But just because a technology couldbe discovered does not mean that it willbe discovered. As with other technologies, several seemingly disparate threads had to come together before dielectric elastomers could be realized. Certainly, longterm interest in piezoelectric and electrostrictive materials helped to set the stage for dielectric elastomer development. An important step in this regard was the excellent work by Scheinbeim, Zhang, Zhenyi and others in investigating electrostrictive polymers such as semicrystalline polyurethanes [2] . As with piezoelectric and electrostrictive ceramic work before it, inves-tigations into electrostrictive polymers treated Maxwell stress as a secondary factor that needed to be subtracted out from the more important electrostrictive measurements rather than a potentially powerful actuation mode worth pursuing in itself. Nonetheless, early electrostrictive polymer work was important in the evolution of dielectric elastomers in that it showed the potential of electroactive polymers beyond piezoelectric polymer materials such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), and it illustrated some of the important issues in electrode compliance that arise in high strain actuator materials.