[TheForge] [OT] Greatest invention (Was: Shop Communications)

[Mike Spencer]

DaveS> Some historians would say that the greatest invention was the
DaveS> railroad...

There's in interesting book, _The Control Revolution_, [1] that suggests
that the railroad was a unique watershed point between the chaotic
industrial revolution and the top-down, managerial, corporatist
organization that has become the hallmark of today's economy and
dominates the rest of our world.

But for greatest inventions of the 19th c., my votes are for the
alternating current motor and painless dentistry.  [2]

I feel a rant coming on so I'll stop here. :-)

- Mike

[1] James R. Deniger. Harvard Univ. Press, 1986

[2] It doesn't take much effort to extend the notion to anaesthesia in
    general BUT... -- oop, I wasn't going to rant -- [snip]

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^