“It is a popular but erroneus belief that great inventions have sprung, full grown and completely equipped, from the brains of their inventors, like Minerva from the brain of Jupiter. A closer examination into the history of these inventions generally shows that the machine which impresses us so much by its ingenuity and apparent originality is the result of many small steps taken by many investigators, each starting from the position attained to by his predecessors”, Electrical Influence Machines, John Gray, 1890