House of Invention: The Extraordinary Evolution of Everyday Objects

David Lindsay tours the typical American home, stopping in each room to examine the most taken-for-granted objects, and finds incredible stories behind even the most-overlooked items. In perhaps the most ignored room, the bathroom, he finds that Thomas Crapper did not in fact invent the flushable toilet, even though we've adopted both a verb and a noun from his name; that toothpaste, thankfully, finally replaced urine as a cleanser; that the inventor of Vaseline ate a spoonful of the stuff every day; and that (oddly) Germany ceded the brand name aspirin to the Allies as reparations for World War I.In the foyer we find the histories of the intercom and mailbox; in the kitchen we learn that the microwave oven came about because a chocolate bar melted in Percy Spencer's pocket as he walked by radar equipment. The office yields the mysteries behind pencils and ballpoint pens; Scotch tape and Post-its; and why the typewriter keyboard is organized as it is (hint: type the word typewriter). In the garage we rejoice over the genius of the standard screw thread, in the den we play with the Yo-Yo, and in the bedroom we unravel blue jeans, zippers, brassieres, and even condoms (first conceived by Gabriele Fallopia, he of the well-known-tubes fame). From the exploits of Clarence Birdseye (frozen food) to the ambitious schemes of Peter Cooper (gelatin dessert), from the absurdity of the Slinky to the complexity of the exercise machine, here are the most fascinating stories in the obsessive history of invention.

• Author
• Dave Lindsay

• Format
• hardcover

• Pages
• 196

• Publisher
• The Lyons Press

• Language
• english

• ISBN
• 9781558217409

• Genres
• science, history

• Release date
• 2000