Steel tools can be traced back 4000 years to the beginning of the Iron Age. However, steel wasn’t mass produced until the 1850s thanks to the invention of the Bessemer Process, a technique for creating the alloy using molten pig iron. Steel then became one of the world’s biggest industries, transforming our modern world from shipbuilding, to bridges, to skyscrapers, to appliances, and more.
The idea for a lightweight currency originated in China during the Han Dynasty which ruled from 206 B.C. to 220 A.D. True paper currency only became widely used in China in the ninth century during the Northern Song Dynasty and did not appear in Europe until the 13th century, changing the face of the global economy.
In 1926, Julius Lilienfeld patented a field-effect transistor, but constructing an actual working device was not feasible at that time. It wasn’t until 1947 that John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley developed the first practical device, a point-contact transistor, at Bell Laboratories. Transistors have since revolutionized technology and become an essential component in nearly every modern electronic gadget.
In 1928, Sir Alexander Fleming observed something curious in a plate culture of Staphylococcus that had been contaminated by a blue-green mold, Penicillium notatum. He published his findings about antibiotic activity in 1929, noting that his discovery might someday have therapeutic value if it could be produced in quantity. The mass production of penicillin didn’t happen until the 1940s, transforming modern medicine as we know it.
These are but a few examples of the lengthy journey from invention to breakthrough innovation.
Invention can be fairly rapid, sudden, and dramatic. But converting invention to innovation is typically long, arduous, and hard.
Until invention is converted into a practical, reliable, and affordable innovation, it’s potential remains unfulfilled.
