When high‐temperature superconductivity reached temperatures above that of liquid nitrogen eight years ago, thousands of researchers jumped in, lots of funding followed, and the most enthusiastic people talked of magnetically levitated trains, computers and motors all soon to be operating above 77 K. When reality set in a couple of years later, the field settled into a large, active one, but with only the simplest of products being proposed for the following few years. (See the June 1991 special issue ofPHYSICS TODAYon high‐temperature superconductivity.)