How invention begins : echoes of old voices in the rise of new machines / John H. Lienhard.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lienhard, John H., 1930-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Inventions--History.

Inventions.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (288 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 2006.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Invention--that single leap of a human mind that gives us all we create. Yet we make a mistake when we call a telephone or a light bulb an invention, says John Lienhard. In truth, light bulbs, airplanes, steam engines--these objects are the end results, the fruits, of vast aggregates of invention. They are not invention itself. In How Invention Begins, Lienhard reconciles the ends of invention with the individual leaps upon which they are built, illuminating the vast web of individual inspirations that lie behind whole technologies. He traces, for instance, the way in which thousands of people

Contents:

Priority and apriority. Otzi and silent beginnings

The unrelenting presence of priority

I built my airplane before the Wright brothers did

Steam and speed. Inventing steam: "Alles was Odem hat"

From steam to steam engine

From steam engine to thermodynamics

Inventing speed

Inventive motivation and exponential change

Writing and showing. Inventing Gutenberg

From Gutenberg to a newly literate world: gestation to cradle to maturation

Inventing means for illustrating reality

Fast presses, cheap books, and ghosts of old readers

Views through a wider lens. Inventing education: the great equalizer

The arc of invention: finding finished forms.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 243-259) and index.

Description based on metadata supplied by the publisher and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-988556-7

1-280-84651-8

0-19-804172-1

1-4294-2054-5

OCLC:

609831778