Inventors and Inventions: A Research Guide
Inventions have changed the way that people live, where they live, and how they work. Many devices that you can find at school, home, or at work have been invented and at one time never existed. The creation or invention of that device solved a problem. For example, the garbage disposal was invented in 1927 by the architect and inventor John W. Hammes who built one for his wife in 1927. It took 10 years of design improvement before he was able to begin selling his appliance to the public. Hammes began the In-Sink-Erator Manufacturing Company. However small or large, inventions have changed the way that we live. The materials listed below will help get researchers started as they look for information about inventors and inventions. If you need further assistance, please ask a librarian.
Books
Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse by David E. Brown. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2002. ISBN: 0262025086.
Profiles thirty-five inventors who exemplify the rich technological creativity of the United States over the past century including George Washington Carver, Henry Ford, and Steve Wozniak, as well as lesser known inventors such as Stephanie Kwolek, inventor of Kevlar and Wilson Greatbatch, inventor of the first implantable cardiac pacemaker.
Mothers of Invention: From the Bra to the Bomb: Forgotten Women and Their Unforgettable Ideas by Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Ptacek. New York: Morrow, 1988. ISBN: 0688064647.
Focus on women inventors or women whose ideas were stolen by men. Covers all time periods, although many 20th-century inventors are represented.
Popular Patents: America’s First Inventions from the Airplane to the Zipper by Travis Brown. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2000. ISBN: 1578860105.
Contains more than eighty stories of America’s first inventions, among them the adding machine, bottle cap, helicopter, and submarine. Each chapter includes a sketch of the invention, a profile of the inventor, and a fascinating glimpse of how that particular invention has found its way into American culture.
Web Sites
The American Experience: Technology
Profiles major technological advances in American. Also publishes a technology time line and information about forgotten inventors and their inventions.
How Stuff Works
Explains in simple words how things work. Search or browse by these topics: computers, electronics, automobiles, science, home, entertainment, health, money, travel, and people.
Inventors
This site provides a wide range of information about famous inventors and inventions arranged in alphabetical orders, computer inventions, a time line and inventions of the industrial revolution. Also lists women, black, and kid inventors.
The Official Rube Goldberg Web Site
Best known for his invention cartoons, which use a string of outlandish tools, people, plants, and steps to accomplish everyday simple tasks in the most complicated way.
Time Magazine’s Coolest Inventions
Includes the coolest inventions in the categories of music and fashion, health and safety, gadgets and robots, transportation, extreme sports, and light and dark.
Organizations
Lemelson-MIT Program
A program that is dedicated to honoring inventors and encouraging tomorrow’s great inventors. Web site Includes inventors of the week and the Inventor’s Handbook, a worthwhile resource for budding inventors.
The National Inventors Hall of Fame
The National Inventors Hall of Fame honors the women and men responsible for the great technological advances that make human, social, and economic progress possible. Provides brief synopsis on their lives and inventions.
United States Patent and Trademark Office
and
Provides a searchable database of inventions patented back to 1790. Kids’ pages include frequently asked questions, scavenger hunts, and games.
Subject Headings
•inventions—history—18th century
•inventions—history—19th century
•inventions—United States—history—20th century
•inventors—United States—biography
•inventrices
•technology—history—18th century
•technology—history—19th century
•women inventors