Final answer:
Tim Berners-Lee developed hypertext transfer in the early 1990s, laying the foundation for the World Wide Web.
Step-by-step explanation:
The early development of hypertext transfer can be attributed to Tim Berners-Lee. In 1989, while working as a scientist at CERN, Switzerland, Berners-Lee proposed the concept of the World Wide Web and wrote the three basic technologies of the web: HTML, URI, and HTTP. These technologies formed the foundation for the internet as we know it today. It was the development of the MOSAIC browser by Marc Andreessen in 1993 that solidified Berners-Lee's inventions and made the web accessible to a wider audience.