50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

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50 Things That Made the Modern Economy

Glasses

Spectacles have been around for centuries, and have a huge impact on many people's quality of...

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Vickrey turnstile

In 1952, economist William Vickrey devised an innovative system of turnstiles to help solve a...

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Gps

How dependent is the world on GPS - and what would happen if it stopped working? Tim Harford...

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Bonsack machine

In 1881, James Bonsack developed a machine that made it far easier to mass-produce cigarettes....

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Prohibition

When the US outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, it inadvertently created...

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Interface Message Processor

Arpanet was a computer network developed in the 1960s that paved the way for today's internet. At...

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Canned food

Developed for the military, dodging bureaucracy and fuelled by venture capital: canned food...

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Interchangeable parts

Tim Harford tells the story of how Honoré Blanc, a gun-maker in 18th-century France, transformed...

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Oil

The price of oil is arguably the most important in the world economy. How did we become so...

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Chatbot

It's claimed that some computers can now pass the Turing test: convincing people that they are...

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Solar PV

Solar power has been harnessed by civilisations since the days of the ancient Greeks, but it's...

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Cassava

Despite being highly toxic, the roots of the cassava plant are a vital source of nutrition in...

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Fire

Humanity's taming of fire may be where the story of economics really begins, some argue. Tim...

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Rfid

Radio frequency identification - RFID - is the foundation on which many contactless technologies...

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Postage stamp

In the mid-19th Century, a man named Rowland Hill got fed up with how Britain's postal service...

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Rubber

Rubber is an everyday substance with a controversial past. Tim Harford tells the story of the...

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CubeSat

CubeSat started life as a student engineering challenge: build a satellite that can fit in a...

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Factory

Tim Harford charts the history of the factory, from "dark, Satanic mills" to the sprawling...

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Blockchain

Billions are being poured into startups working on blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin....

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Pencil

Is the pencil underrated? Tim Harford examines the role pencils have played in developing our...

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