The Last Lone Inventor

The Last Lone Inventor PDF

Author: Evan I. Schwartz

Publisher: Harper Collins

Published: 2009-10-13

Total Pages: 530

ISBN-13: 0061856142

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“...Fascinating... A riveting American classic of independent brilliance versus corporate arrogance. I found it more fun than fiction.” — James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers “... The fascinating inside story of how this eccentric loner invented television and fought corporate America.” — Walter Isaacson, chariman, CNN “...Compelling...Strong, dramatic prose...” — Kirkus Reviews “...A lively and engaging account.” — Library Journal “[A] gripping and eminently readable saga of the birth of television and the death of the Edisonian myth.” — Darwin magazine

The Last Lone Inventor

The Last Lone Inventor PDF

Author: Evan I. Schwartz

Publisher:

Published: 2005-06-01

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 9780756793425

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In a story that is both of its time and timeless, Evan I. Schwartz tells a tale of genius versus greed, innocence versus deceit, and independent brilliance versus corporate arrogance. Many men have laid claim to the title "father of television," but Philo T. Farnsworth is the true genius behind what may be the most influential invention of our time. Driven by his obsession to demonstrate his idea, by the age of twenty Farnsworth was operating his own laboratory above a garage in San Francisco and filing for patents. The resulting publicity caught the attention of RCA tycoon David Sarnoff, who became determined to control television in the same way he monopolized radio. Based on original research, including interviews with Farnsworth family members, The Last Lone Inventor is the story of the epic struggle between two equally passionate adversaries whose clash symbolized a turning point in the culture of creativity. Book jacket.

Copies in Seconds

Copies in Seconds PDF

Author: David Owen

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Published: 2005-05-09

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780743251181

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A lone inventor and the story of how one of the most revolutionary inventions of the twentieth century almost didn't happen. Introduced in 1960, the first plain-paper office copier is unusual among major high-technology inventions in that its central process was conceived by a single person. Chester Carlson grew up in unspeakable poverty, worked his way through junior college and the California Institute of Technology, and made his discovery in solitude in the depths of the Great Depression. He offered his big idea to two dozen major corporations -- among them IBM, RCA, and General Electric -- all of which turned him down. So persistent was this failure of capitalistic vision that by the time the Xerox 914 was manufactured, by an obscure photographic-supply company in Rochester, New York, Carlson's original patent had expired. Xerography was so unusual and nonintuitive that it conceivably could have been overlooked entirely. Scientists who visited the drafty warehouses where the first machines were built sometimes doubted that Carlson's invention was even theoretically feasible. Building the first plain-paper office copier -- with parts scrounged from junkyards, cleaning brushes made of hand-sewn rabbit fur, and a built-in fire extinguisher -- required the persistence, courage, and imagination of an extraordinary group of physicists, engineers, and corporate executives whose story has never before been fully told. Copies in Seconds is a tale of corporate innovation and risk-taking at its very best.

Finding Oz

Finding Oz PDF

Author: Evan I. Schwartz

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 394

ISBN-13: 0547055102

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A groundbreaking new look at the author of an iconic American novel--"The Wizard of Oz"--this biography offers profound new insights into the true origins and meaning behind L. Frank Baum's 1900 masterwork.

Tube

Tube PDF

Author: David E. Fisher

Publisher: Mariner Books

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780156005364

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The Truth About Tesla

The Truth About Tesla PDF

Author: Christopher Cooper

Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA

Published: 2018-10-02

Total Pages: 215

ISBN-13: 0760363706

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A myth-busting biography of Nikola Tesla, the “enigmatic figure whose life and achievements appeal to historians, engineers, scientists, and many others” (Library Journal). Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest electrical inventors who ever lived, was rescued from obscurity in recent years, restored to his rightful place among historical luminaries. We’ve been told that his contributions to humanity were obscured by a number of nineteenth-century inventors and industrialists who took credit for his work or stole his patents outright. Most biographies repeat this familiar account of Tesla’s life, including his invention of alternating current, his falling out with Thomas Edison, how he lost billions in patent royalties to George Westinghouse, and his fight to prove that Guglielmo Marconi stole thirteen of his patents to “invent” radio. But what really happened? Newly uncovered information, however, proves that the popular account of Tesla’s life is itself very flawed. In The Truth About Tesla, Christopher Cooper sets out to prove that the conventional story not only oversimplifies history, it denies credit to some of the true inventors behind many of the groundbreaking technologies now attributed to Tesla, and perpetuates a misunderstanding about the process of innovation itself. Are you positive that Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone? Are you sure the Wright Brothers were the first in flight? Think again! With a provocative foreword by Tesla biographer Marc J. Seifer, The Truth About Tesla is one of the first books to set the record straight, tracing the origin of some of the greatest electrical inventions to a coterie of colorful characters that conventional history has all but forgotten. Includes photographs

How Invention Begins

How Invention Begins PDF

Author: John H. Lienhard

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2006

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 0195341201

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Original publication and copyright date: 2006.

Longitude

Longitude PDF

Author: Dava Sobel

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2010-07-05

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0802779433

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The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--"the longitude problem." Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.

The Master Switch

The Master Switch PDF

Author: Tim Wu

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2010-11-02

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 0307594653

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A New Yorker and Fortune Best Book of the Year "A must-read for all Americans who want to remain the ones deciding what they can read, watch, and listen to.” —Arianna Huffington Analyzing the strategic maneuvers of today’s great information powers—Apple, Google, and an eerily resurgent AT&T—Tim Wu uncovers a time-honored pattern in which invention begets industry and industry begets empire. It is easy to forget that every development in the history of the American information industry—from the telephone to radio to film—once existed in an open and chaotic marketplace inhabited by entrepreneurs and utopians, just as the Internet does today. Each of these, however, grew to be dominated by a monopolist or cartel. In this pathbreaking book, Tim Wu asks: will the Internet follow the same fate? Could the Web—the entire flow of American information—come to be ruled by a corporate leviathan in possession of "the master switch"? Here, Tim Wu shows how a battle royale for the Internet’s future is brewing, and this is one war we dare not tune out.

The Myths of Innovation

The Myths of Innovation PDF

Author: Scott Berkun

Publisher: "O'Reilly Media, Inc."

Published: 2010-08-13

Total Pages: 250

ISBN-13: 1449399614

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In this new paperback edition of the classic bestseller, you'll be taken on a hilarious, fast-paced ride through the history of ideas. Author Scott Berkun will show you how to transcend the false stories that many business experts, scientists, and much of pop culture foolishly use to guide their thinking about how ideas change the world. With four new chapters on putting the ideas in the book to work, updated references and over 50 corrections and improvements, now is the time to get past the myths, and change the world. You'll have fun while you learn: Where ideas come from The true history of history Why most people don't like ideas How great managers make ideas thrive The importance of problem finding The simple plan (new for paperback) Since its initial publication, this classic bestseller has been discussed on NPR, MSNBC, CNBC, and at Yale University, MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Google, Amazon.com, and other major media, corporations, and universities around the world. It has changed the way thousands of leaders and creators understand the world. Now in an updated and expanded paperback edition, it's a fantastic time to explore or rediscover this powerful view of the world of ideas. "Sets us free to try and change the world."--Guy Kawasaki, Author of Art of The Start "Small, simple, powerful: an innovative book about innovation."--Don Norman, author of Design of Everyday Things "Insightful, inspiring, evocative, and just plain fun to read. It's totally great."--John Seely Brown, Former Director, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) "Methodically and entertainingly dismantling the cliches that surround the process of innovation."--Scott Rosenberg, author of Dreaming in Code; cofounder of Salon.com "Will inspire you to come up with breakthrough ideas of your own."--Alan Cooper, Father of Visual Basic and author of The Inmates are Running the Asylum "Brimming with insights and historical examples, Berkun's book not only debunks widely held myths about innovation, it also points the ways toward making your new ideas stick."--Tom Kelley, GM, IDEO; author of The Ten Faces of Innovation