Time: Great Inventions : Geniuses and Gizmos, Innnovation in Our Time

by Editors of Time Magazine

• ISBN13: 9781932273038
• ISBN10: 1932273034
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-01
• Publisher: Time Home Entertainment Inc

Summary

rom the way we communicate....to the way we travel......from the way we entertain ourselves to the way we do business in every aspect of our lives....it is all so radically different from the time of our grandparents. Now, the editors of TIME tell the fascinating stories behind the most important innovations of the past 100 years, from computers, space shuttles, and cell phones, to zippers, Teflon and the Internet. Here is a celebration of ingenuity in every form, from the kitchen to the garage, from the multiplex to the mousepad. Here are intriguing portraits of the brilliant scientists, oddball inventors and shade-tree mechanics who created our modern world.

Table of Contents

Essay: Paying Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain Invention is thriving---but Americans don't seem to idolize inventors any more	vi
How We Explore
The Unseen World	4	(2)
Wilhelm Rontgen and the discovery of X rays
Secret Signals	6	(2)
Radar, atomic clocks and navigation systems
The Lower Depths	8	(2)
Creating machines to explore the oceans
In Pursuit of Particles	10	(2)
E.O. Lawrence and his ``proton merry-go-round''
Big Eyes (and Big Ears)	12	(2)
Telescopes, radio telescopes and orbiting scopes
Going Up?	14	(2)
Robert Goddard launches the first rockets
Profile: Blast from the Past	16	(2)
The two-stage life of Wernher von Braun
First Steps to the Stars	18	(6)
From Sputnik to Apollo 11 ... to other galaxies?
How We Move
Speed You Can Straddle	24	(2)
How the humble bike became the mighty motorcycle
Prime Movers	26	(3)
Titans (and tinkerers) jump-start the first automobiles
2020 Vision	29	(1)
Two decades from now, what will you be driving?
Spanning and Delving	30	(2)
Grand old bridges, nifty new bridges and tunnel tech
Riding Motors to the Sky	32	(6)
How the Wright brothers built the first airplane, how planes evolved into jets---and a peek into the future
Up, Up and Away!	38	(2)
Ferdinand von Zeppelin's wonderful airships and the evolution of the helicopter
They Waived the Rules	40	(2)
Three geniuses, three new ships: the turbine-powered engine, the nuclear submarine and the hovercraft
Taming the Iron Horse	42	(2)
Learning to control the railroad's mighty momentum
Glide Path	44	(2)
Elevators, escalators and the Segway Human Transporter
Profile: Tilting with Windmills	46	(4)
Meet Dean Kamen, the anti-Ford
How We Communicate
The First World Wide Web	50	(4)
Busy signals: Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray race to invent the telephone
Profile: Teacher of the Deaf	54	(2)
How Alexander Graham Bell turned words into electricity
The Wonderful Wireless	56	(4)
Radio began as an updated telegraph, then evolved into the first broadcast medium
The Image Dissectors	60	(4)
Three fascinating figures struggle to create the television
The Write Stuff	64	(2)
It made offices jingle and fingers tingle: once a necessity, the typewriter is almost an antique
Gutenberg's Grandchildren	66	(2)
Speeding up printing and putting pictures on the page
To Write with Light	68	(2)
The father of neon light, Georges Claude, marries illumination and communication
Nothin' but Net	70	(4)
Happy birthday, World Wide Web! Born in 1993, you've changed our world in only 10 years
How We Record
The Unblinking Eye	74	(4)
How Daguerre, Eastman and Land developed photography
Profile: Double Vision	78	(2)
Edwin Land cooks up instant photography, instantly
Reality on Sprockets	80	(4)
The story unreels, from kinetoscope to cinematographie to today's IMAX
First Family of Film	84	(2)
Auguste and Louis Lumiere made cinema a spectacle
The Sound of Music	86	(6)
Capturing voices on wax, shellac and vinyl---or in bytes
How We Eat
Harvest of Change	92	(4)
How innovation has made agriculture thrive, and a look at how genetic science is helping feed the world
Profile: Merlin of the Soil	96	(2)
George Washington Carver was the Edison of edibles
Cooking Up the New	98	(4)
With microwave ovens, Teflon and Tupperware, kitchens meet the modern world
Food of Thought	102	(2)
We don't usually think we're having inventions for dinner, but have you ever seen a Spam plant?
Profile: Snap & Crackle's Pop	104	(2)
The good news: W.K. Kellogg invented cold cereal. The bad news: his taste tester was C.W. Post
Fast, Faster, Fastest	106	(4)
Accelerating food service and shrinking meals
How We Live
This Little Light of Mine	110	(2)
Thomas Edison illuminates our world with the incandescent bulb
Profile: Sweating the Details	112	(2)
Edison's Incredible ``Invention Factory''
High-Tech Home Ec.	114	(2)
A host of hands-on devices makes housework easier
Chill Out, Daddy Cool	116	(2)
Three cheers for Willis Carrier, father of air conditioning
Ready to Wear	118	(2)
From zippers to Velcro, convenience changes clothes
Up Close and Personal	120	(4)
Personal hygiene: secret tales from your medicine cabinet
All Around the House	124	(4)
Who invented Scotch tape? Bubble wrap? Aerosol spray?
How We Think
Downsized Dynamo	128	(2)
The transistor: master invention of the 20th century?
Shrinking the Colossus	130	(4)
The story of computers, from massive ENIAC to today's miniature masterpieces
Profile: Homeward Bound	134	(4)
Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak took the computer out of the office and into our living rooms
How We Work
Power Struggle	138	(2)
Edison's and Tesla's great battle: Should electric current be alternating or direct?
Profile: Alternating Currents	140	(2)
Nikola Tesla was a genius . . . and a crank
Target: Cleaner Energy	142	(2)
Farewell, fossil fuels. Scientists work to harness the power of wind and the potential of hydrogen
``All Hail, King Steel''	144	(2)
Bessemer and Siemens refine the steelmaking process
Plastic Planet	146	(2)
It's Leo Baekeland's world; we only live in it
Of Men and Machines	148	(2)
Henry Ford perfects the assembly line
Workhorses	150	(2)
Paper clips and calculators add up to an office revolution
Attention, Shoppers!	152	(4)
New and improved: the reimagining of retail sales
How We Play
Merry, Scary Machines	156	(2)
Mr. Ferris takes Chicago for a spin on his wonderful wheel
Fun and Games	158	(2)
From Hula Hoops to Slinky to Barbie: toy stories
Gravity Grooves	160	(2)
Duke Kahanamoku is sitting on top of the world
``Music from the Ether''	162	(2)
Leon Theremin tunes up his oscillating instrument
Pastimes of the Parlor	164	(2)
Meet the man who acquired a monopoly on Monopoly
Profile: Picasso of the Pixel	166	(2)
Shigeru Miyamoto dreams up the modern video game
Index	168