I wrote:
> It is symptomatic of early machines that the designers don't know what it > is they're trying to accomplish because they have no experience using the > machines. It is not their fault. They tend to go overboard and throw in all > sorts of features that are not called for. Early technology sometimes is > more elaborate than later versions. > One of the best examples of this is the SS Great Eastern, 1859. It was the tragic masterpiece of I. K. Brunel, one of history's greatest engineers. It was by far the largest ship ever built up to that time. It had paddle wheels, a screw propeller, and sails. You might say Brunel did not know how to power such a gigantic ship so he used every method available. Brunel was an unparalleled genius but even he did not have a clear enough vision of how a ship built on such an gigantic scale should work. He did not know, and could not know, because the ship was so much larger than anything that had been built previously. It was so big, they could not even launch it at first. As a commercial venture it was an unmitigated disaster, until it was used to lay the first effective transatlantic cable in 1865. I have no doubt there will be many commercial disasters and bankruptcies in the early years of commercial cold fusion. It will be an extremely risky business. - Jed
