Discount AirlineAs the airline market developed, the US found it necessary to regulate interstate air transport as a “public utility.” Significantly, the “Civil Aeronautics Board” (CAB) regulated fares, routes, and schedules. The benefit of regulation was predictability and widespread routes. For example, a carrier that wanted to fly from New York to Chicago might be required … Continue reading "Discount Airline"
Compact Audiotape CassetteIn 1960, Consumer Reports reviewed an in-car vinyl record player offered by Chrysler, The RCA Victor “Victrola.” It held 14 records and could play for 2.5 hours continuously. To keep the needle from bouncing around, it was pressed into the vinyl wearing down records. Despite that common sense says the invention sounds idiotic, it worked … Continue reading "Compact Audiotape Cassette"
Computer Numerical Control (CNC) MachineComputer Numerical Control (CNC) machines create identical interchangeable parts. They simplify manufacturing and reduce the risk of human error producing parts. Starting in 1949, John Parsons worked with Frank Stulen at Gordon S. Brown’s Servomechanisms Laboratory at MIT to develop a system where punch cards controlled a machining tool, called Numerical Control (NC). This evolved … Continue reading "Computer Numerical Control (CNC) Machine"
DynamiteDynamite blows up otherwise difficult to move things, like boulders, mountains, and bedrock. It lowers the cost of removing rocks to make level land and tunnels, railroads, roads, and enables foundations for skyscrapers. In 1847 chemists Théophile-Jules Pelouze and Ascanio Sobrero had synthesized nitroglycerin but the chemical was unstable and difficult to harness. Nobel encased … Continue reading "Dynamite"
JukeboxThe Jukebox is an automated coin-operated music player which plays individual songs. The differentiating factor of the Jukebox from a simple coin-operated record player is the ability of an automated machine to replace live music in a restaurant or bar. Background Louis Glass and William Arnold modified Edison’s record players to operate by coins. These … Continue reading "Jukebox"
Shareholder Value Theory: Milton Friedman ReduxOn September 13, 1970, Milton Friedman published one of the most arguably economically destructive articles in history, “The Social Responsibility Of Business Is to Increase Its Profits,” in the New York Times. The article is available, in PDF form, for subscribers from the New York Times website. Friedman advanced the idea that managers are agents … Continue reading "Shareholder Value Theory: Milton Friedman Redux"
BasketballWe only have two sports on innowiki we think merit inclusion, football (soccer in the US and Australia) and basketball. Global diffusion is the reason for their inclusion. Of course, there are countless regional sports. Fierljeppen is our favorite. However, no matter the appeal of canal jumping, football and basketball are the only two that … Continue reading "Basketball"
Nuclear WeaponsCaltech professor Robert Oppenheimer lead a team of researchers at Los Alamos to invent the atomic bomb. Along with some of the most noteworthy physicists in the world, he oversaw the development of the nuclear bomb. The Manhattan Project, like the code-breaking at Bletchley Park, was intensely secretive. Los Alamos, in New Mexico, was built … Continue reading "Nuclear Weapons"
Turing Complete Electronic Computer, ENIACBackground Commissioned in 1943, partially functional in July 1944, but not entirely finished until Feb. 1, 1946, ENIAC is the first all-electronic general-purpose Turning complete computer. Engineers built ENIAC to calculate ordinance tables. Eventually, von Neumann used the computer to perform calculations for nuclear weapons and break ENIGMA encrypted messages. Built at the University of … Continue reading "Turing Complete Electronic Computer, ENIAC"
- Blue Ocean Strategy Basics – Breaking the Value/Cost Trade-Off
Oftentimes spending more doesn’t get more and, sometimes, gets less Michael Porter is the father of modern business strategy theory and defined a few basic ideas. Core among them is that business centers around competition. Competitors, new market entrants, suppliers, customers, and substitute products are five forces that influence profitability, he argued in his famous … Continue reading "Blue Ocean Strategy Basics – Breaking the Value/Cost Trade-Off"
Nuclear PowerOne of the great physicists, Fermi won the Nobel Prize in 1938, at the age of 37. No sooner did he receive his prize than he fled from his home in fascist Italy to New York City, taking US citizenship. Eventually, Fermi and the other nuclear scientists had convinced President Roosevelt that the Nazis could … Continue reading "Nuclear Power"
Magnetic Tape RecordingPoulsen, a Danish engineer, created and patented a machine that recorded onto magnetic tape. His called the invention a Telegraphone. There was no amplification and the recording quality was poor. In 1928, Pfleumer, a German, vastly improved the magnetic tape. He named his device a Magnetophone. During WWII the Germans used it for communications and … Continue reading "Magnetic Tape Recording"
Inkjet PrinterInkjet printing produces affordable, high-quality printouts using low-cost personal desktop printers. Background Ichiro Endo, of Canon, was the first to realize the idea that ink could be heated to form a small bubble, then deposited on a page to form a pixel, inkjet printing. John Vaught, a college dropout working at Hewlett-Packard, was working on … Continue reading "Inkjet Printer"
Branch BankingBranch banking allows ordinary people to utilize banks and theoretically makes banks safer since larger banks are less prone to catastrophic losses than smaller banks. Amadeo Pietro “A.P.” Giannini started life as a fruit wholesaler. He built and sold a large business, decided he was too young to retire, then innovated an entirely new type … Continue reading "Branch Banking"
Plasma Panel1964 Donald BitzerGene SlottowRobert Wilson Plasma panels form fonts, images, and other patterns using plasma, rather than tubes. The panels are flat, cool, and use less power than CRT tubes. Bitzer developed the plasma panel as the monitor for his teaching computer, PLATO. PLATO is a lesser-known fountain of innovation. Along with Bell Labs, Xerox … Continue reading "Plasma Panel"
