Research work by Mr Metcalfe and his co-worker established that they could swap far more data far faster than over the Hawaiian network.

BBC: Original Ethernet diagram, 3Com

Several of the champions of the new economy are firms that were once hailed as plucky little start-ups but have long since grown huge, such as Apple, Google and Facebook. (In August Apple was the world's largest listed company by market capitalisation.) American firms with 5, 000 or more people spend more than twice as much per worker on research and development as those with 100-500.

ECONOMIST: Why large firms are often more inventive than small ones