'In his whistle-stop tour of inventions large and small, the
scientist Trevor Norton shares the Gershwins' view that invention
is fundamentally comic.' The Sunday Times Trevor Norton, who has
been compared to Gerard Durrell and Bill Bryson, weaves an
entertaining history with a seductive mix of eureka moments,
disasters and dirty tricks. Although inventors were often
scientists or engineers, many were not: Samuel Morse (Morse code)
was a painter, Lazlow Biro (ballpoint) was a sculptor and
hypnotist, and Logie Baird (TV) sold boot polish. The inventor of
the automatic telephone switchboard was an undertaker who believed
the operator was diverting his calls to rival morticians so he
decided to make all telephone operators redundant. Inventors are
mavericks indifferent to conventional wisdom so critics were
dismissive of even their best ideas: radio had 'no future,'
electric light was 'an idiotic idea' and X-rays were 'a hoax.' Even
so, the state of New Jersey moved to ban X-ray opera glasses. The
head of the General Post Office rejected telephones as unneccesary
as there were 'plenty of small boys to run messages.' Inventomania
is a magical place where eccentrics are always in season and their
stories are usually unbelievable - but rest assured, nothing has
been invented.
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