http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Commodore%20Skahill/Colin%20McEnroe%20Show%2003-22-2011.mp3
On today's show we're going to look at the elaborate networks -- pipeline is too straight and straightforward a word -- that exist in Connecticut to nurture new businesses -- which came to be called, in the last two decades -- "start ups."
The term became fashionable during the dot com explosion of the 1990s, I think because it carried a suggestion of turning on a computer. We also refer to the latter as "booting up" which comes, apparently, from the term bootstrapping. And bootstrapping has its roots in the 19th century and in the phrase "to pull yourself up by your bootstraps."
In the 19th century, Connecticut was full of bootstrappers. I'm sitting not too far from where Charles Billings developed modern forge drop hammer -- whatever that is -- in the 1870s.
You know many of the other names. Linus Yale at his locks. Eli Terry and his clock teeth. Today's meet their 2011 counterparts.
Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
***Today's episode was produced by Liz Walczok.***