Page 89 - Technology and Innovation Journal - 19-1

TRANSPORTATION AND ENERGY 427

organization that forces them out of their comfort This growth in prosperity, due to the harvesting
zone. Resistance, in and of itself, isn’t necessarily of natural resources coupled with the commercial-
bad because inertia provides the time to adjust and, ization and mass production of a variety of finished
more importantly, to become proactive as opposed to products and pre-assembled components, created
always being reactive. Whatever the process, change is prosperity for the region, attracting an ever-increas-
inevitable, and this nation’s population has the choice ing population with the needed social and support
of embracing that change, as our forefathers did, infrastructure to sustain them. Additionally, this
or letting the rest of the world adapt and accelerate increase in the economic base provided the invest-
those same changes to best fit their current needs ment capital to further add to the growth rates in new
and desires, often to our disadvantage. businesses as well as the growth of novel technology
created by the newly attracted entrepreneurs and
THE NEXUS FOR GROWTH innovators.
The northeastern portion of the United States is With a supply of capital, new technology, and
one of those uniquely positioned geographic regions a public willingness to embrace novel ideas and
on the globe that helped create the early foundation concepts, technological breakthroughs became an
for this country. It became a change agent, the nexus expected and, at times, demanded outcome. This
of industrial and manufacturing growth for a major advancement also drove the need to formalize the
portion of the country for well over a century. The educational process to provide the current and next
Northeast’s industries are based in geography and an generations with the tools and skill sets to move the
abundance of natural resources, such as coal, lumber, new technologies and society forward. It also created
minerals, and fresh water. For example, the 1800s the need for, as well as the formation and funding of,
saw an increased need for more manufactured goods research-rich development centers matched to inno-
for construction, agriculture, and transportation. vative business environments. Each of these centers,
In those days, it was the mountainous region that both individually and jointly, focused on the next
provided ease of access to the raw materials, such as great product or service and the intellectual energy
outcrops of iron ore, coal, and sand. Plus, there was needed to keep that industrial machinery moving
an ample supply of wood, a sufficient elevation drop, forward.
and a large watershed to supply the running water The Northeast is rich with examples of innovation
that was essential for transportation and industrial and the entrepreneurial spirit, such as the first steam-
processing. boat tests; the first use of natural gas for a commercial
When it was no longer practical and the demand process; the first synthetic fiber, nylon; the develop-
became too great simply to float a year’s worth of iron ment of the alternating current synchronous motor;
ingot production by raft or barge out of the moun- and then later the development of nuclear energy
tains during the spring floods, it became necessary to programs. The list should also include the ongoing
localize and provide year-round manufacturing capa- work in the transportation sector for boats, trains,
bilities. Locations in the region with navigable rivers cars, and trucks and the all-important advancements
and an abundance of raw natural resources became in communications and medicine. These examples
industrial centers. With the rivers came the railroads come from an exciting historical period, the Indus-
and then the over-the-road improvements, all deliver- trial Revolution, where innovation was embraced
ing people, products, and raw materials. This became and expected, a time when the anticipated growing
the nucleus of the processed metals industries in the pains were the major concern of the day and not the
Pittsburgh region. Through similar events, the chem- more recent concerns over unemployment, health
ical industry in Charleston and the manufacturing care, and quality of life.
centers along the Great Lakes—Cleveland, Detroit, If given the choice, the path should be clear.
and Chicago—evolved. The development of these Advancements and breakthroughs in technology
centers, spreading out in all directions, created the will make this nation’s future more prosperous, and
business and social support infrastructure for these it is through these same innovative activities that
regions. the current financial shortfalls and infrastructure