Patents & Inventions Books

Tesla: Man Out of Time

Margaret Cheney

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( T ) -> Tesla, Nikola

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 72 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

In Tesla: Man Out of Time, Margaret Cheney explores the brilliant and prescient mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists and inventors. Called a madman by his enemies, a genius by others, and an enigma by nearly everyone, Nikola Tesla was, without a doubt, a trailblazing inventor who created astonishing, sometimes world-transforming devices that were virtually without theoretical precedent. Tesla not only discovered the rotating magnetic field -- the basis of most alternating-current machinery -- but also introduced us to the fundamentals of robotics, computers, and missile science. Almost supernaturally gifted, unfailingly flamboyant and neurotic, Tesla was troubled by an array of compulsions and phobias and was fond of extravagant, visionary experimentations. He was also a popular man-about-town, admired by men as diverse as Mark Twain and George Westinghouse, and adored by scores of society beauties.

From Tesla's childhood in Yugoslavia to his death in New York in the 1940s, Cheney paints a compelling human portrait and chronicles a lifetime of discoveries that radically altered -- and continue to alter -- the world in which we live. Tesla: Man Out of Time is an in-depth look at the seminal accomplishments of a scientific wizard and a thoughtful examination of the obsessions and eccentricities of the man behind the science.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

Dava Sobel

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 264 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Genuinely great story, but BEWARE of some inaccuracies in this book. 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 4 people found this review helpful.

John Harrison completes his first pendulum clock in 1713 before the age of 20. He made the gears for this out of wood which was radical for such a use, but as a carpenter, perhaps not to him---which is a mark of genius, I'd say; to reach beyond accepted norms in this manner. This he did after borrowing a book on math and the laws of motion; which he copied word for word, making his own copy. He incorporated different varieties of wood into his clock for strength and later invented a bi-metal pendulum to counteract the expansion and compression of various individual metals. He also employed friction-free movements so as to do away with problematic lubricants. When intrigued by the puzzle of time at sea and the issue of longitude he contemplated substituting something not prone to gravity, as a pendulum of course is, to track times passing. In 1737 he creates a cantilevered clock 4 foot square. This the longitude board (which had offered a cash bonus to anyone who could devise a method in which time at sea could be kept) admired. Four years later he returns with an improved model; then starts on a 3rd model, like the previous two, also a fairly large sized clock.But there exists a problem within this book: An artisan freemason by the name of John Jefferys at the Worshipful Company of clockmakers befriends Harrison and then later presents to him a pocket watch in 1753. Then in 1755, while still working on his 3rd model, Harrison says this to the Longitude board: I have..."good reason to think" on the basis of a watch "already executed that such small machines[he's referring to pocket watches] may be of great service with respect to longitude." He then completes version 3 in 1759. His fourth version appears just a year later, however, and is a 5 inch wide pocket watch! The obvious inference made by the author is that after he received the pocket watch from Jeffreys he seemingly put his version #3 on the back burner and soon started on the pocket watch 4th version. The author does not claim Harrison copied anything from the Jeffreys model, but she certainly phrases this section so as to lend one to believe that this may have been the case; that Jefferys had a hand in the masterstroke invention Harrison eventually produced in version #4. This is not true. Harrison commissioned the watch he received from Jeffreys and was based on Harrison's specifications. It seems that Harrison simply asked Jeffreys to test an idea which he himself hadn't the time to attack just then; as he was still working on his 3rd version of a table-top prototype clock. Hence Harrison's above statement to the board in 1755 whence his ideas were validated by Jeffreys. In addition, the author plays up the part of the Astronomer Royal's part in attempting to impede Harrison from convincing the longitude board of the efficacy of a time-piece solution to this problem over a celestial answer to this conundrum. The author also jazzes up the issue of whether Harrison received the prize the board promised to pay for a successful solution herein; even though the board supported him for upwards of 20 years as he pursued this quest. It's as if the author intentionally omitted some facts (that the Jefferys was a Harrison commission), and pumped up others (of a rival/foil on the board trying to impede Harrison and the compensation issue; implying that Harrison was jipped) just to make the story more compelling. John Harrison's story, however, is extremely compelling as it is and didn't need this extra spice served up by the author.Do read this (very short) book on how this Mr. Harrison solved the problem of knowing where one is when at sea; and if you're in London, visit the Old Royal Observatory and the Clockmakers museum (in the Guildhall) where you can see Harrison's wonderful creations in person. Enjoy!

Editorial Review:

The thorniest scientific problem of the eighteenth century was how to determine longitude. Many thousands of lives had been lost at sea over the centuries due to the inability to determine an east-west position. This is the engrossing story of the clockmaker, John "Longitude" Harrison, who solved the problem that Newton and Galileo had failed to conquer, yet claimed only half the promised rich reward.

Leonardo's Machines: Da Vinci's Inventions Revealed

Domenico Laurenza, Mario Taddei

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Book - Only a how-to if you are VERY experienced! 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

I bought this book because I have tickets to see the traveling exhibit, "The Da Vinci Experience", in a couple months. It is a gorgeous book. Each machine covered has copies of the Da Vinci original plans, plus the editor's illustrations breaking the machine into it's components, with the placements of said componenets. Each machine has explanations of how components and the full machine work (or are supposed to work). Also, each machine has a history of Leonardo's drawings, purpose, client or personal notebooks, etc. It's a great book and looks gorgeous. I wouldn't think it would be a how-to for a school project unless the kid/parent had a lot of mechanical experience beforehand. All drawings show "real" components that you'd need a full shop to put together. There are no measurements, per se, just comparative sizes shown in the drawings. In the case of Leonardo's original drawings, it looks like this was deliberate. For example, the book's Introduction tells of Leonardo's problems with Giorgio Tedesco, an assistant of a prominant Medici. He wanted Leonardo to build him wooden models of several inventions. Leonardo successfully argued that he could only give Tedesco the scaled drawings. Historians surmise that Leonardo suspected that Tedesco would take the models back to his country, and take them apart to make full-sized machines out of iron without Leonardo's help. Job security was no laughing matter in the 1500's! Love the book. Can't wait to see the working full-sized (except for the half-size helicopter)models made from the drawings in the exhibition.

Editorial Review:

Building on the success of The Da Vinci Code--a bestseller in 48 countries--this book brings inventions from the artist's original coded notebooks alive. There's more interest than ever in Leonardo Da Vinci, and here readers will find a rare glimpse into the innovator's brilliant mind, with:

-Gorgeous color artwork that breathes life into Leonardo's inventions--from flying and war machines to musical instruments

-Annotated diagrams that show exactly how each contraption would have worked

-A look at how the inventions would be used in modern life

With incredible detail and mechanical accuracy, Leonardo's Machines unlocks the mystery of the artist's notebooks in a way that's both fascinating and educational!

The Toothpick: Technology and Culture (Vintage)

Henry Petroski

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A Huge Reference Source for a Tiny Tool 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

"Surely I cannot have read a 400 page book about the toothpick!" was my feeling when I set down Henry Petroski's _The Toothpick: Technology and Culture_ (Knopf). But the pages slipped by, each with its details about "History's Splendid Splinter". Actually, that is the title of a fictitious journal of supposedly scholarly essays on all aspects of the toothpick, and it is funny to think of scholarship expended on such a teensy tool. Petroski's book is no joke, though he is a amusing writer. He is a professor of civil engineering and of history, and likes to write about small manufactured things to reveal larger themes, as he did in a previous book, _The Pencil_. It is hard to imagine that he has left anything out, including toothpicks in history and pre-history, toothpicks in fiction, toothpick etiquette through the ages, toothpicks and global trade, and plenty more. Why has he lit upon the toothpick? Petroski says it is a common wooden object, the simplest of manufactured things, has no moving parts, needs no maintenance, is universally available, and it performs a function humans really need. He writes, "Nothing can be more annoying than having a piece of food stuck between our teeth." Sucking on the object will often do little, the tongue can't grab, and fingers are too blunt to get leverage; the toothpick is the specific tool for the specific job. It can, of course, probe into other small spaces if you are, say, cleaning a tiny figurine, and it does a splendid job of holding sandwiches together or giving a handle to an olive (Petroski's witty author photo shows him in a tux, holding an toothpick so accessorized). Generally, though, this is a history of picks for teeth.

They weren't always wood. When humans could make tools, toothpicks were among the first; a gold Mesopotamian toilet set of 3500 BCE has a tweezers, an earspoon, and a toothpick on chains as if on a key ring. Greeks and Romans used wood splinters as well as metal needle-type picks. Bones from chicken and fish have been used, as have walrus whiskers (packets of which were supplied to airline passengers by an Alaskan airline just forty years ago). The premier non-wood toothpick had to be the goose quill, which was one of the first mass marketed toothpicks, made as a cottage industry all over Europe. Charles became the world's premier toothpick manufacturer, starting around 1870, getting the machines that made shoe pegs (look them up) retooled to make sharper, longer pieces. He not only made toothpicks but made a market for them, and there was a turn-of-the-century toothpick boom. This did not mean that everyone approved. In 1883, an author was disgusted by the craze. "These toothpick fiends you may observe anywhere and at all times. They pick their teeth at the table, in the parlor, on the street, in the horse-cars, in the hotel office, on the rotundas, and in fact everywhere you meet them; the mania is prevalent, and is increasing rapidly." Using the toothpick after dinner has usually been seen as something to be done in private, and this is the general rule over the long term, although some etiquette advisors have authorized public use if shielded by a hand, a newspaper, or a napkin. Their opponents have felt such camouflage hides nothing and thus makes the crime of picking worse by adding to it an attempt at deception.

It is interesting that Petroski, acknowledging the world-wide array of libraries he has visited to compile this work, also has much to say about the use of the internet. It will surprise no one to know that there is a great deal of misinformation on the web about details of the toothpick's history, and Petroski quotes battling websites on different issues. More interesting is his appreciation of eBay as a research tool; he has been able to find pictures and descriptions of toothpicks and toothpick holders of all sorts. All his research has produced an amusing book full of toothpick miscellany. Here you will find reference to the people who build huge models of the Eiffel Tower or the Titanic out of toothpicks, or the role of the toothpick in the invention of Q-Tips, or the history of the Arkansas Toothpick (the Bowie knife), or the range of the National Toothpick Holder Collectors Society, or the death by toothpick of author Sherwood Anderson. I guarantee that you will not find a more entertaining book on this subject.

Editorial Review:

A celebration culture and technology, as seen through the history of the humble yet ubiquitous toothpick, from the best-selling author of The Pencil.

From ancient Rome, where emperor Nero made his entrance into a banquet hall with a silver toothpick in his mouth, to nineteenth-century Boston, where Charles Forster, the father of the American wooden toothpick industry, ensured toothpicks appeared in every restaurant, the toothpick has been an omnipresent, yet often overlooked part of our daily lives. Here, with an engineer's eye for detail and a poet's flair for language, Henry Petroski takes us on an incredible tour of this most interesting invention. Along the way, he peers inside today's surprisingly secretive toothpick-manufacturing industry, and explores a treasure trove of the toothpick's unintended uses and perils, from sandwiches to martinis and beyond.

Gadget Nation: A Journey Through the Eccentric World of Invention

Steve Greenberg

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Don .. www.MarshmallowChefSticks.com 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I am one of the inventors in the book--page 108 :). As you might imagine I was a bit nervous about what Steve was going to say about my invention; Hand Crafted Personalized Marshmallow Roasting Sticks for toasting perfect marshmallows. I had no idea what he was going say until the day he said, "OK, the book is in the stores." Unfortunately, my local stores didn't have it yet, so I immediately ordered it from Amazon; probably saved some cash as well. As I opened the package, I was very impressed with the look and feel of the book. It can definitely be at home on your coffee table. It's a good read and is absolutely worth the money you will pay for it. I agree with others that it is a great gift item that will be enjoyed by whomever receives it.

The design is fresh and the writing creative, clear and fun to read. It really does entice one to look at the next invention. You'll show it to friends and family and have fun checking all the cool stuff out. I've been skimming around from invention to invention so far, and look forward to reading each one.

Steve and his team absolutely captured the jist of my interview although my product's price is outdated; but that would be expected with any book. Thanks for including Marshmallow Chef Sticks in your book Steve. I wish you much success and look forward to your next book.

And if the folks reading this review want another cool and unique gift, check out www.MarshmallowSticks.com and get a few personalized marshmallow cooking sticks for your loved ones. Your Family and Friends Will Still Be Thanking You For This Thoughtful Gift For Many Years to Come!

Where's My Jetpack?: A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future that Never Arrived

Daniel H. Wilson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

It’s the twenty-first century and let’s be honest—things are a little disappointing. Despite every World’s Fair prediction, every futuristic ride at Disneyland, and the advertisements on the last page of every comic book, we are not living the future we were promised. By now, life was supposed to be a fully automated, atomic-powered, germ-free Utopia, a place where a grown man could wear a velvet spandex unitard and not be laughed at. Where are the ray guns, the flying cars, and the hoverboards that we expected? What happened to our promised moon colonies? Our servant robots?

In Where’s My Jetpack?, roboticist Daniel H. Wilson takes a hilarious look at the future we always imagined for ourselves. He exposes technology, spotlights existing prototypes, and reveals drawing-board plans. You will learn which technologies are already available, who made them, and where to find them. If the technology is not public, you will learn how to build, buy, or steal it. And if doesn’t yet exist, you will learn what stands in the way of making it real. With thirty entries spanning everything from teleportation to self-contained skyscraper cities, and superbly illustrated by Richard Horne (101 Things to Do Before You Die), Where’s My Jetpack? is an endlessly entertaining, one-of-a-kind look at the world that we always wanted.

How to Make Patent Drawings: A Patent It Yourself Companion

Jack Lo, David Pressman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Patent drafters charge $75 to $100 per sheet to prepare drawings -- but you can draw them yourself!

How to Make Patent Drawings is an essential guide for inventors who want to complete a crucial step in the patenting process themselves -- creating formal patent drawings that comply with the strict rules of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (and save hundreds or even thousands of dollars).

Written by two experts in the patent field, How to Make Patent Drawings shows you how to:

make utility patent drawings

make design patent drawings

utilize pen and paper, or digital equipment

respond to Patent Office Actions regarding drawings

Plus, once you've secured a patent with your drawings, you can also use them to market and promote your product to prospective manufacturers and customers.

The 5th edition is completely updated to reflect recent changes to patent law and the newest advances in technical drawing. It includes all necessary forms, plus step-by-step instructions for filling them out.

James May's Magnificent Machines: How Men in Sheds Have Changed Our Lives

James May

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Entertaining technology overview 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Fans of James May's work on Top Gear will not be disappointed with this collection of essays on many of the major technological advances of the twentieth century.

There are some obscure (and entertaining) details within, but serious tech geeks won't encounter much they didn't already know. As a serious tech geek myself, that didn't keep me from enjoying it.

Editorial Review:

The 20th century was a time of extraordinary change as new technologies and inventions emerged at a bewildering rate. From the amazingly complex to the brilliantly simple, this entertaining and insightful guide investigates mankind's greatest creations and successes, including space travel, television, mechanized war, medicine, video games, skyscrapers, electronic espionage, and much more. Along with the achievements, the hidden stories behind why some inventions—including the Zeppelin and the hovercraft—struggled to make their mark, and why others failed altogether, are also investigated. Packed with surprising statistics and intriguing facts, this is the ideal volume for anyone who wants to know the story behind history's greatest gadgets and ideas.

The Inventor's Bible: How to Market and License Your Brilliant Ideas

Ronald Louis Docie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Very helpful with step by step procedures 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I recently purchased this book, to market one of our company product ideas. When I picked up the book locally at barnes and Nobles, I was a bit reluctant by the quality of the paper and the print. But within hours I was at my office, reading it, and it has abolutely good information. The "words of wisdom", "tricks of the trade" tips on each page are very helpful.

One can be in business without understanding many critical aspects of invention and marketing. Being a professional services company so far, this book is helpful for me when I'm venturing into new product inventions, manufacturing and marketing.

The books takes the reader step by step with real examples of the authors experience and points out the pros and cons of various scenarios.

It also has a comprehensive workbook for every section of the book (convered as a separate module at the end of the book) for the inventor to document and prepare for everything.

Wonderfully written book. After browsing through few books, I purchased this one. I also got some other related books. But haven't gone through them yet. I'll review them after I read through them.

The author, Ronald has truly manifested his experience for many of us to learn without re-inventing the invention wheel and suceeding without too many trials and errors.

Editorial Review:

You’ve just invented a new technology, a must-have product. So what now? Patent it? Manufacture it? Sell it? If you’re like most would-be Edisons, chances are your stroke of genius will collect dust waiting for you to plot your next move. Fear not, intrepid creator—inventor and author Ronald Louis Docie Sr. shares more than 20 years of valuable insight in this revised and expanded edition of THE INVENTOR’S BIBLE, which now includes a workbook to help you take your ideas from concept to profit. With everything you need to know about marketing, licensing, and selling your invention, this comprehensive handbook will also help you figure out what your invention is worth, which companies might want your ideas, and what steps to take first. You dreamt it, you created it, and it actually works—let THE INVENTOR’S BIBLE pave the way to your first million.

Jetpack Dreams: One Man's Up and Down (But Mostly Down) Search for the Greatest Invention That Never Was

Mac Montandon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

A hilarious pop-socio-cultural history of the greatest invention that never was, the jetpack, and a participatory journey through the bizarre subculture of jetpack enthusiasts in search of a working model.

Jetpack dreams chronicles the colorful pop history and science of jetpacks, from the first flimsy, shoulder-mounted wings to Bill Suitor's 1984 Olympic flight; from a gruesome jetpack-driven murder in Houston in the mid-1990s to the secret laboratories and government facilities of today.

Journalist Mac Montandon also explores Hollywood's fascination with the subject, from the Jetsons and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow to the cultural jetpack phenomenon represented by Buck Rogers, James Bond, and Boba Fett. He travels the world to meet jetpack enthusiasts, who are readying their own personal flying machines for takeoff. Ultimately, it's the search for an answer to one simple question: Where is the jetpack that was promised to him, and to all of us, years ago? And if it's out there, can he catch a ride?