Take a look around you and try to count the number of inventions you see. Everything from the light you're using to read this book to the machines used to create this book was invented by someone who saw a problem and found a creative way to solve it. That's what inventions are: solutions to problems. Some of these solutions have changed the world in fascinating ways. Before lightbulbs, people went to bed when it got dark outside. (There was nothing else to do.) Before the printing press, only a very few people had access to books. The very best inventions make you wonder how people ever lived without them. There are a lot of great books about these incredible inventions and the fascinating people who made them. But this book has something else on its mind: What about the inventions that didn't change the world? The world is bursting with ideas. Unfortunately, not all of these ideas are good. For every amazing invention, there are thousands that are never produced, arrive too soon or too late to be of any use, or simply don't work. Some are too impractical, silly, or unwieldy. Others may be the next big thing . . . someday. In many ways, these flops can be just as fascinating as lightbulbs, cars, computers, and smartphones. Wacky, weird, wonderful, or just plain wrong, these are the inventions included in this book. In some sense, you can say this book is about failure, but it's a kind of failure worth celebrating. The human race can't move forward without trying and sometimes not succeeding. Without these inventions that didn't work out, we probably wouldn't have the ones that did. So this book celebrates the flops and also-rans--the inventions that could have changed the world, should have made a difference, or would have astounded us all, but for one reason or another didn't. Excerpted from Inventions That Could Have Changed the World... But Didn't! by Joe Rhatigan, Anthony Owsley All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
