Napoleon's Hemorrhoids_And Other Small Events That Changed History by Phil Mason

Author:Phil Mason [Mason, Phil]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Best 2014 Nonfiction, History, Nonfiction, Retail
ISBN: 9781616081324
Amazon: 1616081325
Barnesnoble: 1616081325
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2010-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Walter Hunt, a New York mechanic, invented the safety pin in 1849 in just three hours, to pay off a $15 debt. He saw no commercial value in the idea, agreed to sell all his rights to it for $400 to the friend he was in debt to, and felt pleased to have made a $385 profit on the deal.

The friend, and future manufacturers, subsequently reaped millions from the device.

The development of the railways in Britain in the 1820s and 1830s might not have progressed as rapidly as it did if George Stephenson had not deliberately lied to parliament.

After the inauguration of Stephenson’s first railway, the Stockton – Darlington line in 1825, a rush of other proposals were put forward for other routes. A parliamentary committee scrutinised Stephenson closely on this newfangled form of transport. The chief concern was speed, and the fear that too rapid speeds would cause physical or mental injury to passengers.

Stephenson lied when he told the committee that no engine would ever be able to travel faster than 12mph. He knew it was already possible to reach at least double that speed.

Had he been honest, he would have reinforced parliament’s fears, and the prospects for rapid expansion of the railway network, which was to bring untold economic and social change to Britain in the next 30 years, might well have been significantly checked.

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