A History of Inventions for Simple Machines: The Story of Inventions

The Story of Inventions

by Michael J. McHugh and Frank P. Bachman

This book is listed as optional further reading for Mater Amabilis™  Level 3 Year 2 Science. First Son didn't read it, but I had found it at a library sale and picked it up. This year, I assigned it to First Daughter as she completed Simple Machines with Fantastic Physics at Wildflowers and Marbles. I thought it would be a good complement, adding some historical context and personal stories. I did not read it ahead of time, instead reading each chapter the weekend before she did.

In the chapter covering the invention of spinning machines, the authors showed remarkably little compassion for all the skilled workers employed in handwork who lost their livelihood when the spinning machine became more common.

In time, the spinners learned that he had a wonderful spinning machine with which one person could do as much work as a dozen people with spinning wheels. People at that time were not used to machines. It was the age of handwork; they had not yet learned that machines in the end create more employment and better wages. They only saw that the invention would lessen the number of spinners needed, and would deprive them of work.

Of course, it did! Those people either developed new skills or lost their income. I would have preferred a more nuanced discussion of how new technologies change the employment landscape and how inventors and employers should attempt to consider how to provide people with meaningful work that will enable people to care for their families.

The chapter on Eli Whitney was also a little disconcerting. He is criticized in the text for making his invention so expensive (which was perhaps not a good business decision) but it makes it seem like those who were breaking the law were justified in copying his invention. Sometimes that's true, but these are not people starving; they are generally plantation owners who used slaves to grow and harvest their cotton. From Sea to Shining Sea even suggests it was this invention that "saved" slavery from dying out, making it profitable. The whole chapter seemed to justify the kinds of actions we see many large agricultural companies making today which often harm the environment and the people who depend on it.

At the end of chapter eight, the authors again expounds on the economic benefits of enormous agricultural implements.

Chiefly because of the reaper, the amount of wheat produced in the world has increased by leaps and bounds. It now amounts to several billions of bushels a year. To handle this enormous crop, great elevators are built along railroads, at railroad centers, and at seaports. To grind this wheat, thousands of flour mills have been built, some of which are so large that a single mill grinds seventeen thousand barrels of flour in twenty-four hours. Even the making of reapers became a great industry. One harvester company alone gives regular employment to an army of twenty-five thousand men and women.

I think I've read too much Wendell Berry to feel comfortable with the authors' assessment. Vast debts and the collapse of the family farm don't seem to compensate for the benefits described. Of course, the industry continues to evolve; my cousin who runs a grain elevator knows it will simply close when he wants to retire because they don't fulfill the same purpose today.

Thank God that Cyrus McCormick had the freedom to "do the impossible!" The United States will remain strong as long as people have the opportunity to freely produce new goods and services.

There wasn't anything earlier in the chapter about previous would-be inventors of the reaper being prevented by a lack of freedom. It did say in England there wasn't as much demand for one because the fields were smaller and rougher (so a mechanical reaper wouldn't work as well) and labor was cheap and plentiful.

My daughter thought the Gutenberg chapter and those that followed, until closer to modern times, were more interesting. I agree, and thought they were more palatable to my personal taste.

The chapter on computers, of course, was woefully meager, as expected with a 1992 copyright. Computers are "so small that they can fit into a briefcase." As I read, there was a paragraph that warned that "ungodly men have been using the computer for evil purposes." I mentally prepared myself for a warning against pornography, but instead found grocery stores encouraging the use of credit cards and using UPC codes to track all our purchases. Privacy is certainly a concern, but I could name a few dangers more worrisome.

Overall, I was not impressed with this particular book. I do think a book on inventions would be a good complement for the fifth grade physics study and doubt there's another book that covers the history of inventions in a pleasant story. I know of a few biographies of inventors I might assign instead.

• The Story of Thomas Alva Edison by Margaret Cousins - We have this and First Daughter has read it because it was on our schedule for Connecting with History, but I haven't read it myself.
• The Wright Brothers: Pioneers of American Aviation by Quentin Reynolds - This one I've read and enjoyed it myself. First Daughter has already read it as well.
• RC History recommends The Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane by Russell Freedman, which I haven't read yet.
• I'm also considering Girls Think of Everything: Stories of Ingenious Inventions by Women by Catherine Thimmeah. I haven't read it yet myself. In theory it seems appropriate, but I find the illustrations and design of the book a little overwhelming.
• I also found The First Book of Machines by Walter Buehr. It's a reprint of a 1962 text, but might be worth trying.

I'm open to other ideas, so share any books you've read that might work!

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Innovations and Consequences: Fifty Inventions that Shaped the Modern Economy

Fifty Inventions that Shaped the Modern Economy

by Tim Harford

This book caught my eye in our library catalog and so I managed to read a book the same year it was published. This is a pretty easy book to read in small snippets and, while thought-provoking at times, isn't the kind of complicated book that requires reading before children are awake or after they've gone to bed. It explores sometimes surprising effects of inventions most of us take for granted today.

But we shouldn't fall into the trap of assuming that inventions are nothing but solutions. They're much more than that. Inventions shape our lives in unpredictable ways--and while they're solving a problem for someone, they're often creating a problem for someone else.

Unfortunately, those problems often seem to fall disproportionately on the poor.

The selected fifty inventions are grouped into broad categories: Winners and Losers (like barbed wire), Reinventing How We Live (like the birth control pill), Inventing New Systems (like the bar code), Ideas About Ideas (like double-entry bookkeeping), Where Do Inventions Come From? (like chemical fertilizer), The Visible Hand (like antibiotics in farming), and Inventing the Wheel (like paper money).

Each short chapter presents the story of an invention and an exploration of the myriad ways it has spread its influence through our current global economy. Some of these inventions were ones I hadn't much considered, like property registers. The author also points out how these inventions or their repercussions impact problems we still see in the world like trade deficits and developing countries (in an already developed world).

It's reasonable to assume that future inventions will deliver a similar pattern: broadly, they will solve problems and make us richer and healthier, but the gains will be uneven and there will be blunders and missed opportunities.

Overall, this was a fascinating read and quite enjoyable, even if I don't agree with all the author's assertions. I did appreciate the extensive endnotes. I also added a whole slew of notations in my Book of Centuries.