American Inventors and Innovators Home Page
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Date Published: December 17, 2024
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Inventors' Bibliography
Individual American Inventors and Innovators
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The Life of Robert Fulton and a History of Steam Navigation is really two books combined into one: through the first eight chapters—169 pages, it is a biography of Robert Fulton with insights into his miscellaneous inventions and contributions to steam navigation; the last fourteen chapters—328 pages, are a history of steam navigation through the late 1800’s.
A wonderful read on the life of Robert Fulton, and some amazing images of steam-driven inventions from the 19th Century. Select the link above of the image to the right to read the full review. |
Front Cover of
"The Life of Robert Fulton" |
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Although his inventions did provide great benefits to mankind, the life of Charles Goodyear who produced this marvel is not an example of an individual we should put in front of “every school boy in the land.” He was an inventor of the nature of Edison—trial and error were his way forward, but unlike Edison he never learned how to be an industrialist—put his invention into profitable practice for the benefit of mankind.
Just as the world needs inventors, it needs industrialists that put those inventions into profitable production. Otherwise, an invention is just a patent—a collection of charts, graphs, pictures, or ideas—like a piece of rubber—without practical usage in the world. In the case of Edison, the qualities of an inventor and an industrialist were in one individual. Select the link above of the image to the right to read the full review. |
Front cover of
"Trials of an Inventor" |