cover image Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries: All the Milestones in Ingenuity--From the Discovery of Fire to the Invention of the Microwave Oven

Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries: All the Milestones in Ingenuity--From the Discovery of Fire to the Invention of the Microwave Oven

Rodney P. Carlisle. John Wiley & Sons, $40 (502pp) ISBN 978-0-471-24410-3

This fact-filled compendium will delight students with a passion for science and technology, no matter what their age. Covering the history of humanity in five parts, from the ancient world to the present, Carlisle, a professor emeritus at Rutgers and an authority on the history of technology, explains the origins of objects as common as the ballpoint pen and as complex as the periodic table of elements. There are surprises to be found: for instance, while we associate the invention of the arch with the Romans, Carlisle says pre-Roman arches have been found in Egypt. On a less serious note, while the origin of the word""whisky"" is Gaelic (""uisge""), distilled liquors probably existed as far back as 800 B.C. in China. Illustrations, summary tables (such as chronologies) and sidebars with pungent quotes from historical sources enrich the readable text.