Customer Reviews

Book of Inventions (National Geographic)

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This National Geographic rendition contains details of critical
inventions over the past millenia. It is perfect for a student
science project in grammar or high school. For instance, typical
inventions depicted and described include:
- the alarm clock invented in Wurzburg , Germany 1350-80
- the permwave by Nessler of Germany
- cereal flakes by Kellogg in 1894
- the new tetrahedron milk carton in 1943
- the 1902 Carrier Air Conditioner 30-ton unit
- the 1867 patent for a big wheel

The presentation is complete, priced reasonably and easy to
read for students, scientists, historians and a wide constituency
of academicians everywhere.

... just don't expect much from this book. It is rather eclectic. Of course any such book is doomed to be incomplete, but some of the authors/editors' choices are interesting... Definitely not for "historians" or "academicians", sorry, Joseph :) Fine for kids (fear not that Liz Hurley picture, nothing too scary there) and curious adults.

Interesting enough but a definite British focus. And a caveat: the entry on "safety pin" includes a gigantic, eye-popping photo of Elizabeth Hurley in her infamous Versace safety pin dress. While it definitely shows a creative use for safety pins, the picture isn't particularly appropriate to include in this kind of book. So if you're thinking about buying for a kid, reconsider.

Harrison is wrong to a degree when he talks about man being a pathological killer in the gun section of the book. The Gatling gun was invented by a man who was trying to end warfare (he was hoping the gun would be so scarily lethal that no one would want to go to war) yet no mention of Gatling's noble motive was made by Harrison. Also, how many people only carried, or even invented new forms of, guns to defend themselves against bears or wolves or hyenas etc. You know back in the 1800's many people (even those who lived in towns) had to put with occasional bear attacks and unwelcomed ursine visits and there were no tranquilizer guns in those days (unlike today) so to get a bear rendered harmless you had usually to shoot with bullets. Harrison your generalization on gunmakers was mean or clueless. But wrong either way.