Thomas Edison's Kindle 98
harrymcc writes "In 1911, Thomas Edison bragged that he could make a 40,000-page book by printing the pages on thin pieces of metal. In the mid-1930s, newspapers experimented with transmitting special editions into homes via early fax machines. In 1956, Chrysler tried to sell Americans on buying 7-inch records that could only be played on a tiny turntable built into its cars' dashboards. Over at Technologizer, I rounded up these and a dozen other fascinating, forgotten gadget ideas that didn't work out — but which foreshadowed products and technologies that eventually became a big deal."
Success is timing as much as great ideas (Score:5, Insightful)
Success is timing as much as great ideas. Your customers have to be ready for it. It happens on the macro level, with mass produced products, and on the micro: I learned long ago that if my clients aren't ready to adapt a new technology, it is a waste of time to push it on them. Usually they come around to it a few years later. :)
'Ready' usually means that it is a small mental step forward and they see a pressing need for it.
Re:Success is timing as much as great ideas (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course I was laughed at and told "if it was such a good idea, someone would have thought of it and made it by now." So a few years pass by and technology made some awesome advancements. So now we have linux boxes that run your pool at optimum points in time to help you save money, HTPC's and gaming PC's. And that's just what a little reading will get you. The true beauty comes with taking the time to learn the systems more in depth so you can create whatever you please.
I still await amassing enough of a fortune to start my manufacturing plant to create, patent and produce my own designs. But in the mean time I have to fight off those who say "if it was such a great idea, someone would have made it by now..."
Another invention that didn't work out (Score:5, Insightful)
...was breaking up your article into four arbitrary pages on the web.
Or at least, I *hope* that's what people will think in the future.
Re:hmmm (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you lop off your fingers when handling Christmas tinsel? How about aluminium ("tin") foil?
Re:There was an early fax machine in the 1860s (Score:3, Insightful)
A torpedo that comes back if it misses? What could possibly go wrong? This man was clearly a genius!
The genious part would be to sell it to your enemies!
Re:hmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:hmmm (Score:4, Insightful)
Nowadsys Tinsel is made of plastic.
Re:Another Idea that will not catch on (hopefully) (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:TFA gets it completely wrong on the 'Kindle' (Score:3, Insightful)
Either that or I'm missing something.
Just an ear for metaphor and simile.
Re:TFA gets it completely wrong on the 'Kindle' (Score:1, Insightful)
The author is saying that Edison's idea could give you a lot of books in one object
reader's digest invented that, except they used a lossy compression format over a new storage medium.
Re:There was an early fax machine in the 1860s (Score:4, Insightful)
No, no, no. You have to look at the bigger picture. This technology will help us evolve a breed of near-infallible marksmen.