Description
Book SynopsisThis book presents a sample of twelve spectacular flops encompassing the past three centuries-ranging from the world's first automobile to the nuclear-powered bomber. 49 illustrations.
Trade Review“The reader of this work will no doubt greatly benefit from Schiffer's voluminous knowledge regarding electrical and mechanical devices. Through excellent illustrations and careful explanatory text, Schiffer succeeds in describing the intricacies of steam engines, jet turbines and nuclear power (in addition to other technologies). . . . Schiffer does an outstanding job explaining the technology to the layperson reader. Readers who enjoy learning about the history of technology initiatives will thoroughly enjoy Spectacular Flops”. Howard Schneider, Business History Review, v95 n1 (2021)
". . . interesting stories, ideal for inserting into a class lecture, but also excellent examples of the many ways technologies fail. . . . Schiffer provides a very useful theoretical framework for exploring the lives of technologies both successful and unsuccessful." Jonathan Coopersmith, Technology and Culture
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Understanding Technological Failures
Secret Project: Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot and the First Automobile
Too Little, Too Late: The Atmospheric Railway
Putting Electromagnetism to Work
Audacious Engineer: Isambard Kingdom Brunel and the Great Eastern Steamship
Ferdinand de Lesseps' Panama Canal
Crackpot Invention? Nikola Tesla's World System
Visionary Inventor: R. Buckminster Fuller's Dymaxion World
The Nuclear-Powered Bomber
Domesticating the Bomb: "Geographical Engineering" and Project Chariot
Chrysler's Turbojet-Powered Automobile
The Concorde: Supersonic Airliner
Fusion, Hot and Cold
Conclusion: Several Limited Generalizations
References
Index
