INVENTIONS: Can you imagine a world without cars, light bulbs or personal computers?

Google Arts & Culture has an article about inventions that folks thought would never catch on.

A television was one of them. In 1926, one year after Scottish inventor John Logie Baird gave the first public demonstration of a working television in London, American radio pioneer Lee de Forest was quoted as saying the device would be a commercial and financial impossibility, adding it was “a development of which we need waste little time dreaming.’’ Even 20 years later, people still weren’t convinced and while more sets were appearing in homes, people in the film industry scoffed at the idea of people gathering around the television. For instance film producer Darryl Zanuck stated in 1946 that “people will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.”

Airplanes, cars and bicycles would never catch on, naysayers proclaimed. After the Wright Brothers flight in 1903, people weren’t sold on the miracle of flight.

“In 1911, Ferdinand Foch, a French general and Allied Commander during World War I, said: “Airplanes are interesting scientific toys, but they are of no military value.” Later in 1933, following the maiden flight of the world’s first modern passenger aircraft – the 10-seater Boeing 247 – an engineer is reported to have claimed: “There will never be a bigger plane built.” These days, around 100,000 flights take off globally per day.”

The New York Times said the “horseless carriage” was impractical and bicycles were the future. The New York Sun had said bicycles were a fad.

In 1977, Ken Olson, founder of computer company Digital Equipment Corp., said, “There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.”

Take heart, inventors. Follow your dreams.