In the first decade of the twentieth century three of the inventions that would dominate the century technologically were either invented or underwent their early development: the automobile, the airplane, and the radio. The automobile and the roads that paved its way would change the face of the country and the daily habits of Americans perhaps more than any other invention. The airplane became a kind of royal road for technological innovation, the breakthrough that suggested the unlimited possibilities of the future. In the first decade flying captured the popular imagination more than any other innovation, in spite of its having no practical effect on most people's lives at the time. The radio was, after the telegraph and telephone, the leading edge of the communications revolution, more revolutionary than its antecedents because it did not require wires.
One of the characteristics.....
