What they used to think
-- some provocative historical quotes
MEDICINE
…for a man to infect a
family in the morning with smallpox and to pray to God in the evening against
the disease is blasphemy; that the smallpox is “a judgment of God on the sins
of people,” and that “to avert it is but to provoke him more”; that inoculation
is “an encroachment on the prerogatives of Jehovah, whose right it is to wound
and smite.” --contemporary reaction to inoculation experiments by American
physician Dr. Zabdiel Boylston, circa 1720
Smallpox is a visitation
from God; but the cowpox is produced by presumptuous man; the former was what
Heaven ordained, the latter is, perhaps, a daring violation our
of holy religion. -- A physician’s
reaction to Dr. Edward Jenner’s experiments in
developing a vaccine for smallpox, 1796
The abolishment of
pain in surgery is a chimera. IT is absurd to go on seeking it today.
“Knife” and “pain” are two words in surgery that must forever be associated in
the consciousness of the patient. To this compulsory combination we shall
have to adjust ourselves. --Alfred Velpeu,
decrying the use of anesthesia, 1839
There cannot
always be fresh fields of conquest by the knife; there must be portions of the
human frame that will ever remain sacred from its intrusions, at least in the
surgeon’s hands. That we have already, if not quite, reached these final
limits, there can be little question. The abdomen, the chest, and the
brain will be forever shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon. --
Sir John Eric Ericksen, Surgeon-Extraordinary to
Queen
COMMUNICATIONS
…What was this telegraph
to do? Would it transmit letters and newspapers? And besides, the
telegraph might be made very mischievous, and secret information thereafter
communicated to the prejudice of merchants. --
Senator George McDuffie, on an amendment to allocate funds to construct a
telegraph line between
The operation of the telegraph between Washington
and Baltimore had not satisfied [me] that under any rate of postage that could
be adopted, its revenues could be made equal to its expenditures. -- Postmaster General Cave Johnson, when Samuel Morse
tried to sell the rights to the telegraph to the
The wireless music
box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent
to nobody in particular? --associates of
RCA chairman David Sarnoff, in response to his suggestion that the corporation
invest in radio technology, circa 1920
De Forest has said in
many newspapers and over his signature that it would be possible to transmit
human voice across the
COMPUTERS
I think there is a
world market for maybe five computers. --Thomas Watson, chairman of the
board, IBM, 1943
I have traveled
the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I
can assure you that data processing is a fad that won’t last out the year. --
editor of business books, Prentice Hall publishers,
1957
But what…is it [a
microchip] good for? -- engineer at the Advanced
Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968
There is no reason
anyone would want a computer in their home. -- Ken Olson, founder of Digital
Equipment Corp., 1972
TRANSPORTATION
Drill for oil? You
mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You’re crazy. --workers who Edwin L. Drake tried to hire
on his project to drill for oil in
It was declared that its
formation would prevent cows grazing and hens laying.
The poisoned air from the locomotives would kill birds as they flew over them,
and render the preservation of pheasants and foxes no longer possible.
Householders adjoining the projected line were told that their houses would be
burnt up by the fire thrown from the engine-chimneys, while the air around
would be polluted by clouds of smoke. There would no longer be any use
for horses, and if railways extended, the species would become extinguished,
and oats and hay unsalable commodities.
Traveling by road would be rendered highly dangerous, and country inns would be
ruined. Boilers would burst and blow passengers to atoms. But there
was always this consolation to wind up with—that
the weight of the locomotive would completely prevent its moving, and that
railways, even if made, could never be worked by steam-power! -- pamphlets opposing the use of railroads in