Innovation and Progress

Thunderstruck demonstrates that many aspects of the modern world have their origins in the period inhabited by Guglielmo Marconi and Dr. Crippen a century ago. The late Victorian and Edwardian ages contained the seeds of what we think of as the technological architecture of today. In many respects, Marconi's discovery of the capabilities of wireless communication could be said to have led to the Internet, satellite communication, and other inventions that have resulted in the interconnectedness of the world of the 21st century.

During the early 1900s, the period portrayed in Thunderstruck, the world was literally speeding up. Transportation was diversifying and becoming faster. Change and innovation were also accelerating, aided by the relative ease of communication. The worldwide exchange of information was facilitated first by cable transmissions and telegrams as well as the faster speeds of ships, trains, and vehicles that delivered regular mail. Eventually...