Amazing Facts: They Said What!!

They Said What!!

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.
"Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

"But what is it good for? "
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM,
1968, commenting on the microchip.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
Ken Olson, president, chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp. 1977

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as
a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."
Western Union internal memo, 1876

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value.
Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for
investment in the radio -1920s.

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"
--H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, 1927.

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face
and not Gary Cooper." --Gary Cooper on his decision
not to take the leading role in Gone With The Wind.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible.
"Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil?
You're crazy." --Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to
his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."
--Irving Fisher, Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented.
"Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.Amazing Facts: They Said What!!