House of Invention
The Secret Life of Everyday Products. David Lindsay. Lyons Press, 2000.
Extremely fascinating read - it shows much more than the creation of things like the disposable razor, the screw thread, the electrical outlet. This is actually more of a treatise on the entrepreneurial spirit that used to pervade this country. This book acutally supports my theory that America was actually built during the last decades of the 19th Century, and that we've actually been on a steady decline ever since . . . made more interesting by the fact that most of these inventions came from that time, and the only significant invention after that time mentioned in this book is the Nautilus machine - in 1970.
However, this book also is a great study of the people who create and disseminate, and in that text it can actually be read as a casebook on slightly abnormal psychology, as this text is replete with stories of sometimes slightly more-than-offbeat characters.
Some of the highlights: Gillette, who made the razor, spending most of his time and energy writing books about future utopian humanitarian society, eventually completely irritating his financier. The man who made vaseline, wandering the countryside like some carnival barker, promoting the product for one singular use for which it was NOT used: although it was great for everything else. The Kellogg brothers - (and now I know what was the inspiration for the movie The Road to Wellville!) and how they made breakfast flakes: they used to grind the cereal for the daily mixture with a giant machine in the basement, but one time they acidentally left the stuff there, and came back after three days to find it crusty and dried . . . however, once they found out how to dry the stuff without the corresponding mold, they had the very first breakfast cereal. Then the screw thread, developed about 300 years ago by a Frenchman who wanted to create robots. And the condom, with no discernable "inventor" but made lively by the stories that have sprung up around it.
My favourite however, was the story of the lady who invented the bra. Quite the libertine, actually, and I'm quite certain that her life could me more than just a chapter in this book - but rather has its place in the annals of Victorian erotic literature.
I hope that has tantalized your taste for this tome. I would say check it out . . . definitely a fun read!
VG
Extremely fascinating read - it shows much more than the creation of things like the disposable razor, the screw thread, the electrical outlet. This is actually more of a treatise on the entrepreneurial spirit that used to pervade this country. This book acutally supports my theory that America was actually built during the last decades of the 19th Century, and that we've actually been on a steady decline ever since . . . made more interesting by the fact that most of these inventions came from that time, and the only significant invention after that time mentioned in this book is the Nautilus machine - in 1970.
However, this book also is a great study of the people who create and disseminate, and in that text it can actually be read as a casebook on slightly abnormal psychology, as this text is replete with stories of sometimes slightly more-than-offbeat characters.
Some of the highlights: Gillette, who made the razor, spending most of his time and energy writing books about future utopian humanitarian society, eventually completely irritating his financier. The man who made vaseline, wandering the countryside like some carnival barker, promoting the product for one singular use for which it was NOT used: although it was great for everything else. The Kellogg brothers - (and now I know what was the inspiration for the movie The Road to Wellville!) and how they made breakfast flakes: they used to grind the cereal for the daily mixture with a giant machine in the basement, but one time they acidentally left the stuff there, and came back after three days to find it crusty and dried . . . however, once they found out how to dry the stuff without the corresponding mold, they had the very first breakfast cereal. Then the screw thread, developed about 300 years ago by a Frenchman who wanted to create robots. And the condom, with no discernable "inventor" but made lively by the stories that have sprung up around it.
My favourite however, was the story of the lady who invented the bra. Quite the libertine, actually, and I'm quite certain that her life could me more than just a chapter in this book - but rather has its place in the annals of Victorian erotic literature.
I hope that has tantalized your taste for this tome. I would say check it out . . . definitely a fun read!
VG
posted by Verble Gherulous | 4:40 AM
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