"Man will never reach the
moon regardless of all future scientific advances."
-- Dr. Lee DeForest, "Father
of Radio & Grandfather of Television."
"The
bomb will never go off. I speak as an expert in explosives."
- - Admiral William Leahy , US
Atomic Bomb Project
"There is no likelihood man can
ever tap the power of the atom."
-- Robert Millikan, Nobel Prize
in Physics, 1923
"Computers in the future may weigh
no more than 1.5 tons."
-- Popular Mechanics, forecasting
the relentless march of science, 1949
"I think
there is a world market for maybe five computers." --
Thomas Watson, chairman of 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." -- The editor in charge of
business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
"But what is
it good for?" -- Engineer at the Advanced Computing
Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the
microchip.
"640K ought to be enough for anybody."
-- Bill Gates, 1981
This
'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously
considered as a means of communication. The device is
inherently of no value to us," -- Western Union internal
memo, 1876.
"The wireless music box has no
imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent
to nobody in particular?"
-- David Sarnoff's associates in
response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the
1920s.
"The concept is interesting and
well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea
must be feasible,"
--
A Yale University management professor in response to Fred
Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service.
(Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)
"I'm
just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and
not Gary Cooper," -- Gary Cooper on his decision not to
take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."
"A
cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research
reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy
cookies like you make,"
-- Response to Debbi Fields' idea
of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.
"We don't like
their sound, and guitar music is on the way out,"
-- Decca Recording Co. rejecting
the Beatles, 1962.
"Heavier-than-air flying
machines are impossible," -- Lord Kelvin, president, Royal
Society, 1895.
"If I had thought about it, I
wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of
examples that said you can't do this,"
- -
Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for
3-M "Post-It" Notepads.
"Drill for oil?
You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're
crazy," -- Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to
his project to drill for oil in 1859.
"Stocks have
reached what looks like a permanently high plateau." - -
Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University ,
1929.
"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no
military value," -- Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of
Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre , France .
"Everything
that can be invented has been invented,"
--
Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, US Office of Patents,
1899.
"The super computer is technologically
impossible. It would take all of the water that flows over
Niagara Falls to cool the heat generated by the number of
vacuum tubes required." -- Professor of Electrical
Engineering, New York University
"I don't know what
use any one could find for a machine that would make copies of
documents. It certainly couldn't be a feasible business by
itself." -- the head of IBM, refusing to back the idea,
forcing the inventor to found Xerox.
"Louis
Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction."
-- Pierre Pachet, Professor of
Physiology at Toulouse , 1872
"The abdomen, the
chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of
the wise and humane surgeon,"-- Sir John Eric Ericksen,
British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen
Victoria 1873.
And last but not least...
"There
is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital
Equipment Corp., 1977 |
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Whether you like this and agree with me, or not, thank you for your comments. I normally do not purge an individual comment, unless it is obscene or obvious spam. If you have a question, do feel free to e-mail me at this address web2.0plus@gmail.com - Stan W.