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TURNING POINT INVENTIONS: CAMERA (Turning Point Inventions)

Joseph Wallace

Before the camera, there was no easy and quick way to record a memorable scene or a person's likeness. Then, in 1827, Joseph Nicéphore Niepce took the world's first photograph. Louis Jacques Mand&233; Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot soon developed their own methods for creating photographs, but a good deal of expertise, time, and money were needed to work with the bulky and awkward materials used in early photography. In 1888, George Eastman invented the first Kodak camera with film already loaded into it, making photography widely available to the public. Eastman soon invented roll film that could be removed from the camera by the photographer and replaced with a fresh roll, much as we do with most cameras today. Digital cameras now use computer technology rather than film to capture images, allowing even the amateur to modify and print photographs, and to E-mail them anywhere in the world in an instant.
Turning Point Inventions is the first series of books to focus on the important inventions we often take for granted and how they have affected our lives. In lively text and fascinating pictures, these books explore the world before the invention; the life of the inventor and how he or she came upon the discovery; how the world was changed by the invention; and how it may influence our future. A special full-color foldout in each book shows in detail how the invention works.
TURNING POINT INVENTIONS: TELEPHONE (Turning Point Inventions)

Sarah Gearhart

"Mr. Watson -- Come here -- I want to see you." These words, spoken by inventor Alexander Graham Bell to his assistant Thomas Watson on March 10, 1876, were the first to be transmitted over the new invention called the telephone. Before the end of the year, Bell and Watson had the first two-way conversation over the telephone, and by the summer of 1877 the new Bell Telephone Company in Massachusetts had its first two hundred customers.
The telephone revolutionized long-distance communication by allowing people to speak with each other quickly, clearly, and affordably. Today, you can send and receive information from virtually anywhere using a wireless telephone, faxes, or E-mail, thanks to Bell's invention of the telephone.
Turning Point Inventions is the first series of books to focus on the important inventions we often take for granted and how they have affected our lives. In lively text and fascinating pictures, these books explore the world before the invention; the life of the inventor and how he or she came upon the discovery; how the world was changed by the invention; and how it may influence our future. A special full-color foldout in each book shows in detail how the invention works.
Turning Point Inventions Clock (Turning Point Inventions)

Trent Duffy

Today, surrounded as we are by clocks and watches, it is hard to imagine life without an exact method of timekeeping. Until the mechanical clock was invented and improved, people had a less precise sense of the passage of time, based largely on the movement of the sun across the sky and measured with sundials, sandglasses, and other simple devices. It wasn't until the eighteenth century that John Harrison invented a truly reliable clock. Harrison's final invention, H-4, was the first accurate and portable mainspring clock. Meanwhile, stationary timekeepers such as longcase (or grandfather) clocks, table clocks, and large public clocks had become accurate to within seconds, allowing people to structure their lives according to the exact minute. Electric, quartz, and atomic clocks and watches have since allowed ever more perfect timekeeping.
Turning Point Inventions is the first series of books to focus on the important inventions we often take for granted and how they have affected our lives. In lively text and fascinating pictures, these books explore the world before the invention; the life of the inventor and how he or she came upon the discovery; how the world was changed by the invention; and how it may influence our future. A special full-color foldout in each book shows in detail how the invention works.
The Invention of the Silicon Chip (Turning Points in History)

Windsor Chorlton

An examination of the invention of the silicon chip, a major historical watershed. It recounts the chain of events leading up to this event, and the repercussions, both immediate and long-term. It also evaluates the concept of a turning point, assessing in what way this event really was one. The volume is designed to be thought-provoking, but its approach is direct and seeks to embrace the views of ordinary people. It ties in with the National Curriculum and features photographs, reproductions of source materials, eyewitness boxes, and a glossary and index.
Turning Point Inventions: The Lightbulb (Turning Point Inventions)

Joseph Wallace

When Thomas Alva Edison was a boy, he couldn't just flick a switch to turn on the light if he wanted to finish reading a book after the sun had set. He grew up in a world where there was no dependable, safe, and inexpensive source of artificial light. Then, in 1879, he invented the lightbulb, and houses, shops, factories, schools, streets, ballparks -- every place you could think of, indoors and out -- could at last be easily illuminated after dark. By turning night into day, the lightbulb changed the world.
Turning Point Inventions is the first series of books to focus on the important inventions we often take for granted and how they have affected our lives. In lively text and fascinating pictures, these books explore the world before the invention; the life of the inventor and how he or she came upon the discovery; how the world was changed by the invention; and how it may influence our future. A special full-color foldout in each book shows in detail how the invention works.