Who Said That?
by Steve Reese
April 27, 2009
"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication." — Western Union internal memo, 1876.
"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible." — Lord Kelvin,
president, Royal Society, 1895.
"Everything that can be invented has been invented." —
Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.
"I see no progress in this industry. These clocks are no
faster than the ones they made a hundred years ago." — Henry Ford,
while visiting a museum.
"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." —
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
"Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18 000
vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers of the future may have
only 1 000 vacuum tubes and perhaps weigh 1½ tons." — Popular
Mechanics, March 1949.
"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." — The editor in
charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957.
"But what... is it good for ?" — An engineer at the Advanced
Computing Systems Division of IBM, commenting on the microchip in
1968.
"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." — Ken Olson, president/founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977.
