“Whereas a steam-powered plant could be located almost anywhere, the water-powered factory was tied to a non-transportable power source.”

Steam diffusion “revolutionized production by freeing manufacturers from the locational and seasonal constraints imposed by water power.” By 1900, steam engines “outnumbered waterwheels and water turbines by four to one” in American factories.

The first wave just swapped the core power source: “the usual juxtaposition of a new technology upon the framework of an old one.”

The transformation came with the “ideal workshop — a shop with a motor driving each tool or machine,” freeing the floor to follow the “natural sequence of manufacturing operations.” Output per man-hour then jumped from “1.3 percent before 1919 and 3.1 percent after.”

“The container is at the core of a highly automated system for moving goods from anywhere, to anywhere, with a minimum of cost and complication on the way.”

The world’s geography was then redesigned around the box: “Sprawling industrial complexes… gave way to smaller, more specialized plants that shipped components and half-finished goods to one another in ever lengthening supply chains.”