No idea whether this is true or not, as it
was in part of a spam email, but because of
the TI link, I thought it might be of some
interest here (and perhaps someone can confirm
whether it's true or not?):
In 1960 an engineer working for a watch
company in Switzerland discovered that a small
crystal would vibrate at a constant rate. He
found this was so accurate that it could be
used to calibrate time so he took it to
company management and said it would make
an entirely new kind of watch that had no
springs and no gears. They could not imagine
who would want such a thing. Swiss watches
dominated world commerce. They did not even
bother to patent it.
The inventor took his new idea to a
commercial trade show, set up his booth and
tried to interest manufacturers to produce
his new kind of watch. Of the thousand people
only 2 were willing to try it ?
Texas Instruments and Seiko Corp. of Japan.
Ten years later the Swiss manufacture of
watches had shrunk to 10% of it former
production.
It took a complete change of thinking to
produce this new model because most people
are rooted in the old way and are reluctant
to change. The new model, the new paradigm
is refused.
Regards,
Andrew D. Burton
aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk