Reprint from Hardware & Fastener Components Magazine, Vol. 41

Histories is full of examples of technologies whose invention long predates their actual practical introduction into society. We could say of these ideas that they were simply “before their time”. Although that would be accurate, it would probably be a fairer assessment to say that they required further maturing and the development of enabling technologies to make them work. Take, for example, one of the most iconic inventions of all-time, the electric light bulb. The earliest light bulbs were invented in the early 1800s. It would be eighty years later that Edison would discover the carbon fiber filament and create the first practical incandescent light bulbs. However, electric light wouldn’t become truly a mainstay in society for another thirty or forty years as enabling technology, such as electrical power generation, transmission and distribution, matured and became a practical reality.