Examines some of the greatest, most transformative inventions in the history of mankind and the inventors behind them, including Leonardo da Vinci's helicopter and parachute designs, James Watt's steam engine, and Tim Berners-Lee's invention of the World Wide Web.

Includes index.

Great inventions : where and when -- Marvelous machines : Archimedes -- Detecting earthquakes : Zhang Heng -- Mechanical wonders : Al-Jazari -- Designs ahead of his time : Leonardo da Vinci -- The first printing press : Johannes Gutenberg -- Race to invent the telephone : Alexander Graham Bell and Elisha Gray -- The birth of the movies : Louis and Auguste Lumière -- Radio across the ocean : Guglielmo Marconi -- Experiments in television : John Logie Baird -- Codes and computer science : Alan Turing -- The arrival of the Internet : Tim Berners-Lee -- A revolution in steam power : James Watt -- Lighting up the world : Thomas Edison -- The incredible Tesla coil : Nikola Tesla -- Manufacturing Kevlar : Stephanie Kwolek -- Birth of the motor car : Karl and Bertha Benz -- Humans take to the air : Wilbur and Orville Wright -- The first working telescope : Hans Lippershey -- Listening to space : Karl Jansky -- Building space rockets : Wernher von Braun -- Inspiring inventions : other bright ideas.