Inventions That Didn't Change the World

Inventions that didn't change the world was a curious and good reading. You can see all the past attempts of technologies that never were. Some of them could be interesting is developed but others were just silly, useless (according to our current expectations, of course), a waste of time and money if they ever had been materialized. Also it was interesting to see how the advancements of science at those times (19th century) were conceived. I would say that the difficult in many of the proposed inventions could be precisely because the "inventors" of many of them didn't still have the technical requirements to fulfill them, both, in the design but also in the way that design would work (the lack of motored movement), for example. Another thing that I liked about the book is that is a good and esthetic design, hardcover with golden embroidered letters, something that is very rare with most books these days. So for everyone interested in past technology, inventions that never were, this is a highly recommended book. Thanks

Bought as a gift for an engineer grad student. He seemed to like it, at least I have seen him reading it, which is better than most things I get people that never get used.

Very well framed discussion and presentation. I'm a serious inventor and teach product design and entrepreneurship. The author's point of view is rarely heard and very well pursued by her.Amost enjoyable read - cover to cover.

Lots of detail but not presented in an interesting fashion

Very intersting book--especially for someone like me with a background in both science and psychology. A good 'read.'

Very dull unless you are into blueprints. No interesting stories which is more what i was looking for. Exceptionally dense.

Very good book and sits on a coffee table for all to enjoy

Very good.

Disappointing, fascinating read let down by poor illustrations, and the selection of inventions are .... ummm... tardy at best, still a pleasant enough read, looks good on the bookshelf as well, just in case anyone ever comes round, am pretty sure they will glance at this books spine and think, ahaha, an inquisitive mind, and such a nice shade of green.... Not sure what else I can say, yep, it's ok....

Extremely well written with excellent details of inventions that never quite made the headlines; an excellent Christmas or birthday present.

Some truly bizarre stuff in here and several that did make it into common use and a few that made it into modern use. But could do with more explanations of the illustrations.

Book full of drawings and specs of weird and wonderful Victorian inventions. With my eyesight have some problems with reading specs, which are in original handwriting - would have been helpful to have typewritten transcript.

Really interesting and pretty funny book! So good to look through at some of the inventions we came up with.. And some of them may actually be pretty good in this day and age!