However, many, if not most, of the general purpose technologies of the past two centuries have had their genesis in the private sector. The steam engine, the electric motor, and the computer were developed and diffused through the economy largely as a result of the profit opportunities afforded by those new technologies.
And, even for railroads, external financing came primarily from private domestic or foreign sources; estimates place the proportion of government funding in nominal investment by railroad companies at less than 10 percent after the Civil War.47 In the United States, the government has contributed most effectively to technological change by promoting an economic, financial, and legal environment that is conducive to innovation and to the diffusion of new technologies.