Here are some quotes I added to the discussion over there. They apply to cold fusion as well:
"People who amuse themselves with speculations at to the time when steamers will no longer plough the oceans, and when all our overseas transportation will be done by airmen in air machines, are in the happy company of those who still pursue the pleasures of alchemy, those who are still trying to square the circle, and that other cheerful companion of dreamers who have faith in the possibilities of perpetual motion." - An ocean liner corporate executive quoted circa 1925. Quoted in "The Sway of the Grand Saloon, A social history of the North Atlantic," by John M. Brinnin, p. 460. Note: regular, profitable transatlantic zeppelin service began in 1928. The first Pan American Clipper flying boat transatlantic flight was in 1937. "Eighty-five percent of the horse-drawn vehicle industry of the country is untouched by the automobile. In proof of the foregoing permit me to say that in 1906 - 7, and coincident with an enormous demand for automobiles, the demand for buggies reached the highest tide of its history. The man who predicts the downfall of the automobile is a fool; the man who denies its great necessity and general adoption for many uses is a bigger fool; and the man who predicts the general annihilation of the horse and his vehicle is the greatest fool of all." - The keynote speaker in the 1908 annual meeting of the National Association of Carriage Builders. Quoted in From “Computers In Business,” by Donald Sanders, p. 64.
