Inventions 1840 1850

A captivating, humorous, and downright perplexing selection of nineteenth-century inventions as revealed through remarkable–and hitherto unseen–illustrations from the British National Archive Inventions that Didn’t Change the World is a fascinating visual tour through some of the most bizarre inventions registered with the British authorities in the nineteenth century. In an era when Britain was the workshop of the world, design protection (nowadays patenting) was all the rage, and the apparently lenient approval process meant that all manner of bizarre curiosities were painstakingly recorded, in beautiful color illustrations and well-penned explanatory text, alongside the genuinely great inventions of the period. Irreverent commentary contextualizes each submission as well as taking a humorous view on how each has stood the test of time. This book introduces such gems as a ventilating top hat; an artificial leech; a design for an aerial machine adapted for the arctic regions; an anti-explosive alarm whistle; a tennis racket with ball-picker; and a currant-cleaning machine. Here is everything the end user could possibly require for a problem he never knew he had. Organized by area of application—industry, clothing, transportation, medical, health and safety, the home, and leisure—Inventions that Didn’t Change the World reveals the concerns of a bygone era giddy with the possibilities of a newly industrialized world.

This eleventh edition was developed during the encyclopaedia's transition from a British to an American publication. Some of its articles were written by the best-known scholars of the time and it is considered to be a landmark encyclopaedia for scholarship and literary style.

Here is an often cited panoramic history of the telegraph which discusses the principal telegraph firms and the key persons within them. Throughout his work, Reid stresses the business and economic aspects of marketing this remarkable scientific invention. The importance of The Telegraph in America as a classic reference in the field is under-scored by the fact that the author was active in telegraphy throughout the period he discusses. He thus had a personal knowledge of persons and events under examination.

In a remarkably short time, electronics has penetrated almost every aspect of modern life and the pace of development in the field shows no sign of slackening. One of the first books to cover electronic inventions in depth, Electronic Inventions and Discoveries: Electronics from Its Earliest Beginnings to the Present Day, Fourth Edition traces the development of electronics from its earliest beginnings to the present day. Spanning a period of two and a half centuries, the book presents a mini-encyclopedia full of valuable information on practically all inventions in electronics from 1745 to 1996. This fourth edition has been brought up-to-date and made more attractive by a complete redesign while still maintaining the successful features of previous editions. The first nine chapters supply concise yet comprehensive histories of the main areas of the subject. Subsequent chapters provide a list of inventions by subject and succinct descriptions of each invention in date order with over 1,000 references. The book concludes with a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a list of books on inventions and inventors, and a comprehensive index. During his seventy years in the field, the author has collected a variety of published data to form an up-to-date systematic review of the major developments in electronics and the pattern of advances in electronic techniques. The book forms an essential source of reference to practicing engineers wishing to broaden their knowledge. Teachers and students who require a sound background and understanding of electronics will also find the book invaluable. Written in an easily understood largely nontechnical language, this fascinating and authoritative history of electronic developments will be of great interest to electronic hobbyists and general science readers.

Bright, humorous and engaging, Marcet's best-selling 1805 book was designed to introduce women to scientific ideas.

This book, first published in 2005, examines the evolution and impact of American intellectual property rights during the 'long nineteenth century'.