Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse - Hardcover

Brown, David E.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262025086 ISBN 13: 9780262025089

Publisher: Mit Pr, 2001

Synopsis

Winner of the 2002 IEEE-USAB Award for Distinguished Literary Contributions Furthering Engineering Professionalism. and Winner in the category of Science in the 2002 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs) presented by Independent Publisher Magazine.

Inventing Modern America profiles thirty-five inventors who exemplify the rich technological creativity of the United States over the past century. The range of their contributions is broad. They have helped transform our homes, our healthcare, our work, our environment, and the way we travel and communicate.

The inventors profiled include such well-known figures as George Washington Carver, Henry Ford, and Steve Wozniak, as well as unsung technological pioneers such as Stephanie Kwolek, inventor of Kevlar, and Wilson Greatbatch, inventor of the first implantable cardiac pacemaker.

Inventing Modern America is designed to create excitement about invention through the personal stories of these American scientists, technologists, and researchers. It is accessible enough to engage high school students yet wide-ranging and interesting enough to appeal to anyone who has ever wondered where microwave ovens and traffic lights come from.

The book was developed by the Lemelson-MIT Program for Invention and Innovation, whose mission is to inspire a new generation of American scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs.

About this title

About the Author:

David E. Brown is a New York-based freelance writer and editor.

From Booklist:

Brown introduces 35 practitioners of American ingenuity in this peppy survey, neatly profiling inventors in the fields of medicine, consumer products, transportation, energy, computing, and telecommunications. Shared traits include a preternatural attention to detail, a gift for following up on "serendipitous flashes," gumption, and the ability to withstand ridicule and ruthless competition, the latter acknowledged in Raymond Damadian's name for the first MRI machine: Indomitable. Another example of the truth Brown reveals--that behind every invention, there's a story of inspiration, hard work, and luck--is found in the profile of Garrett Morgan. The son of former slaves, he confronted racism to bring his inventions to fruition, a prototype for the gas mask and the first traffic signal. Donna Seaman
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About this edition

• Publisher: Mit Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0262025086
• ISBN 13: 9780262025089
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200