A History of Great Inventions

An award-winning inventor presents a fascinating scientific history that traces the greatest inventions, from the canoe and the wheel to language, maps, currency, and law, following human technological advances through each age and exploring the motives and circumstances behind these inventions.

Fertile is the field of books about inventions. The very fecundity of works about human ingenuity begs for a less-detailed volume that is more comprehensive in scope, a role Dyson's satisfyingly fills. In an arrangement partly encyclopedic and partly chronological, Dyson and his two dozen contributors divide all inventions into six periods; the breaks between periods are determined by when a technological era attained its acme, such as refinement of the steam engine by the 1830s. A continuity across the periods is the authors' recognition that some needs are timeless, such as the imperative to contain and transport fire; Dyson's piece about the friction match, invented in 1826, pays homage to a technical lineage that stretches back to our hominid ancestors more than a million years ago. Crammed with numerous illustrations, Dyson's exuberant work is perfect public-library material--sure to snare browsing technophiles. Gilbert Taylor
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