Success comes in cans!

Some said, “It can’t be done!” But “Success comes in CANS, not in cannots!”

The first successful cast iron plow invented in the United States in 1797 was rejected by New Jersey farmers under the theory that cast iron poisoned the land and stimulated growth of weeds.

In Germany, it was “proven” by experts that if trains went at the frightful speed of 15 miles per hour, blood would spurt from the travelers’ noses, and that the passengers would suffocate going through tunnels.

Commodore Vanderbilt dismissed Westinghouse and his new air brakes for trains with the remark that he had no time to waste on fools.

Those who loaned Robert Fulton money for his steamboat project stipulated that their names be withheld for fear of ridicule were it known that they supported anything so “foolhardy.”

In 1881, when the New York YWCA announced typing lessons for women, vigorous protests were made on the grounds that the female constitution would break down under the strain.

Men insisted that iron ships would not float, that they would damage more easily than wooden ships when grounding, that it would be difficult to preserve the iron bottoms from rust, and that iron would deflect the compass.

Joshua Coppersmith was arrested in Boston for trying to sell stock in the telephone. “All well-informed people know that it is impossible to transmit the human voice over a wire.”

The editor of the Springfield Republican refused an invitation to ride in an early automobile, claiming it was incompatible with the dignity of his position.

Chauncey M. Depew confessed that he warned his nephew not to invest $5,000 in Ford stocks because “nothing has come along to beat the horse.”

In 1907, when DeForest put the radio tube in workable form, he was not able to sell his patent and so let it lapse rather than pay $25 for its renewal.

Henry Morton, the president of Stevens Institute of Technology, protested against the trumpeting of results of Edison’s experiments in electric lighting as a “wonderful success” when “everyone acquainted with the subject will recognize it as a conspicuous failure.”

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