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David E. H. Jones
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The Inventions of Daedalus: A Compendium of Plausible Schemes Hardcover – January 1, 1982

by David E. H. Jones (Author)
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 7 ratings
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Describes facetious inventions, tongue-in-cheek observations on natural phenomenon, and thought-provoking technological developments
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  1. Print length
    204 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    W H Freeman & Co
  4. Publication date
    January 1, 1982
  5. ISBN-10
    0716714124
  6. ISBN-13
    978-0716714125
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W H Freeman & Co; 0 edition (January 1, 1982)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 204 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0716714124
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0716714125
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 7 ratings

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David E. H. Jones

David E. H. Jones

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5 out of 5 stars
7 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Michael R
    5.0 out of 5 stars Classic spoof science, but still educational
    Reviewed in the United States on May 12, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Read this for the first time when I was in college and I just had to get a replacement copy when mine went missing. Hilarious, but also thought-provoking.
    One person found this helpful
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  • kaitlyn schwalje
    5.0 out of 5 stars highly recommended
    Reviewed in the United States on August 10, 2015
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    fast shipping everything as expected. highly recommended
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  • Library Patron
    5.0 out of 5 stars In. Credible.
    Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2003
    Flights of scientific fancy firmly grounded (usually) in facts and figures. Almost every page is pure gold and many have me thinking "Hmmm...I wonder..." If you think you might like it, buy it. You will love it.
    5 people found this helpful
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  • F. Edward Boas
    5.0 out of 5 stars A definite read for the inventor-at-heart
    Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 1999
    Absolutely fascinating book! It really stretched my imagination of what might be possible -- every scheme either made me laugh, left me dumbfounded in amazement, or made me try to invent my own scheme. David Jones' ideas are a modern-day version of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks. And some of the wild-sounding ideas proposed in this book have already come true!
    5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Dr. A. Bowyer
    5.0 out of 5 stars The best book I own
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 14, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    I am lucky to own about 2000 books from translations of Virgil's Aeneid through Newton's Principia to Atwood's The Blind Assassin.

    But this is the best book I own.

    Every death is sad, but if we wept for the death of every stranger we would be in tears 150,000 times a day. In my life I have wept at the deaths of three strangers: Jacqueline du Pré, Richard Feynman. And David Jones.

    Jones was an absolute genius and surely one of the most creative minds of the 20th Century. Every page of this is filled with astounding ideas that make you simultaneously hug yourself with delight at their humour and originality and also think, "Well. Why not?" All of his inventions were intended to be jokes, but many (3D printing; the fullerenes; noise-cancelling headphones and the like) are now the basis of worldwide billion-dollar industries.

    If any book deserves to be re-printed this (and its follow up The Further Inventions of Daedalus) is it.
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  • Thomas Ashley
    5.0 out of 5 stars Just on the wrong side of being of being Nobel Prizeworthy
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 4, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Dipping into various schemes at random it is astonishing how many ideas that David E.H. Jones proposed as whimsies 20-30 years ago have now come into being in some form or other. A couple that spring to mind are the notion of large hollow molecules for drug delivery, with an accompanying sketch of what is near-as-dammit Buckminsterfullerene before C60 had been discovered; and also a digital currency scheme not so far removed from Bitcoin.

    Full of broad-ranging, amusing, plausible, occasionally mischievous ideas just on the wrong side of being of being Nobel Prizeworthy, this is a fantastic book for anyone with a creative, imaginative scientifically inclined mind.
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