3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Forgot some Biggies, March 16, 2004
The selection of the most important 100 inventions of all times is, in a sense, an impossible task, and the present volume only represents an honest attempt at it, rather than anything that can be called truly definitive. Other historians of technology would have a list that would only partially overlap this one to varying degrees. It might be interesting to see other lists of this sort, and to be able to examine their pros and cons. But it appears, unhappily, that this volume is meant more to entertain us, than it is to provide the best of all possible lists.
The inventions cited range from the prehistoric to the latter half of the twentieth century. They concentrate, it seems, more on inventions that require some sort of mechanical embodiment, leaving out any that deal with compositions of matter, with the lone exception of paint. Thus he ignores bakelite, polyethylene, and other plastics which have transformed our century. And also he forgets the invention of bronze, iron, steel, ceramics and clear glass. Chemical inventions such as tanning, Haber's nitrogen fixation, electrolysis, and other synthetic methods are ignored. He forgets soap, and antisepsis.
Cloth and rope are not here. Nor are the crops or the inventions of agriculture included: hay and wheat, all methods for the preservation of food, fertilizer, domestication of animals, methods for breeding animals and plants, irrigation. These are the basic inventions that moved us from hunter-gatherers to agriculturalists, and would seem to belong in a list that includes the plow and the wheel.
There is also, it appears to this reader, a distasteful pre-occupation with weapons of war: the tank, submarine, nuclear weapon, bow and arrow, gunpowder, pistol, rifle, cannon, rocket, barbed wire, dynamite, radar are all given. The spear, atlatl, personal armor, pike, trebuchet, machine gun and land mine are sundry examples of man's deviousness and ingenuity in the killing arts which might just as well have been included.
The methods used for the selection, and the apparently intentional ignoring of entire fields of innovation, is not discussed. No bibliography nor acknowledgements of previous attempts along these lines are provided either.
Philbin's greatest omission,though, is that he forgot to include the invention of the scientific method, used as a basis for many of the inventions he does list. This too, together with the invention of logic, geometry and mathematics, is certainly at least on a par with the VCR! Financial innovations, as well as any business oriented methods are left out, as is the Web, ebay and Amazon!
The book is lavishly illustrated with many diagrams and excerpts from the patent literature, and is thought provoking at times, but on the whole is rather inadequate to the task, I think. The writing style is rather leaden and it was hastily written, one discerns at a glance. And the insulting remark about Shockley, inventor of the transistor: "One other thing is remarkable about his life: he died of natural causes." is juvenile and gratuitous.
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4 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good collection but description lacks depth., June 7, 2005
I guess any list is subject to debate, so I would say Mr. Philbin has come up with a considerably good list. In fact some of the items we take for granted are in this list. Overall this list looks good to me.
However, the text disappointed me. Every invention has three important parts: 1. Science and 2. Story of invention and 3. Story of the inventor. Science part should explain how the gizmo works. Story of the invention should tell how it was invented. And the story of the inventor should tell about the inventor. Instead of finding the real science, story and timeline behind these inventions, the author skims the subject at a very high level, sometimes wandering into unnecessary description of politics.
Inclusion of Condom as an invention caused me not to buy this for my child. I borrowed it from a local library with full intention of purchasing it later. But that particular invention is a sensitive subject. Not arguing whether the author should have included it or not. Just saying that because of that I don't find myself comfortable to give it to my son for independent reading. Others may disagree with me and I would respect their opinion.
Overall I like the book. So three stars instead of two.
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