Author: Judy Wearing
Publisher: ECW/ORIM
ISBN: 1554905516
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Get Book Here
Book Description
Not even geniuses get it right the first time . . . An “entertaining” look at the failures of great inventors (Booklist). To achieve great things, you have to be willing to take risks—and as Edison’s Concrete Piano reveals, some of the most famous names in history experienced plenty of flops and face-plants in the course of their careers. Thomas Edison, for example, not only revolutionized the world with the light bulb, but also designed a concrete piano, a nonoperational helicopter made from box kites and piano wire, and a machine to speak to the dead. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, actually devoted most of his time to his sheep farm in Nova Scotia—devising a multi-nippled sheep somewhere along the way. You’ll also read about Leonardo da Vinci’s walk-on-water shoes, George Washington Carver’s miracle peanut cure, and much more. The ludicrous ideas, faulty designs, and offbeat hobbies in this volume will inspire laughs—and serve as a reminder that even the very best minds make mistakes. “Captivating . . . This book is full of lessons for inventors and non-inventors alike.” —Henry Petroski, author of Success through Failure
Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Doubleday
ISBN: 0385537298
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 738
Get Book Here
Book Description
From one of the most beloved authors of our time—more than six million copies of his books have been sold in this country alone—a fascinating excursion into the history behind the place we call home. “Houses aren’t refuges from history. They are where history ends up.” Bill Bryson and his family live in a Victorian parsonage in a part of England where nothing of any great significance has happened since the Romans decamped. Yet one day, he began to consider how very little he knew about the ordinary things of life as he found it in that comfortable home. To remedy this, he formed the idea of journeying about his house from room to room to “write a history of the world without leaving home.” The bathroom provides the occasion for a history of hygiene; the bedroom, sex, death, and sleep; the kitchen, nutrition and the spice trade; and so on, as Bryson shows how each has figured in the evolution of private life. Whatever happens in the world, he demonstrates, ends up in our house, in the paint and the pipes and the pillows and every item of furniture. Bill Bryson has one of the liveliest, most inquisitive minds on the planet, and he is a master at turning the seemingly isolated or mundane fact into an occasion for the most diverting exposition imaginable. His wit and sheer prose fluency make At Home one of the most entertaining books ever written about private life.
Author: James Moore
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 0752466763
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 236
Get Book Here
Book Description
During the Second World War, an American behavioural psychologist working with pigeons discovered that the birds could be trained to recognise an object and to peck at an image of it; when loaded into the nose-cone of a missile, these pecks could be translated into adjustments to the guidance fins, steering the projectile to its target. Pigeon-Guided Missiles reveals this and other fascinating tales of daring plans from history destined to change the world we live in, yet which ended in failure, or even disaster. Some became the victims of the eccentric figures behind them, others succumbed to financial and political misfortune, and a few were just too far ahead of their time. Discover why the great groundnut scheme cost British taxpayers £49 million, why the bid to build Minerva, a whole new country in the Pacific Ocean, sank, and why the first Channel Tunnel (started in 1881, over a century before the one we know today) hit a dead end.
Author: Stephanie Bearce
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000490149
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 121
Get Book Here
Book Description
Nikola Tesla was crazy smart. He invented the idea for cell phones in 1893, discovered alternating current, and invented a death ray gun. Of course, he also talked to pigeons, ate only boiled food, and was scared of women who wore jewelry. He was an insane inventor. So was Henry Cavendish, who discovered hydrogen, calculated the density of the Earth, and was so scared of people that he had to write notes to communicate. Sir Isaac Newton discovered the laws of gravity, believed in magic, and thought he could make a potion to create gold. These stories may sound twisted, but they're all true tales from science! Ages 9-12
Author: Bill Bryson
Publisher: Doubleday Canada
ISBN: 0385679440
Category : House & Home
Languages : en
Pages : 713
Get Book Here
Book Description
Bill Bryson has one of the liveliest, most inquisitive minds on the planet, and At Home is likely to become the most illuminating book on the way we lived then and live now--the why and the where and the how of it--ever written. Now, in this handsome new edition, his sparkling prose will be enhanced by some 200 carefully curated full-colour images from both the past and the present. Selected from a staggering array of sources to bring Bill's journey to vivid life, these pictures will make reading At Home an immersive experience. When you've finished this book, you will see your house--and your daily life--in a new and revelatory light.
Author: Georgia Bragg
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1547614528
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 226
Get Book Here
Book Description
Everyone makes mistakes. Sometimes, epic failures even lead to super successes . . . sometimes they become deep dark secrets. But remember-to fail is human, to laugh about our shortcomings divine. From Montezuma II's mistaking a conqueror for a god to Isaac Newton turning from science to alchemy to J. Bruce Ismay's jumping the lifeboat line on the Titanic, How They Choked knocks fourteen famous achievers off their pedestals to reveal the human side of history. Successful “failures” include: Marco Polo Queen Isabella of Spain Montezuma II Ferdinand Magellan Anne Boleyn Isaac Newton Benedict Arnold Susan B. Anthony George Armstrong Custer Thomas Alva Edison Vincent Van Gogh J. Bruce Ismay “Shoeless Joe” Jackson Amelia M. Earhart
Author: Barry Bergdoll
Publisher: The Museum of Modern Art
ISBN: 9780870707339
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 256
Get Book Here
Book Description
Edited by Barry Bergdoll, Peter Christensen. Texts by Barry Bergdoll, Peter Christensen, Ken Tadashi Oshima, Rasmus Waen.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 744
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: George L. Frow
Publisher: Sevenoaks, Kent, Great Britain : G.L. Frow
ISBN:
Category : Phonograph
Languages : en
Pages : 306
Get Book Here
Book Description
Author: Tony Crabbe
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ISBN: 1455532975
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Get Book Here
Book Description
Business psychologist Tony Crabbe outlines a unique three-step approach to combating one of the modern life's great problems: being too busy. So many people feel far too busy—unable to work properly on the things that are important to them and stuck in a rut. This book, written by a well-connected business psychologist, puts that feeling in context and provides practical solutions for people to become happier, more motivated and more successful. If you want to take control of your career—and your life—make sure you're not too busy to read to this book. Today's world is one of too much: too much work to do, too much communication, too much competition, too much uncertainty and too much information. We are striving to keep up, but inevitably we're falling behind, leaving us with a nagging sense of failure that is hard to shake off. In Busy, Tony Crabbe debunks the myth that satisfaction at work comes from getting everything done. Instead, he demonstrates that what will enable you to thrive is regaining a sense of mastery over your life, focusing on making an impact, engaging with loved ones and creating the momentum necessary to make changes. Busy is divided into three digestible sections—Mastery, Differentiation, and Engagement—that will teach readers how to switch from managing time to managing attention, how to transition toward a career strategy that doesn't hinge on productivity, how to think differently about success by re-engaging with what matters, and how to create the impetus, energy, and clarity to put all these changes into effect. Crabbe draws on entertaining psychological studies to show why we're getting it wrong at the moment and to develop a fresh new approach to taking back one's life from chaotic outside forces.
