Eureekaaargh!: A Spectacular Collection of Inventions That Nearly Worked

From the author of "Thunder, Flush and Thomas Crapper," a fabulous collection of infrequently brilliant, regularly unlucky, often wildly unsound inventions.

Since the beginning of time, humans have distinguished themselves by their need to invent things. "Eurekaaargh!" delves into the minds and workings of some of the most creative and crackpot inventors in history, revealing why it was they got so far--but no further--with their inventions. Cyclists will undoubtedly be intrigued by one patentee's velocipede seat with an inflated cushion to protect the "organic parts," but may draw the line at mounting Paul Herrmann's cycle made entirely of cane lashed together with string--even the wheels. And sailors would do well to avoid Sir Henry Bessemer's anti-seasickness boat, which proved so unmanageable on her maiden voyage that she demolished the pier at Calais. Handsomely illustrated with original drawings, and with over 100 stories of weird and wondrous bicycles, boats, flying machines, medical marvels, and domestic appliances, "Eurekaaargh!" is a tribute to the tireless inventiveness of man and to the triumph of hope over experience.