Transcript
Page 1: History’s Innovators: They Made America by Praveen Gupta 2011

Volume 2 · Number 4 · 2010

185

History’s Innovators: They Made AmericaPraveen Gupta, Editor-at-Large, had an opportunity to speak with Sir Harold Evans, a renowned

author about the role of great history’s innovators in making America a thriving economy inknowledge age. We would like to thank Sir Evans for sharing his wisdom with our readers.

1. WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF WRITING “THEY MADE AMERICA”?When I was writing a book called “American Century” which was a history of America from 1889 to1989, 100 years from the first year America became a growing concern in 1789, 1889 was the firstcentenary. I wanted to do 1989, from the first centenary to the second centenary and I was consciousthroughout that I could not refer to things that I discuss not quite understand how they happened. Howdid they come about? Americans were coming home and talked about electric railways in the cities,where did the electric railways come from? What has happened to America? How they came aboutthese inventions like electric railway, not steam railway, how the steamboats came to Mississippi river.We assume these things kind of came like flowers out of the earth. The story of the steamboat is quitean amazing story because the British would not let the Americans have the low-pressure engine thatthey developed in Britain. Therefore the first American who tried to build the steam boat, a man calledJohn Fitch, had to invent the steam engine and so on and so forth. For instance in developing theassembly line or machine tools or telephones for that matter, what is amazing that we keep writingabout these things and describe them, for example historians describe the Civil War as a war against thenative American with Colt revolver. Where did it come from? It starts with the recognition like otherhistorians of America; I had assumed/ taken for granted these inventions had just arrived out ofnowhere. I was then intrigued why did they come out of American soil. Who were the Americans whointroduced them? What kind of people were they? For instance take an example of automobile,Americans did not invent automobile, the automobile engine was first invented in Germany. But HenryFord had a very different idea of what the automobile should be. It should be for the masses of people,just as later in the century when Juan Trippe had the idea that air travel should be for the masses, whichled to the development of the 747 airliner, a development that made air travel cheaper and possible forthe masses. So how do these things come about? That was why I wrote that book.

2. HOW DID YOU SELECT THE INNOVATORS?SH: First of all I spent 12 months with a research assistant called David Letter and David came to mewith list and summaries of about 160–170 people who would be associated either with the founding ofcompanies or inventions and others who had made innovations. I could have done 9 or 10 profiles ofpeople engaged in the development of a kind but I wanted to have a variety, for instance in the railways,when we reached the computer age, I wanted to write about the man who wrote code which enabledany piece of software to be used on any piece of the hardware. Gary Kildall was the genius, the manbehind the software industry and therefore I chose him. Where did the MRI machine come from?Where did the biotechnology come from? So I wanted this variety not simply be concerned with greatengines of industry, some of the more amazing innovations in medicine. Today everybody is obsessedby IT, and the communications technology. But I thought medical inventions, like MRI machines, byRaymond Damadian and the biotech revolution created by Herbert Boyer were just as important. Sothere are two answers to your question – the variety of American innovations and the range ofinnovation. I selected these 70 or so, we, of course, did include at the end of the book, few lines abouta lot of other people. I spent several months writing about the Wright brothers for the invention offlight. That to me was the most astounding story in the entire book because everybody from Di Vincitried to get the man to fly with heavier than air machinery equipment from one kind or the other butfailed. How did these two brothers, two bicycle mechanics, in Dayton, Ohio, how did they managed toachieve that all the great geniuses and big institutions failed to do? Bicycle was very important to thedevelopment of these airplanes. Wright brothers were the first test pilots in the world and risked theirlives. I love the connection between the developments of the first airplane and then the development of747. When they built a wooden tunnel to decide best shape of the wing, they mounted a little propellerin the front of the bicycle and rode on the street to learn when the bicycle turned most rapidly. Thenthey developed the wooden tunnel, went home and started stitching wings with corn fiber and plywood,very innovative story, an absolutely astounding story.

Page 2: History’s Innovators: They Made America by Praveen Gupta 2011

w��������������������� ������������������

������������� ���������������

w����������������������� ������������������

�� ������� ��� ���������������������������

��������������������� ���� ��������� ������

����������������������������� ��� ������

������������������������� �������������������

����� ��

@������� ����������

������ ������� ����� ���������� �������������

������������������������ ������������������

�������������������� ��������������� ��������

������ �� ����� �������������������������

������������������������� ��� ���� �����

�������������������� ��������� ��� ������

�����������������!������������������������

������ ��� �������

����������������

w��������������������� �����������������������������������������"�������������������������������

����������������������������� ����������������� �� ����w������������������������# �������

����� ���!����������������������� ������������������ �������������������� �� ������������

�� ���$���������� ������������%���������������� ������&�������������������!�������������������

����������������������������������!�������$�������������������������� ������w��������������� �����

��������������������������������������������������� ������������ ��������������#����������������

�����������������������������������������������������������

������������������ �

��������������������������������������������

������������� �����������w������ �!�

������������ �������� �����'���(�!��'(��)�*�

+�����w���!,���������� �

-�!������"�./."0.1"2345�

���"�"�#�����$%&%�'''(�)� ��������*������+�

,'%&�-������.������/�

,'01�-�������+/�

,'($�-������+/�