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Their feats of invention were legendary
-- creating the first airplane, the phonograph, the incandescent
electric lamp, the telephone, the radio.
But how many knew that Edison's heroic rescue
of a tot from being crushed by a railroad car opened the
way to his electrical career? That a toy helicopter brought
home by Bishop Milton Wright to his boys Wilbur and Orville
inspired their interest in flight? That a college professor's
prophecy of riches to anyone who could make aluminum cheaply
led a baby-faced student, Charles M. Hall, to find a way
and put the gleaming metal in every home?
Here are highlights of forty-three inventors'
intimate personal stories -- Alexander Graham Bell, Edison,
Tesla, the Wright brothers, and aluminum maker Hall fill
a chapter apiece in this book. Marconi and Armstrong, father
of "wireless" and of "radio," share
another chapter. So do Eastman and Land, the two "greats"
of photography.
Briefer profiles pay respect to sixteen
other outstanding inventors. And should you be inspired
to follow their example, a final chapter offers sound advice
to inventors.
This book is based on contemporary accounts
in Popular Science Monthly, founded 1872, containing
gems of historical lore which supplement the author's previous
book A Century of Wonders: 100 Years of Popular Science.
Ernest V. Heyn is retired editor-in-chief
and associate publisher of Popular Science Monthly.
Previously he was editor of a host of popular magazines
as well as three national newspaper supplements. He was
editor-in-chief of Macfadden Publications for whom he founded
the first successful monthly sports magazine. As with his
previous A Century of Wonders, a team of past and
present editors of Popular Science collaborated with
him to assemble the material included in Fire of Genius.
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