INVENTING MODERN AMERICA
From the Microwave to the Mouse
By David E. Brown
A marvelous history of American invention, profiling George Washington Carver (industrial uses of agricultural products) and including six women: Sally Fox (naturally colored cotton), Marie-Claire King (advances in breast cancer), Stephanie Kwolek (Kevlar), and logician Erna Schneider Hoover (the computerized telephone switching system) among them. Men include Raymond Damadian (the MRI scanner), Wilson Greatbatch (implantable cardiac pacemaker), Henry Ford (the assembly line), Douglas Englebart (computer mouse), Buckminster Fuller (geodesic dome), Raymond Kurzweil (an optical reading machine for the blind), Percy Spencer (microwave oven), and Steve Wozniak (personal computer). Thirty-five innovators are profiled. Would you believe Al Gross invented the walkie-talkie in 1937, Garrett Morgan the traffic light in 1923, and Ole Evinrude the outboard boat motor in 1911?
Great stuff: inspiring indeed.