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Winter 1997


Volume 12, Issue 3

FEATURES

He overcame decades of tradtion to make railroading safer for everyone. Then he outmaneuvered America’s greatest inventor to establish our modern system of electric power.

TO MAKE PHONOGRAPHS RESPECTABLE, the Edison company mounted public demonstrations pitting live performers against their recorded selves
IT WORKED ON forced air, and when nobody wanted it, Alfred Beach built it anyway, without telling anyone
WHEN CBS AND RCA battled to establish the standard for color TV technology, they used all the weapons at their disposal: propaganda, lawsuits, Washington lobbying, and, above all, furious struggle in their engineering labs

WALTER VINCENTI has had whole careers both as a cutting-edge aeronautical engineer and as a leading historian of technology. Looking back over them, he discusses what his dual vantage point has taught him about how technological innovation works.

DEPARTMENTS

LETTERS

NOTES FROM THE FIELD

THEY’RE STILL THERE

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

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