Inventing the 19th Century Author:Stephen Van Dulken Praise for Inventing the 20th Century: "Remarkable . . . get the book for yourself. It'll hold you for many hours." -Wall Street Journal "A fascinating compendium for trivia seekers." -Publishers Weekly "Highly entertaining.... In addition to being able to tell a good story, Van Dulken . . . easily assembles complex ideas from c... more »hemistry and engineering and make them palatable for the lay person. Van Dulken has assembled a panoramic snapshot of the century. By giving us a picture of our past, Van Dulken also presents our future." -Boston Globe Dishwashers, electric light bulbs, gramophones, motion picture cameras, radios, roller skates, typewriters. While these inventions seem to speak of the 20th century, they all in fact date from the 19th century. The Victorian age (1837-1901) was a period of enormous technological progress in communications, transport and many other areas of life. Illustrated by the original patent drawing from The British Library's extensive collection, this attractive book chronicles the history of the 100 most important, innovative and memorable inventions of the 19th century. The vivid picture of the Victorian age unfolds as inventions from the ground-breaking-such as aspirin, dynamite, and the telephone-to the everyday-like blue jeans and tiddlywinks-are revealed decade by decade. Together they provide a vivid picture of Victorian life. Along with informative descriptions of how the inventions and their patenting came about, the lives of the inventors and their circumstances provide entertaining insights into this world. For example, Almon Strowger invented the automatic telephone exchange as he was convinced that telephone operators were giving his business to a rival firm of undertakers. The Ritty brothers designed a cash register to prevent the bartenders they employed from cheating them. And Adalbert Kwiatkowski, among many Victorians preoccupied with the risk of premature burial, invented a coffin that would sound an alarm upon the slightest movement of an apparently dead body. This follow-up volume to Stephen van Dulken's acclaimed -Inventing the 20th Century- will be compelling reading to anyone interested in inventors and the "age of machines." From the cash register to the safety pin, from the machine gun to the pocket protector, and from lawn tennis to the light bulb, Inventing the 19th Century is a fascinating, illustrative window on to the Victorian Age.« less