Having Second Thoughts: Sometimes, The Less Said, The Better
by “No reader interest,” was the judgment of the London publisher W.H. Allen on Frederick Forsyth’s first novel, The Day of the Jackal. To date it has sold eight million copies…Frank Herbert’s science fiction epic Dune was rejected by 13 publishers before the Chilton Book Company accepted it. Today sales top 10 million.
“Everything that can be invented has been invented,” wrote the director of the U. S. Patent Office to President William McKinley in 1899, and recommended that the president abolish the office. In 1958 the president of IBM, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., predicted: “There is a world market for about five computers.” Experts do, it seems, have a talent for making bizarre errors in judgment about their own specialties.
The Unimportant Atom
After a series of brilliant experiments, in 1919 Ernest Rutherford succeeded in splitting the atom. In 1933 he wrote: “Anyone who looks for a source of power in the transformation of the atom is talking moonshine.” The first atom bomb was detonated in New Mexico 12 years later, and in 1954 the world’s first nuclear power plant was built at Obninsk, near Moscow in the U.S.S.R.
Pie in the Sky
Professor Richard Woolley, Astronomer Royal, stoutly declared in 1957 that “the future of interplanetary travel is utter bilge.” He was in good company. As early as 1920 The New York Times had pointed out that rocket pioneer Robert Goddard “only seems to lack the knowledge ladled out daily in high schools” because he believed that a spacecraft would operate in a vacuum.
As for flying to the moon, “the proposition appears to be basically impossible.” observed Professor A.W. Bickerton in 1926. In 1936 J.P. Lockhart-Mummery clinched the argument: “The acceleration…from rockets…inevitably would damage the brain beyond repair.” When Apollo 11 landed on the moon in July 1969, the Times issued a posthumous apology to Goddard.
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Post Commentken bultman
On September 30, 2009 at 10:48 am
A fabulous read. Thanks for all your research on this one…as usual.
papaleng
On September 30, 2009 at 11:03 am
a well-researched one and great info as well.
Katien
On September 30, 2009 at 12:34 pm
An amazing and very interesting article. It is amazing how so-called experts can be so wrong!
Christine Ramsay
On September 30, 2009 at 1:27 pm
A brilliant article. I hope this is one you thought had got lost. I can understand these people’s feelings. Even now I am amazed that a television works the way it does. Excellent work.
Christine
kate smedley
On September 30, 2009 at 2:36 pm
As always a fascinating article and so well researched.
cutedrishti8
On September 30, 2009 at 2:43 pm
very well presented..
susan
On September 30, 2009 at 4:42 pm
How funny! I wonder what other hidden standards and misinformation we are all sitting in now? I’m sure 10 years from now there will be enough to double this list.
cardy
On September 30, 2009 at 4:57 pm
A really good read grate article.
Lostash
On September 30, 2009 at 6:01 pm
Good stugg, Mr Ghaz!! Some blinders here!
John
On September 30, 2009 at 9:19 pm
Love this article. Thanks mrghaz
Idazalee
On September 30, 2009 at 9:45 pm
A great article..very interesting story. I loved this article too..Keep it up! Well done Mr Ghaz:)
Ruby Hawk
On September 30, 2009 at 9:57 pm
People make so many mistakes that it doesn’ t pay to listen to a thing they say. LOL, It is true. Everything that we believe is eventually disproven. I loved “The Day of the Jackel” and “Dune” is the best book ever written according to me.
Goodselfme
On October 1, 2009 at 12:27 am
Good info and lots to learn from you in this well composed piece.TX
Webiny
On October 1, 2009 at 11:28 am
Good job, Mr. Ghaz! This is a very well researched and written piece. It’s very inspiring too, to know that the biggest some of the biggest successes of all time were looked down upon. Thanks for writing. =)
LOVELYHONEY
On October 1, 2009 at 1:34 pm
I know of a similar case
A lady evaluator wrote on a manuscript ‘‘SALES DUBIOUS”….
THE AUTHOR then got a quack publisher to publish it and promised to buy /sell 200 copies.
Tithe publisher was happy 3000 copies were sold by word of mouth.
IN ONE YEAR NO ADVTS
The publisher took all the money away and the poor author got name only
More than money
I too am looking for some such Publisher
Having written OVER 1260 poems in one year THE YEAR is not over three months more to go and I add on off the cuff poems. Perhaps as someone had mentioned
”A WORLD GUINESS BOOK OF Records case,
But they seem to be asleep.
PERHAPS SOME DAY WILL COME WHENEVER I AM NO MORE
REGARDS
lillyrose
On October 1, 2009 at 3:48 pm
great write so very interesting and so much information! I love the Daimler-Benz. x
Christ
On October 2, 2009 at 8:27 pm
Another Brilliant article. well-researched and very interesting read ..Thanks again Mr Ghaz..You always amaze me..Thank you:)
Amry
On October 2, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Educational article. Keep it up Mr. Ghaz..Thanks
C. Jordan
On October 3, 2009 at 4:08 pm
A very well put together and interesting article.SU’d
N.Salam
On October 3, 2009 at 6:36 pm
Nicely done!! This article is wonderful. I enjoy reading this cool stuff. very intersting as usual. well-researched..Thnks for sharing! I like it:) Stumbled!!
N. Lloyd Andrews
On October 4, 2009 at 10:21 am
Nice one. Thank goodness for the fools, the dreamers, the rebels and the contraries. If not for them, invention and innovation would have ceased and we’d still be reading by candelight.
I am especially struck by the idea of surgery without anesthesia. I have often said thanks for having been born in the era of modern medicine.
Manuel
On March 28, 2010 at 10:24 am
Wow – a long list that begins with a well-debunked legend.
The “director of the U.S. Patent Office” never said that. See: Sass, Samuel. “A Patently False Patent Myth.” Skeptical Inquirer 13 (1989): 310-312.
I didn’t bother to read the rest of the article after that.
RNB
On March 28, 2010 at 11:29 am
I didn’t bother reading Manuel’s comment when I saw he’s the sort of spaz who posts things three times.