RE: Battery Storage on BBC26 Jun 2019 12:31
There was a time when people thought the automobile would never catch on and horses would suffice.
In 1899, The Literary Digest magazine had this to say about automobiles: ‘The ordinary ‘horseless carriage’ is at present a luxury for the wealthy; and although its price will probably fall in the future, it will never, of course, come into as common use as the bicycle.’ Four years later, Detroit lawyer Horace Rackham was advised by the president of the Michigan Savings Bank that ‘the horse is here to stay but the automobile is only a novelty – a fad,’ before he bought stocks in Henry Ford’s Ford Motor Company. Thankfully Rackham ignored this advice and in 1908, the Ford Motor Company designed the Model T automobile which by 1918 would make up half of the total cars in America.
the same is true for the electric lightbulb, the telephone, television and PC's amongst other inventions that took time to catch on.
Ken Olson – founder of computer company Digital Equipment Corp – saying in 1977, ‘There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home,’
By 2012 nearly 80% of all American households owned a computer.