French Optical Telegraphy, 1793–1855: Hardware, Software, Administration
Alexander James Field · Technology and Culture · 1994
The relatively stable contribution of technological change to aggregate growth masks technological trajectories which are, at the sectoral level, often highly discontinuous. For decades, even centuries, the capabilities used to produce a particular good or service may continue essentially unchanged or with relatively minor evolutionary modifications. Sometimes without much warning a breakthrough innovation will create a new technological paradigm, along with an accompanying "gale of creative destruction," which is then followed by a period of consolidation within a maturing framework.