Eureka: How Invention Happens

295 Pages·2015·3.14 MB·English

by  Gavin Weightman

EUREKA
i
ii
E U R E K A
HOW INVENTION HAPPENS
GAVIN WEIGHTMAN
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW HAVEN AND LONDON
iii
Copyright © 2015 Gavin Weightman
All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form
(beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law and
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Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Weightman, Gavin.
Eureka : how invention happens / Gavin Weightman.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-300-19208-7 (cloth : alkaline paper)
1. Inventions—History. 2. Discoveries in science—History. 3. Technological innovations—
History. 4. Creative ability in technology—History. 5. Inventors—Biography. I. Title.
T49.5.W45 2015
600—dc23
2015007461
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
iv
CONTENTS
Introduction vii
1 The Bird Men 1
2 Seeing with Electricity 54
3 Written in the Sand 109
4 Homebrewed 129
5 Hard Cell 186
Afterword: The Nature of Invention 241
Bibliography 247
Acknowledgements 252
Index 255
Picture Credits 265
v
1. Modern inventions are often anticipated long before the technology evolves to turn fantasy into
reality. This American trade card advertising a penknife dates from the 1890s when the wonders
of the telephone suggested that one day it would be possible to send pictures down a wire as well.
Television arrived sooner than anticipated: not a century later but less than thirty years.
2. One of the more ambitious designs in 1843 by the pioneer of aeronautics the Yorkshire baronet
Sir George Cayley. As the Wright brothers acknowledged Cayley had worked out the principles of
winged flight a century before they were able to take to the air in a powered flyer.
3. The only known photograph of Sir
George Cayley taken in 1844 when
he was 71. In the era of the hot air
balloon Cayley risked ridicule for his
conviction that heavier-than-air flight
was possible.
4. A dramatic photograph taken in 1894 of the German Otto Lilienthal preparing to launch himself
on one of his many experimental flights. It was the tragic death of this fearless pioneer aviator
that inspired the Wright brothers to continue with the quest to fly. They regarded Lilienthal as ‘a
great man’.
5. Lilienthal taking off in 1893 from a structure he built for his test flights. The following year he
created his famous Fliegerberg or Flyer’s Hill where he would entertain crowds and promote the
sport of gliding. He attempted to steer and keep his balance by swinging his legs and his body from
side to side but he never got real stability in the air.
6. Unique in the history of invention, a eureka moment captured on film. Orville Wright takes to
the air on the 17 December 1903 at Kitty Hawk on the remote coast of North Carolina. Orville’s
older brother Wilbur is alongside the powered flyer which was airborne for only a few seconds.
John T. Daniels, a ‘surfman’ from the nearby life-saving station took the picture.
7. The Wright brothers could not have become the first to fly without the help of the people
of Kitty Hawk. It was a letter from Bill Tate, who ran the Post Office with his wife Addie, that
convinced Wilbur Wright Kitty Hawk was the ideal testing ground. When Wilbur first arrived the
Tates put him up and fed him. Addie is seated with one of their daughters who had dresses made
from the wing cloth of an abandoned glider.
8. The Wright brothers on the
porch of their home in Dayton,
Ohio in 1909 when they were at
the height of their fame in both
America and Europe. Wilbur
(on the left) was four years older
than Orville but their father
described them as ‘like twins’. They
were always dapper dressers and
charming in company but neither
married and there is no record of
any relationship with women. Three
years after this photograph was
taken Wilbur died at the age of 45.