Here, in all its eccentricity, is the cutting edge of science: a magnetic train that requires no outside energy source; solar-powered interplanetary travel; an air-purifying helmet; a device to reduce radioactivity. And just as engrossing is the eccentricity of the invention subculture: garage tinkerers and conspiracy-theory-obsessed hermits, corporate lawyers and conglomerate researchers. Lindsay examines not only the quirky players in the field, but the quirky field itself, from the physical U.S. Patent Office to ephemeral cyberspace, from the process of creating a product to the struggle of procuring legal protection for it. Always lurking in the background--and occasionally dominating the foreground--are the fundamental issues that the scientific avant-garde inevitably confronts: the nature of knowledge, the meaning of thought, the essence of senses, the sanctity of life, the existence of God . . . all leading to the fascinating final chapter, in which the author attempts--and fails--to patent himself. Filled with wit, enthusiasm, and irreverence, these collected columns, which ran in New York Press from 1993 to 1998, are not only about inventors and their products, but about the entire scope of human endeavor--an invaluable addition to the library of technology, and a valuable edition of contemporary thought.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Fifty of Lindsay's columns from the New York Press are gathered here in seven broad categories. As Lindsay's regular newspaper readers know, these essays concentrate on inventors, their often eccentric lives, and their fascinating creations. The topics range from Doppler radar to electronic books to solar power. Each essay, written between 1993 and 1998, averages four pages in length. Lindsay's writing is excellent and often delightfully humorous; he keeps his technical descriptions concise and accessible to all readers. Recommended for large collections.?Michael D. Cramer, Raleigh, NC
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
This compilation of Lindsay's long-running New York Press column on inventions blends P.G. Wodehouse's freewheeling joy in the absurd with Orson Welles's razor-sharp social commentary. An index to the collective unconscious, it includes the expected whacko ideas, along with some truly brilliant creations. As topical cocktail-party fodder, the book has plenty to offer. Lindsay's curiosity about how things work is insatiable. He explores everything from the US patent office itself, with its (non-working) display on Thomas Edison, to the Timetrack cameras that produce those neat Gap ads where swing dancers stop in midair and the camera tracks around them in 3D. There is a typically odd Greenhouse Helmet, which recycles the air you use in a mini-biosphere of plants you carry on your head, and an idea for using gravity to run cars without fuel. He interviews Gregory Matloff of MIT, who is figuring out how to use the sun as an amplifier for space telescopes (Matloff already wrote the definitive handbook on ion drive in interstellar shipsfor real). And then there is the guy who wants to send elevators up and down between Earth and space, hooking the cables to some sort of planetary orbital rings he intends to send up. As with many of the details of these inventions, what keeps the cables up is a mystery. Lindsay uses human invention as a path to explore the universe, though his findings are not always clear. But it is fun and mostly illuminating. And if you find yourself looking around and marveling at what you see, wondering who the heck ever thought of that, then Lindsay has done his job. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Will intrigue any interested in scientific study,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Patent Files: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Invention (Paperback)
Patent Files provides a collection of treatises on patents and inventions and efforts to protect scientific discoveries, and will intrigue any interested in the world of scientific study and discovery. These take the form of case histories of individuals involved in patent struggles, surveying the applications of patents and patent protections under different circumstances. Lay audiences will find it lively reading.
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