FIRE OF GENIUS: Inventors of the Past Century

by Ernest V. & Others Heyn ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1976

Heyn is the former editor-in-chief of Popular Science Monthly and these rather inert accounts of the inventors who revolutionaized modern electronics and technology come from back issues of that periodical. He begins with a preliminary scan of the men who made a mint from ""tremendous trifles"": barbed wire, zippers, neon signs, parking meters, cellophane, safety razors, paper bags, and--courtesy of Nixon's pal Robert H. Abplanalp--the aerosol spray can. On to bigger names: Alexander Graham Bell of the ""soaring imagination and insatiable need to know"": George Eastman who founded Kodak and did away with the photographer's ""packhorse load"" of equipment; Thomas Alva Edison, the Western Union operator (he rigged up a way to electrocute cockroaches in the company's New York office) who made history by reciting ""Mary had a little lamb. . ."" into a machine that spoke his words back to him; Marconi of wireless telegraphy; Charles M. Hall who devised a cheap commercial method of producing aluminum. The virtues of tinkering, perseverance, trial-and-error, and 90% perspiration are underlined. Abraham Lincoln is quoted as championing the US Patent Office--it added ""fuel to the interest"" of creative fires. A bluff, lowbrow compendium aimed specifically at the thousands of amateur inventors puttering in the family garage.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1976

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Anchor Press/Doubleday

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1976

Categories: NONFICTION