Sir John Eric Ericksen, British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873. This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us. Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899. Lord Kelvin, president, Royal Society, 1895.
Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value.
Marechal Ferdinand Foch, Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre. The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s. Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools.