In 1892, an Iowa blacksmith was working on a solution for mechanized combining of crops. The steam engines of the day were huge, very heavy, and took a lot of coal and water to operate. They made work easier, but only when they didn't break down, or explode and kill workers, etc. This inventor figured out an effective way to mount a gasoline engine on a tractor chassis. He used heavy-duty wheels and components, and had water cooling for the engine, with the first radiator. This revolutionized combining and harvesting. The gas powered vehicle was lighter, and could operate in a wide variety of environments, hot, cold, dusty, etc. It was so effective, that news of it spread around the midwestern US.
This prompted a visit by Henry Ford, who studied it thoroughly for days. Ford then took the inspirations back to his headquarters, and decided to build gasoline cars instead of steam cars. And thus another revolution was started.
The elements were all there: Parts from other engines, metal wheels and pipes, etc. Froelich the blacksmith just put them all together. Gas engines, thought to be inefficient, only good for stationary jobs, were re-purposed. Disparate elements were brought together to create something unique and revolutionary. Now, tractors became smaller, more lightweight, and far more effective.
Along these same lines, another young and daring person, Steve Jobs, took a tour of Xerox Parc research center in the late 1970's. He studied the new computer input device that became known as the “mouse”. He went back to his Apple HQ, and set engineers about designing the Lisa, and later the Macintosh. Both used the new input and pointing device, along with windowing software. And these revolutionized computers. A slogan from back then was something like, 'making computers people-friendly.' Jobs took disparate elements that were already out there, put them together, and created something novel. Later on, he did the same thing again, with handheld devices that had a camera and a phone embedded inside. Another smash hit that changed the world.
Sometimes all it takes is the right person at the right time, creating the right product. And Ka-Boom!
So what kind of disparate elements are laying around out there today, waiting for someone to put together in a novel way, and come up with a product of the century? You never know. And perhaps you, dear reader, will be the one to put it all together, and then push it through to completion. You never know if you don't try. Thanks for reading.
