American Inventions: A History of Curious, Extraordinary, and Just Plain Useful Patents by Stephen Van Dulken, New York University Press, $26.95, ISBN 0814788130 (to be published in next month) Reviewed by Barry Fox
SEVEN million US patent have been filed since the American Constitution was agreed. Only a few thousand of these cover inventions that have changed the world, characterised the American dream or just make fun reading. To sift them out, distil often turgid text into a few pithy words and collate the results into a dozen seamless chapters may sound simple. Only someone who has worked with patents will understand the scale of the task. Stephen Van Dulken does work with patents, at the British Library, and has done the job for you in American Inventions. No one else need now do it.
Van Dulken has also added useful and entertaining background information on a few invention favourites, such as wide-screen cinema, breast implants, chewing gum and the Segway human transporter. The book is still rather too rich for a straight-through read, but it makes an excellent readable reference work. As such, American Inventions is condemned to be plundered and plagiarised.
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