Another domain where I see this is in mechanical engineering. Especially in the old stuff from the early 1800s. At that time every local blacksmith would have been familiar with simple machines like the lever and the pulley. But to go from that to steam engines, jacquard looms, and machine tools (machines building machines!) must have seems like magic.

It wasn't of course. Just creativity and synthesis. James Burke's Connections series is an entertaining way to pick the synthesis apart. The one on the machine loom is especially interesting since that is where punched cards came from.