Casual browsers will come away mightily amused; would-be inventors will find here fresh inspiration, as well as...
From “Smell-O-Vision” to a motorized pogo stick and an edible smartphone case, this romp through Patent Office records is a hilarious tribute to misapplied ingenuity.
“The world is bursting with ideas,” Rhatigan observes. “Unfortunately, not all of these ideas are good.” In support, he digs up dozens of unlikely proposals—some of which, like Henry Ford’s early Quadricycle and Thomas Edison’s Talking Doll, were harbingers of truly world-changing innovations. Most, though, like the Reid Flying Submarine, 19th-century rocking bathtubs, a suggestive party-game version of cup-and-ball played at waist level and the aforementioned movie theater “Smell-O-Vision” (and a competing technology, “AromaRama”) never got off the ground due to obvious design flaws, expense or just inadequate marketing. Still, all were concocted in a spirit of enterprise, and by way of a hat tip, the author names nearly all of their inventors, renowned or otherwise. Owsley’s cartoon visualizations of selected inventions in action join original patent drawings and occasional photos to provide comical commentary as much as to clarify physical and functional details.
Casual browsers will come away mightily amused; would-be inventors will find here fresh inspiration, as well as encouragement to give their own wildest ideas a try. (resource list, subject and inventor indexes) (Nonfiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Feb. 10, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62354-024-1
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Charlesbridge
Review Posted Online: Nov. 17, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
This glossy, colorful title in the “I Want To Be” series has visual appeal but poor organization and a fuzzy focus, which limits its usefulness. Each double-paged layout introduces a new topic with six to eight full-color photographs and a single column of text. Topics include types of environmentalists, eco-issues, waste renewal, education, High School of Environmental Studies, environmental vocabulary, history of environmentalism, famous environmentalists, and the return of the eagle. Often the photographs have little to do with the text or are marginal to the topic. For example, a typical layout called “Some Alternative Solutions” has five snapshots superimposed on a double-page photograph of a California wind farm. The text discusses ways to develop alternative forms of energy and “encourage environmentally friendly lifestyles.” Photos include “a healer who treats a patient with alternative therapy using sound and massage,” and “the Castle,” a house built of “used tires and aluminum cans.” Elsewhere, “Did You Know . . . ” shows a dramatic photo of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, but the text provides odd facts such as “ . . . that in Saudi Arabia there are solar-powered pay phones in the desert?” Some sections seem stuck in, a two-page piece on the effects of “El Niño” or 50 postage-stamp–sized photos of endangered species. The author concludes with places to write for more information and a list of photo credits. Pretty, but little here to warrant purchase. (Nonfiction. 9-11)
Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-15-201862-X
Page Count: 48
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2000
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
In this companion to Portraits of War: Civil War Photographers and Their Work (1998), Sullivan presents an album of the prominent ships and men who fought on both sides, matched to an engrossing account of the war's progress: at sea, on the Mississippi, and along the South's well-defended coastline. In his view, the issue never was in doubt, for though the Confederacy fought back with innovative ironclads, sleek blockade runners, well-armed commerce raiders, and sturdy fortifications, from the earliest stages the North was able to seal off, and then take, one major southern port after another. The photos, many of which were made from fragile glass plates whose survival seems near-miraculous, are drawn from private as well as public collections, and some have never been published before. There aren't any action shots, since mid-19th-century photography required very long exposure times, but the author compensates with contemporary prints, plus crisp battle accounts, lucid strategic overviews, and descriptions of the technological developments that, by war's end, gave this country a world-class navy. He also profiles the careers of Matthew Brady and several less well-known photographers, adding another level of interest to a multi-stranded survey. (source notes, index) (Nonfiction. 10-13)
Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-7613-1553-5
Page Count: 80
Publisher: Twenty-First Century/Millbrook
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2001
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