items of interest

with contributions from Ken Garfield

Do you Cherish a picture of the good old days when the horse and buggy were metaphors for the speed of invention and progress? Do those days have a certain appeal as you grapple with today's rapid change?

Well, don't get into your time machine just yet.

A report in The New York Times explains, "Swift as the pace of modern innovation may seem to those in its midst, the present rate of technological change [experts say] pales compared to the period of the late 1850's to 1903. Inventions and new products then included the Bessemer steelmaking process, the light bulb, the phonograph, the telephone, the radio, the automobile, rapid transit (subways and elevated trains), the diesel engine, mechanical refrigeration and the airplane."

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