When Benjamin Franklin discovered that lightning was a form of electricity, he sent a paper to be read for him by a friend to the Royal Society in London. The friend reported that it was "laughed at by the connoisseurs."
In 1837 Rowan Hill proposed a postage stamp for Great Britain instead of cash payments but he recipient. The postmaster general, Lord Richfield, declared the idea "entirely repugnant to reason."
Rachel Carson, who warned against the disastrous effects of DDT and other insecticides, was laughed at as a prophet of doom.
New ideas are always ridiculed by those who cannot reimagine life.
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