| Publication |
London, Constable & Robinson Ltd., 2001.
|
| Description |
188pRed Spine
|
| Summary/Abstract |
In an arrangement partly encyclopedic and partly chronological, Dyson and his two dozen contributors divide all inventions into six periods; the breaks between periods are determined by when a technological era attained its acme, such as refinement of the steam engine by the 1830s. A continuity across the periods is the authors' recognition that some needs are timeless, such as the imperative to contain and transport fire; Dyson's piece about the friction match, invented in 1826, pays homage to a technical lineage that stretches back to our hominid ancestors more than a million years ago.
|
| Contents |
Introduction: Man's need to invent
2.6 million BC to AD1: How technology made civilisation possible
AD1 to 1649: Spreading knowledge and shrinking the globe
1650 to 1829: Harnessing steam brings a new way of life
1830 to 1899: The story of light, sound and motion
1900 to 1944: Two world wars force the pace of change
1945 to 2000: Living with the chip and the gene
Index
|
| Standard Number |
1841196177 Pb.
|