The first priority for any inventor is to find customers for his new invention.
Early telecommunication entrepreneurs had to use their best business and social connections to get both investors and customers. Today we'd call it 'word-of-mouth marketing' - but in Victorian times they didn't think that way. This was a different age, with different language and expectations.
The telegraph started with a captive audience - the railway companies. Once the railway companies' needs were met, the telegraph entrepreneurs started looking for new markets to conquer.
The market for telephones was very different. Who actually needed to be able to talk over distances?
The idea of using a telephone for anything so frivolous as a ...
Wireless virtually sold itself. The spectacular and astonishing feats of radio - from saving lives on sinking liners to tracking down criminals at sea - made the marketing of wireless functional - if you needed it, you ...