In addition to Matt Ridley, Stephen Johnson has written several popular books on innovation and "The Wizard of Menlo Park" by Randall Stross is a wonderful book

In addition to Matt Ridley, Stephen Johnson has written several popular books on innovation and "The Wizard of Menlo Park" by Randall Stross is a wonderful book on Thomas Edison. What I find missing in the original Steven Novella article is the role of the dynamo [1] as an enabling technology for the lightbulb, and indeed, the second industrial revolution: > Commercial electricity production started in 1870 with the coupling of the dynamo to the hydraulic turbine. The mechanical production of electric power began the Second Industrial Revolution and made possible several inventions using electricity, with the major contributors being Thomas Alva Edison and Nikola Tesla. Previously the only way to produce electricity was by chemical reactions or using battery cells, and the only practical use of electricity was for the telegraph. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_generation#History