Major branches of medicine do not just happen. It took 160 years to get to John Charnley. then just 40 years to assemble and deploy the global modern practice of orthopedic and spine surgery. to do so required a revolution of routinely safe and reproducible procedures, instruments and implants. Many of the pioneers are still among us. Their stories are the backbone of this book. In retrospect, the urgent imperative to heal - despite a lack of knowledge and tools - drove these visionary surgeons, engineers and manufacturers forward. Theories were tested. Advances came agonizingly slowly at first. By the 1980s, it was a flat out race. In another sense, the lesson of this history is the indispensability of collaboration - surgeons and manufacturers, engineers and scientists, managers and sales people. This book is the first in a series. It covers the underground part of a largely untold medical history - the roots of the largest sector in medicine.