Download or read book Alexander Graham Bell written by Jennifer Groundwater and published by Formac Publishing Company. This book was released on 2018-06 with total page 130 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1876, at only 29 years old, Alexander Graham Bell completed the invention that would turn him into a household name: the telephone. What began as a tool for his deaf students, the device would ultimately change the way people communicate forever. Driven by a keen scientific mind and a desire to find new ways to assist people, Bell produced groundbreaking inventions in an astonishing range of fields, including aviation and medicine. Jennifer Groundwater tells the story of his most important discoveries, and his passionate, lifelong quest to improve the way things work. This new illustrated edition offers 50+ visuals including blueprints, artifacts, and behind-the-scenes photos of Bell developing inventions.
Download or read book The Religion of Technology written by David F. Noble and published by Knopf. This book was released on 2013-01-23 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Arguing against the widely held belief that technology and religion are at war with each other, David F. Noble's groundbreaking book reveals the religious roots and spirit of Western technology. It links the technological enthusiasms of the present day with the ancient and enduring Christian expectation of recovering humankind's lost divinity. Covering a period of a thousand years, Noble traces the evolution of the Western idea of technological development from the ninth century, when the useful arts became connected to the concept of redemption, up to the twentieth, when humans began to exercise God-like knowledge and powers. Noble describes how technological advance accelerated at the very point when it was invested with spiritual significance. By examining the imaginings of monks, explorers, magi, scientists, Freemasons, and engineers, this historical account brings to light an other-worldly inspiration behind the apparently worldly endeavors by which we habitually define Western civilization. Thus we see that Isaac Newton devoted his lifetime to the interpretation of prophecy. Joseph Priestley was the discoverer of oxygen and a founder of Unitarianism. Freemasons were early advocates of industrialization and the fathers of the engineering profession. Wernher von Braun saw spaceflight as a millenarian new beginning for humankind. The narrative moves into our own time through the technological enterprises of the last half of the twentieth century: nuclear weapons, manned space exploration, Artificial Intelligence, and genetic engineering. Here the book suggests that the convergence of technology and religion has outlived its usefulness, that though it once contributed to human well-being, it has now become a threat to our survival. Viewed at the dawn of the new millennium, the technological means upon which we have come to rely for the preservation and enlargement of our lives betray an increasing impatience with life and a disdainful disregard for mortal needs. David F. Noble thus contends that we must collectively strive to disabuse ourselves of the inherited religion of technology and begin rigorously to re-examine our enchantment with unregulated technological advance.
Download or read book The Smithsonian Book of Invention written by Smithsonian Institution and published by Smithsonian Books (DC). This book was released on 1978 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the history and development of invention and technology from prehistoric times to the present and examines the impact of technology and industry on civilization.
Download or read book How Invention Begins written by John H. Lienhard and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 genius to airplanes, trains, and automobiles, revealing how 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. Can we speak of speed as an invention? To do so, he concludes, is certainly no greater a stretch than to call the car an "invention."
Download or read book Invention written by James Dyson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-09-02 with total page 293 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dyson has become a byword for high performing products, technology, design and invention. Now, James Dyson, the inventor and entrepreneur who made it all happen, tells his remarkable and inspirational story in Invention: A Life. Famously, over a four-year period, James Dyson made 5127 prototypes of the cyclonic vacuum cleaner that would transform the way houses are cleaned around the world. In devoting all his resources to iteratively developing the technology, he risked it all, but out ofmany failures and setbacks came hard-fought success. His products - including vacuum cleaners, hair dryers and hair stylers, and fans and purifiers - are not only revolutionary technologies, but design classics. This was a legacy of his time studying at the Royal College of Art in the 1960s, when he was inspired by some of the most famous artists, designers and inventors of the era, as well as his engineering heroes such as Frank Whittle and Alec Issigonis. In Invention: A Life, Dyson reveals how he came to set up his own company and led it to become one of the most inventive technology companies in the world. It is a compelling and dramatic tale, with many obstacles overcome. Dyson has always looked to the future, even setting up his own university to help provide the next generation of engineers and designers. For, as he says, 'everything changes all the time, so experience is of little use'. Whether you are someone who has an idea for a better product, an aspiring entrepreneur, whether you appreciate great design or a page-turning read, Invention: A Life offers you inspiration, hope and much more.
Download or read book The Invention of God written by Bill Lauritzen and published by Earth360.com. This book was released on 2011-01-15 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did mythology and religion first begin? Where did the ideas of “God,” “spirit” and “soul” come from? The author takes us to ancient times, showing us how early humans struggled to make sense of the world around them. Drawing on history, geology, volcanology, anthropology, chemistry, astronomy, archeology, oceanography, biology and cognitive science, the author reveals the surprising true meaning of our most sacred stories. “Bill Lauritzen is some kind of genius.” Sir Arthur C. Clarke. “Anyone interested in science and religion should read this book.” Dr. Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D., psychologist, UC Irvine. “Bill Lauritzen has systematically analyzed, from an original viewpoint, the historic sources related to the origins of religion. He summarized his research in this interesting and thought-provoking book.” Mamikon Mnatsakanian, Ph.D, astrophysicist and mathematician, California Institute of Technology.
Download or read book The Invention of Wings written by Sue Monk Kidd and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-01-07 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection: this special eBook edition of The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd features exclusive content, including Oprah’s personal notes highlighted within the text, and a reading group guide. Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world. Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women. Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love. As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements. Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better. This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved. Please note there is another digital edition available without Oprah’s notes. Go to Oprah.com/bookclub for more OBC 2.0 content
Download or read book Invention written by Justin Camp and published by David C Cook. This book was released on 2019-09-01 with total page 182 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The universe’s Inventor designed us like he did the world: with passion and precision and purpose. He made us for confidence and significance, joy and relationship. He made us to be part of something massive and majestic—to contribute to his work of remaking this world and to play vital parts in his Kingdom.But we have a vicious enemy, hell-bent on thwarting us. Our enemy spins lies that convince us into distraction and dependence—on alcohol, drugs, pornography, success-at-all-cost. But Jesus said, “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” (MSG, John 10:10) He said that about us. Invention is an invitation to join a band of renegades and revolutionaries, change-makers and troublemakers—men who won’t be daunted, because they know there is more. It’s a guide for living, finally, with depth and purpose. It will expose the lies that obscure God’s intent, and will help reveal His design for your life. There is so much more. Come and see.
Download or read book Flash of Genius written by John Seabrook and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2008-09-02 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays explore inspiration and entrepreneurship in everyday Americans, including the story of Bob Kearns, who invented the intermittent windshield wiper.
Download or read book The Great Invention written by Ehsan Masood and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-06-07 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world’s principal measure of the health of economies is gross domestic product, or GDP: the sum of what all of us spend every day, from the contents of our weekly shopping to large capital spending by businesses. GDP also includes the myriad things that our governments pay for, from libraries and road-line painting to naval dockyards and nuclear weapons.The Great Invention reveals how in just a few decades GDP became the world’s most powerful formula: how six algebraic symbols forged in the fires of the 1930's economic crisis helped Europe and America prosper, how the remedy now risks killing the patient it once saved, and how this fundamentally flawed metric is creating the illusion of global prosperity—and why many world leaders want to be able to ignore it but so far remain powerless to do so. Drawing on interviews, firsthand accounts, and previously neglected source materials, The Great Invention takes readers on a journey from Capitol Hill to Whitehall—on the trail of theories made in Cambridge, tested in Karachi, and designed for global application—into the minds of unworldly geniuses seduced by the allure of power and the demands of politics.
Download or read book The Invention of Power written by Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2022-01-18 with total page 339 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the tradition of Why Nations Fail, this book solves one of the great puzzles of history: Why did the West become the most powerful civilization in the world? Western exceptionalism—the idea that European civilizations are freer, wealthier, and less violent—is a widespread and powerful political idea. It has been a source of peace and prosperity in some societies, and of ethnic cleansing and havoc in others. Yet in The Invention of Power, Bruce Bueno de Mesquita draws on his expertise in political maneuvering, deal-making, and game theory to present a revolutionary new theory of Western exceptionalism: that a single, rarely discussed event in the twelfth century changed the course of European and world history. By creating a compromise between churches and nation-states that, in effect, traded money for power and power for money, the 1122 Concordat of Worms incentivized economic growth, facilitated secularization, and improved the lot of the citizenry, all of which set European countries on a course for prosperity. In the centuries since, countries that have had a similar dynamic of competition between church and state have been consistently better off than those that have not. The Invention of Power upends conventional thinking about European culture, religion, and race and presents a persuasive new vision of world history.
Download or read book Ingenious written by Jason Fagone and published by Crown. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An epic tale of invention, in which ordinary people’s lives are changed forever by their quest to engineer a radically new kind of car In 2007, the X Prize Foundation announced that it would give $10 million to anyone who could build a safe, mass-producible car that could travel 100 miles on the energy equivalent of a gallon of gas. The challenge attracted more than one hundred teams from all over the world, including dozens of amateurs. Many designed their cars entirely from scratch, rejecting decades of thinking about what a car should look like. Jason Fagone follows four of those teams from the build stage to the final race and beyond—into a world in which destiny hangs on a low drag coefficient and a lug nut can be a beautiful talisman. The result is a gripping story of crazy collaboration, absurd risks, colossal hopes, and poignant losses. In an old pole barn in central Illinois, childhood sweethearts hack together an electric-powered dreamboat, using scavenged parts, forging their own steel, and burning through their life savings. In Virginia, an impassioned entrepreneur and his hand-picked squad of speed freaks pool their imaginations and build a car so light that you can push it across the floor with your thumb. In West Philly, a group of disaffected high school students come into their own as they create a hybrid car with the engine of a Harley motorcycle. And in Southern California, the early favorite—a start-up backed by millions in venture capital—designs a car that looks like an alien egg. Ingenious is a joyride. Fagone takes us into the garages and the minds of the inventors, capturing the fractious yet beautiful process of engineering a bespoke machine. Suspenseful and bighearted, this is the story of ordinary people risking failure, economic ruin, and ridicule to create something vital that Detroit had never pulled off. As the Illinois team wrote in chalk on the wall of their barn, "SOMEBODY HAS TO DO SOMETHING. THAT SOMEBODY IS US."
Download or read book The Invention of Yesterday written by Tamim Ansary and published by PublicAffairs. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 456 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From language to culture to cultural collision: the story of how humans invented history, from the Stone Age to the Virtual Age Traveling across millennia, weaving the experiences and world views of cultures both extinct and extant, The Invention of Yesterday shows that the engine of history is not so much heroic (battles won), geographic (farmers thrive), or anthropogenic (humans change the planet) as it is narrative. Many thousands of years ago, when we existed only as countless small autonomous bands of hunter-gatherers widely distributed through the wilderness, we began inventing stories--to organize for survival, to find purpose and meaning, to explain the unfathomable. Ultimately these became the basis for empires, civilizations, and cultures. And when various narratives began to collide and overlap, the encounters produced everything from confusion, chaos, and war to cultural efflorescence, religious awakenings, and intellectual breakthroughs. Through vivid stories studded with insights, Tamim Ansary illuminates the world-historical consequences of the unique human capacity to invent and communicate abstract ideas. In doing so, he also explains our ever-more-intertwined present: the narratives now shaping us, the reasons we still battle one another, and the future we may yet create.
Download or read book The American Schoolmaster written by and published by . This book was released on 1928 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Spirit of Utopia written by and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2000-08 with total page 326 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: I am. We are. That is enough. Now we have to start. These are the opening words of Ernst Bloch's first major work, The Spirit of Utopia, written mostly in 1915-16, published in its first version just after the First World War, republished five years later, 1923, in the version here presented for the first time in English translation. The Spirit of Utopia is one of the great historic books from the beginning of the century, but it is not an obsolete one. In its style of thinking, a peculiar amalgam of biblical, Marxist, and Expressionist turns, in its analytical skills deeply informed by Simmel, taking its information from both Hegel and Schopenhauer for the groundwork of its metaphysics of music but consistently interpreting the cultural legacy in the light of a certain Marxism, Bloch's Spirit of Utopia is a unique attempt to rethink the history of Western civilizations as a process of revolutionary disruptions and to reread the artworks, religions, and philosophies of this tradition as incentives to continue disrupting. The alliance between messianism and Marxism, which was proclaimed in this book for the first time with epic breadth, has met with more critique than acclaim. The expressive and baroque diction of the book was considered as offensive as its stubborn disregard for the limits of "disciplines." Yet there is hardly a "discipline" that didn't adopt, however unknowingly, some of Bloch's insights, and his provocative associations often proved more productive than the statistical account of social shifts. The first part of this philosophical meditation--which is also a narrative, an analysis, a rhapsody, and a manifesto--concerns a mode of "self-encounter" that presents itself in the history of music from Mozart through Mahler as an encounter with the problem of a community to come. This "we-problem" is worked out by Bloch in terms of a philosophy of the history of music. The "self-encounter," however, has to be conceived as "self-invention," as the active, affirmative fight for freedom and social justice, under the sign of Marx. The second part of the book is entitled "Karl Marx, Death and the Apocalypse." I am. We are. That's hardly anything. But enough to start.
Download or read book Watt s Perfect Engine written by Ben Marsden and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Discusses the life of scientist James Watt, inventor of the separate-condenser steam engine, and focuses on re-discovering steam, types of steam engines, manufacturing and marketing a steam engine.
Download or read book The Invention of Art written by Larry E. Shiner and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Larry Shiner challenges our conventional understandings of art and asks us to reconsider its history entirely, arguing that the category of ine art is a modern invention - and that the lines drawn between art and craft emerged only as the result of key European social transformations during the long eighteenth century"--Publisher's description.
