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Finding inspiration for the future of the electronics industry in its history Joe Fjelstad
Finding inspiration for the future of the electronics industry in its history
History has been a frequent element of this column since the beginning for the simple reason that history truly is one of the best teachers. History is also an excellent predictor of things to come, and though some of those predictions are often a bit obscure, the roots can often been seen in retrospect. Take for example the concept of
a quantum leap in thinking. It is an interesting and even entertaining subject for discussion. A quantum leap thought is predicated on the notion that a sudden flash of genius can take an individual instantaneously from one paradigm to another with no apparent connection between the departing and the landing points. There have arguably been points in time when such events have very likely occurred, but it is just as likely that such events have been rare ones. It is also very likely that there was at least a thin tread of connection between the two points no matter how tenuous. Sometimes the connection was through an earlier observation, some small event or causally noticed phenomenon which is later seen to somehow fit with another part that seems
to be without apparent connection at first, but later the connection is more evident. A good example is Philo Farnsworth,
the individual most commonly credited with the invention of the television. After the successful demonstration of his invention, Farnsworth spoke of recalling the long straight lines of furrowed rows of freshly plowed earth from his boyhood days on the farm as giving him the inspiration for rapidly
is to make any kind of leap to something novel or new, the laws of physics and nature suggest strongly that one must push off of or from something old and proven. This appears to have been the case many times in the history of the electronics industry from the past to the present. It is not possible to question those
inspired individuals in the past who have so changed and transformed our world in the century since the word electronic first entered the English language in the first decade of 1900. The word, electronic was introduced to help define and describe inventions such as Lee De Forest’s Audion tube, which was being introduced at that same time. De Forest’s invention opened the door to electronic sound amplification and
raster-scanning
an electron beam across the surface of a phosphor-treated vacuum tube to create an image. This causal inspiration from personal history was to result the method that ushered in what became one of the most important mediums of communication ever devised after the idea of printing and the printing press. If one
4 – Global SMT & Packaging – Celebrating 10 Years – December 2010
the medium of radio broadcasting and later Farnsworth’s television. While the names of most of the pioneers who helped coax and nurture the nascent electronics technology that is now a trillion dollar industry are buried somewhere in deep the annals of our history, their developments blazed a path through largely unknown territory that has been widened and paved by those who have followed them.
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