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.
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