The unfolding of the Baconian Program accelerated during the nineteenth century. Hand-in-hand with the worldwide spread of capitalism and the consolidation of an international division of labor, its main features became increasingly visible as the pursuit of science became an established profession, research results led to practical applications, and science-based technologies gave rise to entirely new economic activities. A large and growing cast of leading, supporting, and character actors began to crowd the knowledge stage, while a progressively denser plot of interdependent events made it difficult for them to appreciate the full scale and enormous impact of scientific and technological advances.