Since you brought it up, I am sure many readers of this list have never heard of Swan, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan He did indeed invent the lightbulb and all of us Newcastle alumni know only too well ;-) Ole Ole J. Jacobsen Editor and Publisher, The Internet Protocol Journal Cisco Systems Tel: +1 408-527-8972 Mobile: +1 415-370-4628 E-mail: ole@xxxxxxxxx URL: http://www.cisco.com/ipj On Tue, 28 Oct 2008, Hallam-Baker, Phillip wrote: > There was indeed a major struggle over the standardization of the > light bulb socket. And the sad part is that due to patent > encumberances the US unfortunately ended up with the inferior > product! > Neither Swan nor Edison thought much about the mount. It was Swan's > brother who did most to refine and perfect the base. Edison's screw > thread came lose leading Swan to invent the bayonet mount. He also > invented Vitrite, the glassy substance used as an insulator. > There was something of a platform war which led to calls for a > standard base as misconfigured adaptors were causing houses to burn > down. The Edison thread won in the US because the patent had expired > and everyone could use it without royalty. > It is also a neat rebuttal to the claim that network effects do not > exist - as Margolis and co claimed in their laughable tract. If the > issue were decided on technical grounds alone the US and Europe > would have chosen the same base years ago. The US has not moved to > the superior Swan mount because the short term switching costs > outweigh the long term advantages. Change is only possible when a > technology disruption occurs that negates the advantage of the > legacy base. In the case of lightbulbs it is compact flourescents > and LED bulbs, in the case of keyboards it would probably take > really good handwriting recognition. > _______________________________________________ Ietf@xxxxxxxx https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/ietf