Inventing the 20th Century: 100 Inventions That Shaped the World from the Airplane

ISBN-10
0613915410
ISBN-13
9780613915410
Category
History
Pages
224
Language
English
Published
2002-04-01
Publisher
Turtleback
Author
Stephen van Dulken

Description

Imagine your average day without zippers, airplanes, vacuum cleaners, without your clock radio or your personal stereo, without photocopiers. All of these devices were invented within the last hundred years and have since transformed our daily landscape.Drawing on The British Library's vast and comprehensive collection of patents, this handsomely illustrated book recounts the history of 100 of the most significant inventions of the century, decade by decade. Many of these inventions changed the world, others radically changed our daily lives. By combining a brief history of each patent with a copy of the original -- and often entertaining -- patent application (the zipper is a hookless fastener, the Post-it note an inherently tacky, elastomeric polymer), Inventing the Twentieth Century reveals the ways in which many of the most basic aspects of our material existence -- our clothes (nylon, Velcro), our leisure (Monopoly, Scrabble), our homes (Tupperware, teflon) -- have been revolutionized through specific objects.From the photocopier to the Slinky, from genetic fingerprinting to the Lava Lamp, from the ballpoint pen to the fuel cell, Inventing the Twentieth Century is an informative, illuminating window onto the technology of the twentieth century.

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