Capitalism - Good or bad ?

[Mairead]

102. "A single person or small group of people in a workshop ...

can't build a computer chip. Or a locomotive. Or a movie camera."

You must be kidding. All those things were first built by individuals or small groups of people in workshops.

There's a lovely little comedy film made by the Ealing Studios in the early '50s. It's called "The Titfield Thunderbolt", and concerns the efforts of a fictional village in England to save their branch railway. The real star of the film is "Lion", a locomotive built in 1838 and re-named "Thunderbolt" for the film. It's the actual antique locomotive, not a fake (tho they did use a fake for one scene) or a copy, and it's truly charming to watch it huffing through the picturesque countryside in its race to satisfy the Ministry of Transport's requirements.

The Lion was made by "a small group of people in a workshop". The first modern loco, the "Rocket", was designed and built just ten years earlier by only 3 people: George Stephenson, his son, Robert, and Henry Booth.