First How Things Work Encyclopedia: A First Reference Guide for Inquisitive Minds

Book Preface

Inventions

Any new idea or product that  has been created by a person  can be called an invention.  Inventions change the way  people live their lives—they  can make things safer, easier,  faster, or cheaper.

Accidental ideas Inventions can  happen by accident.  When chemist John  Wesley Hyatt was  trying to find a  material for billiard  balls, he spilled a  liquid that dried into  a tough, flexible film.  This “celluloid”  was later used as  camera film.

Knowing your stuff
Technology is the science of how things work. The  inventors of the shoes shown in this drawing knew  that a coiled spring is a source of stored energy.
They used this technology to make power shoes.
Expensive origins Some of the things  in everyday use were  developed for space  programs. Smoke  detectors, for example,  were first used on the  Skylab space station.  When was the first pair of shoes invented? Electric lightbulb Eyeglasses Cathode  ray tube Faraday’s  induction ring Telephone Refractometer Wheel Technology “Discovery consists of … thinking what nobody else has thought.” seeing what everybody has seen an

Inventors
Inventors are creative  people. The Italian  artist and scientist  Leonardo da Vinci  was an avid inventor.  He designed hundreds  of machines, including  airplanes, pumps,  and cannons, that  were centuries ahead  of their time.

How long does an  invention take? An invention has to begin with an  idea. It can sometimes take hundreds  of years before the science, technology,  or materials are advanced enough  to make the idea work. The idea for  a helicopter may have come from
China as far back as 400 bce.