
Why didn't electricity immediately change manufacturing? - dberhane
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40673694
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bainsfather
This seems to be the "classic" story told whenever modern productivity growth
is discussed - "electricity took a long time to show up in the productivity
figures so it's not surprising {computers, internet} is taking a long time to
show up also".

On the other hand, some technologies - especially military ones - have
transformed specific sectors very fast. We go rapidly from the first powered
flight to WWI dogfights, Dreadnought requires the world powers to rebuild
their navies, penicillin transforms survival rates for bacterial infections,
radar (in the UK) goes from a proof of concept in 1935 to a fully deployed
system that changes the outcome of WWII in 1940. And these are just a few
examples.

