I think it was back in the late '60s when a TV show aired an episode displaying an invention they said would revolutionize the moving industry.
It seems this guy invented a way to use a thin plastic sheet that covered small items placed on a sheet of cardboard. The items were then vacuum sealed, holding the objects tight and preventing loss/breakage.
We know it today as all those store items that are blister packed - a completely different business application.
Talk about heading off in one direction, only to arrive somewhere else, check out the 1978 TV Mini-series called Connections. As a computer programmer, I found "Faith in Numbers" fascinating - Burke takes us from a pattern to make cams operating Medieval church bells to the 80-column computer card - which, by the way, is the exact size as the old paper money. Thrifty Hollerith did that so they could use the banking equipment to hold the cards.
[subset] When I was in computer programming school in '67, they showed us a clip of Bob Newheart ridiculing Hollerith and the way the lines were oriented: top to bottom, 12, 11, 9-0; smirking that it was crazy and would never work. It was hilarious because he was so wrong. He did a beautiful job and talked as if he was an old pro. I had a lot of respect for him as an actor after that.
Connections and the first The Day The Universe Changed should be required viewing.
Check out the equipment used to spot your position using the "new" satellites.