Why do I blog this? The idiom “wheels on luggage” has been one we’ve been exploring here, not so much to get the precise history of it (although that is interesting), but because of what it stands for. Change from one set of circumstances to another from which you look back and wonder — how could things have ever been otherwise? Or, because the change is not due to technological innovation (which is what so much is assumed to pivot) but from an innovation that is simple, direct and requires no billion dollar budgets, scores of PowerPoints, workshops galore and team off-sites. I love this kind of change — much more than the technical variety because they remind me that big change can come from small, simple alterations that just make things better. Some people like big technical imbroglios. While I don’t not like technical things — the power of one person to just sort of *shrug* and screw a couple of wheels onto the bottom of something is quite provocative. Small things done exceptionally well. ((A line of scholarly inquiry as to the social, cultural, political and technological concerns that broadly fit within the study of Science Technology and Society, or Science and Technology Studies. Fair Use, I’d say.))
Hi, Julian,
We do think alike. I had always been curious about wheeled luggage, and finally wrote a post on it (http://caddellinsightgroup.com/blog2/2006/12/a-very-brief-history-of-wheeled-luggage/). On re-reading it 4 years after writing it, I think I was a bit prescient about the next step in wheeled luggage, which is these 4-wheeled bags that people walk along with as if they are showing dogs at the dog show.
regards, JOhn