Inventive Minds
Creativity in Technology
Published on 4. March 1993
Book
Hardback
368 pages
978-0-19-507170-2 (ISBN)
Description
Is invention really "99 percent perspiration and one percent inspiration" as Thomas Edison assured us? Inventive Minds assembles a group of authors well equipped to address this question: contemporary inventors of important new technologies, historians of science and industry, and cognitive psychologists interested in the process of creativity. In telling their stories, the inventors describe the origins of such remarkable devices as ultrasound, the electron microscope, and artificial diamonds. The historians help us look into the minds of innovators like Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, Michael Faraday, and the Wright brothers, drawing on original notebooks and other sources to show how they made their key discoveries. Finally, cognitive psychologists explore the mental processes that figure in creative thinking.
Contributing to the authors' insight is their special focus on the "front end" of invention - where ideas come from and how they are transformed into physical prototypes. They answer three questions: How does invention happen? How does invention contrast with other commonly creative pursuits such as scientific inquiry, musical composition, or painting? And how might invention best happen - that is, what kinds of settings, conditions, and strategies appear to foster inventive activity? The book yields a wealth of information that will make absorbing reading for cognitive and social psychologists, social historians, and many working scientists and general readers who are interested in the psychology of personality and the roots of ingenuity.
Contributing to the authors' insight is their special focus on the "front end" of invention - where ideas come from and how they are transformed into physical prototypes. They answer three questions: How does invention happen? How does invention contrast with other commonly creative pursuits such as scientific inquiry, musical composition, or painting? And how might invention best happen - that is, what kinds of settings, conditions, and strategies appear to foster inventive activity? The book yields a wealth of information that will make absorbing reading for cognitive and social psychologists, social historians, and many working scientists and general readers who are interested in the psychology of personality and the roots of ingenuity.
Reviews / Votes
"Successful contemporary inventors, historians of science and industry, and cognitive psychologists explore the nature of creativity as it surfaces in technological innovation." --SciTech Book News"Weber and Perkins . . . assembled an impressive panel of historians, inventors, and psychologists who examine, in some detail, the work leading up to the development of various new technologies. . . . this book is well worth reading because it provides some important clues about the cognitive process used to solve technical problems." --Contemporary Psychology
"This is an excellent collection that brings together both work on innovation by people who study it and the reflections of those who have done it. It provoked several class discussions that went well beyond the material and into issues none of us had thought about."--Thomas Hewett, Drekel University
"Successful contemporary inventors, historians of science and industry, and cognitive psychologists explore the nature of creativity as it surfaces in technological innovation." --SciTech Book News
"Weber and Perkins . . . assembled an impressive panel of historians, inventors, and psychologists who examine, in some detail, the work leading up to the development of various new technologies. . . . this book is well worth reading because it provides some important clues about the cognitive process used to solve technical problems." --Contemporary Psychology
"This is an excellent collection that brings together both work on innovation by people who study it and the reflections of those who have done it. It provoked several class discussions that went well beyond the material and into issues none of us had thought about."--Thomas Hewett, Drekel University
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
halftones, line figures
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
741 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-507170-2 (9780195071702)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Content
Introduction: The Unphilosopher's stone; Part I: Setting the Stage: Robert Friedel: Perspiration in perspective: Changing perceptions of genius and expertise in American invention; Part II: Classic Inventors: Ryan D. Tweney: Inventing the Field: Michael Faraday and the creative "engineering" of electromagnetic field theory; W. Bernard Coulson & Michael E. Gorman: A cognitive framework to understand technological creativity: Bell, Edison, and the telephone; Tom D. Crouch: Why Wilbur and Orville? Some thoughts on the Wright brothers and the process of invention; Part III: Contemporary Inventors: James Hillier: Electron microscopy and microprobe analysis: Recalling the ambience of some inventions; John J. Wild: The origin of soft tissue ultrasonic echoing and early instrumental application to clinical medicine; James A. Teeri: The soil biotron: An underground research laboratory; Robert H. Wentorf: The synthesis of diamonds; Edward Rosinski: The origin and development of the first zeolite catalyst for petroleum cracking; Paul W. Morgan: Discovery and invention in polymer chemistry; William C. Campbell: The genesis of the antiparasitic drug Ivermectin; Part IV: The Logic of Invention: Robert J. Weber: Stone Age knife to Swiss army knife: An invention prototype; David N. Perkins: The topography of invention; Jacob Helfman: The analytic inventive thinking model; Part V: The Social Context of Inventions: David A. Hounshell: Invention in the Industrial Research Laboratory: Individual act or collective process? The case of the Pioneering Research Laboratory, Du Pont Fibers Department, 1928-1968; George Wise: Inventors and corporations in the maturing electrical industry; Donald J. Quigg: Technology on the move; Robert J. Weber & David N. Perkins: Effable invention; Conclusion; Biographical sketches; Index.