Innovation is combination

Reconstruction of a Sarcina, the marching pack of Roman soldiers.

When the Roman Empire was at its peak, it had 450,000 soldiers. The world’s most dominant imperial force for hundreds of years.

Most of the 450,000 soldiers carried their own food and supplies in a marching pack called a sarcina. For transporting heavier supplies, Romans also had sophisticated wheel-driven vehicles, including carriages, wagons, and chariots.

But for over 2,000 years, no one thought to put wheels on packs.

That didn’t happen until 1970 when an American named Bernard Sadow invented it. Sadow holds United States patent No. 3,653,474.

“Rolling Luggage.”

Innovation is never a single event. It’s rarely a flash of genius.

It’s the combination of of phenomena, facts, concepts, variables, constants, techniques, theories, laws, and questions.

It can be as simple as taking familiar things and combining them in new ways. Like putting wheels on luggage.