Wireless technology, taken for granted today, was once an innovative wonder that would forever change how the world communicates. Developed by Guglielmo Marconi in the latter half of the nineteenth century, wireless telegraphy combined advancements made by Samuel Morse, William Cooke, Charles Wheatstone, Alexander Graham Bell, and countless others to lay the foundation for the modern wireless world. Intrigued and fascinated by the new phenomenon of electricity, Marconi began to experiment with electric sparks in his attic workshop. In the Apennine Hills south of Bologna, Italy, his parents were the first to hear a bell ring without the aid of wires. By the time he was twenty-two, Marconi had perfected his methods. He took his revolutionary invention to England in 1896 to share it with the world. Not everyone received his creation favorably, however, especially after Marconi created the Wireless Telegraph & Signaling Company. In the midst of the Italian unification and Second Industrial Revolution, Marconi faced his own patent and monopoly wars with British, German, and American adversaries. The innovation of wireless communication, despite making the world more technologically unified than ever before, caused societal rifts and transformations that would impact the modern world for generations.@en

The General Purpose Technology of Electricity (GPT-E) as a meta-technology has been a driving force of economic growth in the Second Industrial Revolution. Fuelled by inventions (eg the electric motor/dynamo, electric light, telegraph, and telephone), its micro-foundations were the General Purpose Engines (GPE). These GPEs were the basic innovations within their of Clusters of Innovations. These innovations, characterized by their social and economic impact, were the result of the work of single individuals. It was their respective Acts of Invention that created the artefacts that played such an essential role in the spawning of the GPT-E; and it were their Acts of Business that created their patent-based commercial monopolies. Based on extensive case studies, we investigated the individual contributions of Samuel Morse (telegraph), Alexander Bell (telephone) and Guglielmo Marconi (wireless), to find that they had much in common. Their Acts of Invention—the process from idea to prototype and product—and their Acts of Business—the process from prototype to commercial product—are presented and show remarkable similarities.@en

The concept of the General Purpose Technology (GPT) of the late 1990s is a culmination of many evolutionairy views in innovation-thinking. By definition the GPT considers the technical, social, and economic effects of meta-technologies like steam-technology and electric technology. This paper uses Schumpeter’s concept of ’cluster on innovations’ to create insight in the nature of the GPT- Electricity. Complementing the earlier presented invention of the Steam Engine, Electromotive Engine and Electric Light (Kooij, 2015a), three additional case studies are presented about the Content of the invention of the Communication Engines Telegraph, Telephone and Wireless. In addition, the Context for these inventions is presented. We found that these inventions— better ’clusters of innovations’— were the core elements in the technical contributions to the Second Industrial Revolution. These General Purpose Engines (GPE) that used electricity as carrier of information in stead of power, fuelled the Communication Revolution and made ’electricity’ contribute so considerably to the Second Industrial Revolution.@en

The unintended economic effect on society as result of individual behaviour —Adam Smith’s ‘Invisible Hand’ of economic progress in the eighteenth century — had its equivalent in technological progress. In the nineteenth century, again individual behaviour with its Acts of Innovation and Acts of Business had an unintended effect. It changed not only the economy, but also the world we are living in. The Communication Revolution, initiated by the ‘Engines of Growth’ of the GPT-E that are described, was the result of human curiosity, ingenuity and entrepreneurship. It were the General Purpose Engines of the Telegraph, the Telephone and the Wireless —developed by Morse and Cooke/Wheatstone, Bell and Marconi— that created its milestones. With all those other contributors, large and small, their basic innovations constituted the ‘Invisible Hand’ of technical progress.@en

Defining Innovation is essential for Innovation Research. However, the available definitions of the notion of innovation found in the increasing scholarly publications, show a large heterogeneity creating confusion and incompatibility. In this paper we analyze the innovation-definitions that emerged after WW-II according their different thinking, illustrating the heterogeneity of case-specific definitions. As for research Change & Novelty a generic definition is needed, we try to find a common ground. We apply systems-thinking with the ‘system’ and its ‘function’ at its core. After analyzing the product function, the organizational function and the production function, we conclude that Change & Novelty can be related to the construct of the system and its function. We propose a generic definition based on the stepwise change in the system and its function, that could help to create a better understanding of Change & Novelty in the real world. @en

The concept of the General Purpose Technology (GPT) of the late 1990s is a culmination of many evolutionairy views in innovation-thinking. By definition the GPT considers the technical, social, and economic effects of meta-technologies like steam-technology and electric technology. This paper uses Schumpeter’s concept of ’cluster on innovations’ to create insight in the nature of these GPT’s. Three case studies are presented: ’The invention of the Steam Engine’, ’The invention of the Electromotive Engine’ and ’The invention of Electric Light’. For the GPT-Steam and the GPT-Electricity, the power technologies, we found that these inventions— better ’clusters of innovations’— were the core elements in the technical contributions to both Industrial Revolutions. It were the innovations in applications of electricity—like in electric light and electric appliances— that made ’electricity’contribute so greatlly to the Second Industrial Revolution.@en