Stainless Steel1913 Harry BrearleyW.H. Hatfield Stainless steel is strong and has high heat resistance, just like ordinary steel. It resists corrosion, it’s formable and weldable and, unlike regular steel, does not rust. It lowered the cost of everyday items. For example, rather than silver, tableware could be made from stainless steel. Stainless steel also lowered the … Continue reading "Stainless Steel"
Ethernet NetworkingEthernet is a computer networking protocol. Before Ethernet, computers were connected using a hodgepodge of various systems, a digital Tower of Babel. Background Bob Metcalfe invented Ethernet at Xerox PARC. However, Xerox failed to commercialize the technology. Metcalfe left and worked on his own Digital (see minicomputers) and Intel to set Ethernet as a networking … Continue reading "Ethernet Networking"
Nuclear Aircraft CarrierNuclear aircraft carriers are enormous ships capable of traveling the world indefinitely. Indeed, the ships feature relatively large flight-decks capable of launching and landing fixed-wing aircraft, typically fighters. At 1,123 ft. (342 m.) the USS Enterprise is an enormous ship. In contrast, only oil supertankers are larger. The Enterprise supported 4,600 service members. First launched … Continue reading "Nuclear Aircraft Carrier"
- Blue Ocean Strategy Basics – Buyer Utility Map
Find and solve painpoints to navigate towards a new blue ocean offering. Painpoints are parts of the purchase or use experience identifying parts of the experience which are pains in the derriére. For example, haggling with a salesperson when buying a new car — wasting time while worrying about being taken advantage of — is … Continue reading "Blue Ocean Strategy Basics – Buyer Utility Map"
LASERLASER’s allow light to be intensely focused. There are many uses, from reading digital media at low power to cutting at higher powers. Countless applications rely on LASER technology. In 1957, Arthur Schawlow and Charles Townes, of Bell Labs, worked on an infrared LASER, called an “optical MASER.” They patented the invention in 1958. In … Continue reading "LASER"
Web Search EngineNoteworthy early search engines include Archie, from 1990, that searched filenames, and Gopher, from 1991, that organized files. Early Search Engines In March 1994, Stanford students David Filo and Jerry Yang created “Jerry and David’s Guide to the World Wide Web.” Their website contained lists arranged by category of the burgeoning World Wide Web. Sites … Continue reading "Web Search Engine"
Modern Management (Wedgwood)Modern management, marketing, and high-end sales to ordinary people make pottery company Wedgwood a management innovator. Pottery dates back to ancient times. Fragments of pottery in China date back 20,000 years. Since then, for the most part, wherever archeologists find people they also find pottery. Therefore, opening a pottery manufacturer, especially in the 1700s, intuitively … Continue reading "Modern Management (Wedgwood)"
HelicopterIgor Sikorsky was a Russian aircraft designer. He created various aircraft for the Russian army, including early helicopters. No sooner did the Bolshevick’s take over than Sikorsky fled to the US after the Russian Revolution in 1919. In the US, he created a business, Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation, designing aircraft. His first American airplane was a … Continue reading "Helicopter"
SCUBAEarly bell suits that contained air hoses allowed people to function underwater. These bell diving suits were heavy and dangerous. Later systems relied upon compressed air and regulators, yet these were still large and impractical. In 1942 Nazi-occupied France, Frenchmen Cousteau and Gagnan invented the first practical underwater breathing apparatus, Aqua-Lung. In their system, called … Continue reading "SCUBA"
ChemotherapyChemotherapy refers to a group of drugs that fight cancer. Surgery and radiation were the two common anti-cancer therapies before the discovery of effective chemotherapy. Immunotherapy was also studied but showed little promise. Background In the 1800s, scientists thought drugs might be able to fight cancer. However, none of them worked well. In the 1910s, … Continue reading "Chemotherapy"
AutomobileIt’s difficult, and arguably pointless, to separate the innovation of the automobile and Internal Combustion Engine (ICE). The use of an ICE for a “horseless carriage” was so obvious that early engines were all used for cars. Engine propelled buggies were, by far, the most popular use case though ICE’s also powered other applications. Early … Continue reading "Automobile"
- Blue Ocean Strategy Basics – Making Competition Irrelevant
A different way of thinking. It’s right there on the front of the jacket of the book Blue Ocean Strategy, “How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant.” It’s also one of the most misunderstood concepts of blue ocean strategy. I’ve been working on blue ocean strategy since 2001, when it was … Continue reading "Blue Ocean Strategy Basics – Making Competition Irrelevant"
Marine ChronometerThis device, an accurate clock that works on ships, allows sailors to much more accurately navigate. Before this innovation, sailors had to guess, and it was common for ships to miss their destination on a journey by hundreds of miles. This device reduced the risk and cost of long journeys by ship, lowering the cost … Continue reading "Marine Chronometer"
Alternators / Long-Distance Transmission of ElectricityAlternators and Alternating Current enabled the long-distance transmission of electricity. Edison’s electrical plant ran on DC which does not transmit far. Under Edison’s system, there were electric plants every few blocks in cities (the inner Chicago loop had 25 electric plants at one point). Tesla’s AC system transmitted electricity much further; it’s the same we … Continue reading "Alternators / Long-Distance Transmission of Electricity"
Game TheoryGame theory serves as the foundation of systematized decisionmaking and modern economics. Indeed, Minimax game theory underlies modern economics and is responsible for countless economic insights, many of which won Nobel Prizes. Besides game theory, von Neumann eventually modeled the lenses behind the Los Alamos plutonium nuclear bomb. As a Jewish refugee from Europe whose … Continue reading "Game Theory"
