Genius Engineering Inventions: From the Plow to 3D Printing
AK E P w Pe 9 Nylon was invented in the 1930s to make stockings but was also used for supplies parachutes and other war
CONTENTS Making Progress Agriculture Food Technology Iron and Steam The Textile Revolution Electricity Measuring Time At Home Materials Medicine Factories Daft or Dangerous Duds Accidental Inventions Index 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32
MAKING PROGRESS century The society we live in is in a constant state of reinvention Every day new products and ideas come to market Some are excellent like the electric motor or the heart pacemaker while others are not so good for example Thomas Edison’s giant gelatin mold houses But these ideas all add to a history of innovation that dates back thousands of years to when our ancestors fi rst came up with the plow the wheel the clock and the countless other everyday items we take for granted And they all shape society Electricity gives us instant communication convenient kitchen gadgets and clean transport Medical advances have added years to the average life span Medieval moldboard plow ninth Antiseptic surgery 1860s 6
Bessemer converter 1856 We can’t always know who had the brainwaves behind these inventions fi rst Often it’s just the gradual march of forward progress But every once in a while comes a leap of imagination or a chance discovery that leads to a new idea The popsicle for instance was invented by accident when a soda drink was left out on a freezing-cold doorstep Water frame 1767 Genius Engineering Inventions takes us through the fascinating history of inventions that have created our world from earliest times through the turmoil of the industrial revolution to the present day Along the way we’ll look at what we eat and how we grow it the rise of steam power and electricity keeping track of time inventions around the home medical milestones smart manufacturing and the creation of wonder materials like Velcro and Kevlar And hopefully you’ll learn that anyone including you can change the way we live today through a clever idea Velcro 1955 7
