How Invention Begins: Echoes of Old Voices in the Rise of New Machines

by John H. Lienhard

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 applied their combined
inventive genius to airplanes, railroad engines, and automobiles. As he does so, it becomes clear that a collective desire, an upwelling of fascination, a spirit of the times--a Zeitgeist --laid its hold upon inventors. The thing they all sought to create was speed itself.

Likewise, Lienhard shows that when we trace the astonishingly complex technology of printing books, we come at last to that which we desire from books--the knowledge , the learning , that they provide. Can we speak of speed or education as inventions? To do so, he concludes, is certainly no greater a
stretch than it is to call radio or the telephone an "invention."

Throughout this marvelous volume, Lienhard illuminates these processes, these webs of insight or inspiration, by weaving a fabric of anecdote, history, and technical detail--all of which come together to provide a full and satisfying portrait of the true nature of invention.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

John Henry Lienhard IV is Professor Emeritus of mechanical engineering and history at The University of Houston. He worked in heat transfer and thermodynamics for many years prior to creating the radio program The Engines of Our Ingenuity. Lienhard is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering.

Reviews

[A · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book explains the incremental steps involved in technologies that changed the world. IT really goes to show that no idea comes from some kind of miraculous inception on its own, and that everything builds upon ideas from others. I like that it mentions the unsung heroes of the past, such as people who worked on the steam engine (and its predecessors) before James Watt, and those who worked on the printing press (as well as typefaces and other required technologies)before Gutenberg.

[Elentarri · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and informative. "Things" are not invented in a vacuum!

[Alterstuart · Rating 2 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book but it doesn't mention Tesla iirc.