The rumor was that Bob Carver was watching the assembly line of Phase Linear 700's one day, and wondered how he could eliminate the weight and expense of that massive transformer.
A Power Supply Story -
"After I sold Phase Linear, which I founded in the early 70's, and decided to start Carver Corporation, I wanted to come out with a new amplifier that would be light years ahead of anything currently available. I began work on a signal tracking power supply. Successfully implemented, an amplifier that incorporated such a power supply would he able to deliver lots of power, would run stone cold, would be incredibly efficient; essentially all of the input power would become output power, would be able to deliver massive amounts of current, and would drive almost any impedance down to one ohm and below. It would have the potential of ultra-high reliability because it would be running cold, would not require heat sinks, and because it would be so efficient, the power supply could be much smaller for the equivalent output power (in a conventional amplifier, only 20% to 30% of the input power actually appears at the output of the amplifier as usable audio power). I toiled for over a year trying to make this into a reality but couldn't get it to work. And so, after a year of working until two in the morning, I finally gave up and instead developed a different power supply called the Magnetic Field power supply. That power supply and its power amplifier became the original Carver "Cube". I used that to start Carver Corporation."
A lot of Patent wrangling, and goof-balls trying to get a bazillion watts out of their 12V car audio systems later, we have reliable high frequency switching power supplies and Class D amps - which we have all benefited from. However, do not think that manufacturer's do this because they love us.
"The inventor of the shipping container was Malcolm McLean (1913-2001). In 1956 he created the metal shipping container to replace the old style “break bulk” method of goods handling. Later on, he founded Sea-Land Service. McLean added many transpacific routes and in 1967 the US government asked him to start a container service to South Vietnam, which became 40% of the company’s turnover in 1968-69."
The numbers are difficult to nail down, but it is safe to say there are more than a million shipping containers being transported (i.e. in actual movement) as I type this, on ships, trains, and trucks. Ever seen the inside of one coming from China? It's packed so efficiently there's no air in it. Besides the obvious savings in raw materials, by constantly making everything smaller and lighter, there is also a huge savings in shipping costs. As always - follow the money!