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IN 1964, reaching for the nearest national stereotype lying around, New Scientist described Switzerland as 鈥渞emarkably accomplished in the manufacture of a mechanism鈥�. That mechanism was, of course, the wristwatch. Traditional Swiss watchmaking was under threat. Despite 400 years of expertise and wind-up watches with an accuracy of better than 1 part in 20,000, the Swiss were worried about the Accutron and its successors.

The Accutron was the world鈥檚 first successful electronic watch, and devised by a turncoat Swiss to boot: electronics engineer Max Hetzel. It had spawned successors in other nations, putting Swiss exports and timepiece predominance under threat. Centuries of expertise with miniaturised cogs and springs looked like being usurped. But the had words of reassurance for the Swiss. We declared that 鈥渙nce a certain conservatism has been overcome, the Swiss watch industry is going to emerge as formidable competition in these advanced technologies鈥�.

We were equally bullish about another product frequently associated with one nation. Korean ginseng, we announced in our , was as stimulating as cannabis. It 鈥渟timulates every conceivable aspect of protein and nucleic acid metabolism鈥�, we said. However, despite our enthusiasm, we didn鈥檛 go on to say what benefits this might have for humankind.

Perhaps it could have been used to stimulate British industry. Our Feedback column in the contained a theory that innovation was being stymied because not enough people could get hold of our magazine. An engineer acquaintance of a staff member recalled receiving copies of New Scientist in his company office, 鈥渂ut management cancelled the subscription鈥�, he bemoaned. On being asked why, he replied that his colleagues had 鈥渟pent too much time reading it鈥�. If they had only had accurate watches with which to time their tea breaks.