The MIT Series Patrick Collison and Tyler Cowen opened their 2019 Atlantic piece that helped jump-start the progress studies movement with the following passage: In 1861, the American scientist and educator William Barton Rogers published a manifesto calling for a new kind of research institution. Recognizing the “daily increasing proofs of the happy influence of scientific culture on the industry and the civilization of the nations,” and the growing importance of what he called “Industrial Arts,” he proposed a new organization dedicated to practical knowledge. He named it the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262731423/the-idea-factory/ is later but also worth reading
Yeah, great book! I also have a piece + a bonus piece on how Bell operated. Check it out here: https://www.freaktakes.com/p/how-did-places-like-bell-labs-know