cheaply for now. Very roughly, the best industry to be in as an innovator was: 1800 – textiles; 1830 – railways; 1860 – chemicals; 1890 – electricity; 1920 – cars; 1950 – aeroplanes; 1980 – computers; 2010 – the web. Whereas the nineteenth century saw a rash of new ways to move people about (railways, bicycles, cars, steamships), the twentieth century saw a rash of new ways to move information about (telephones, radio, television, satellites, fax, the internet, mobile telephones). Admittedly, the telegraph came long before the aeroplane, but the general point stands.
