Science Congress in Liege, 1997, make a contribution to remedying this unsatisfactory situation. They concentrate on the 19th and 20th centuries and range from research on the metallurgy of zinc in the late 18th and early 19th century to the prospects of ceramic materials to ameliorate contemporary environmental problems.