Creativity

About 200 years ago the world’s equivalent of today’s Silicon Valley was not a valley at all. It was the Pennine Hills to the south-east of Manchester in England. At the far side of these hills Arkwright established the first factory in the world — Masson Mills in the tiny village of Cromford. The mills were powered by the streams cascading from the rainy Peak District plateau between Manchester and Cromford. The dominant mode of transport at the time, the canals, could not cope with the gradients of the Peak District plateau so a railway was built between the canal terminus at Whaley Bridge and Cromford. According to modern standards, it was a strange railway with only stationary engines at the either side of the plateau. Wagons were hauled up the inclines by systems of chains and pulleys. The wagons then travelled the rest of their way under the force of gravity, with a little help from horses. By the standards of that time the railway was completely orthodox. Machinery was nearly always fixed in one place. It required a genius to make the second greatest creative leap in the history of mankind and appreciate that the power source could be placed on wheels. That single creative leap led to the railway systems of the world. It lead to the first station at Liverpool Road in Manchester. It led to the great railways which opened up the midwest of the USA and allowed the granary of the world to get its products to market.