I often come back to thinking about the bicycle. It seems so much simpler than the automobile, but it was basically a contemporary. It turns out they both required a large foundation of interchangeable gears, rubber, paved roads, and other shared ideas. (Though I also love to imagine how Roman bicycle cavalry could have changed military history.)
You might be interested in the history of interchangeable parts. Back when, the government built its own rifles. The Springfield Armory led the way in machining parts that were interchangeable. The Connecticut River valley became the cutting edge of precise machine tooling, which spread into every industry and made assembly lines possible. All powered by water at the time. The role of government in scientific, technical and industrial innovation is long-standing. The implications of that are complex. And it is of course not always for good. We have a few too many highways and dams, for example.
I often come back to thinking about the bicycle. It seems so much simpler than the automobile, but it was basically a contemporary. It turns out they both required a large foundation of interchangeable gears, rubber, paved roads, and other shared ideas. (Though I also love to imagine how Roman bicycle cavalry could have changed military history.)
Absolutely, great example!
You might be interested in the history of interchangeable parts. Back when, the government built its own rifles. The Springfield Armory led the way in machining parts that were interchangeable. The Connecticut River valley became the cutting edge of precise machine tooling, which spread into every industry and made assembly lines possible. All powered by water at the time. The role of government in scientific, technical and industrial innovation is long-standing. The implications of that are complex. And it is of course not always for good. We have a few too many highways and dams, for example.