You see technological rollovers like that in photos of city streets taken 60 years later. Recent photos of offices likewise show the last typewriters in a hopeless struggle for survival alongside the new word-processors. Nevertheless, we're lucky to have Lane's picture of New York Harbor. Rollovers like this are brief once they've begun. Catching one as it happens is a little like trying to photograph lightning.
New technologies are aggressive.
Once the advantage of a new technology is clear, last year's engine of our ingenuity seldom lasts very long. Ronnberg, E.A., Jr., A Few Words About This Picture. American Heritage of Invention and Technology , Fall 1988, pp. For more on the transition from sail to steam, see Episode 31 .