FYET 102A - FYS: Intro to Tech & Innov (multiple sections

What would our world today be like without inventions like tarmac, aspirin, liquid crystals, and barbed wire? This guide shows how patents and the inventions they describe have shaped the 21st century. It gives us insights into the inventions, big and small, that have had huge impacts, many unexpected, on multiple spheres of our lives, from popular culture and entertainment, to global health, to transportation, to the waging of war. It features patent documents that date from the mid-19th century to the present. Patent documents describe inventions and represent an accurate and rich source of information about the history and current state of modern technology, as patents are examined and their accuracy can be challenged. The subject matter covers many technical areas. Patents discussed include, for example, Morse code, the diode, triode, transistors, television, frozen foods, ring-pull for soft drink cans, board games such as Monopoly, gene editing, metamaterials, MRI, computerised tomography, insulin, and monoclonal antibodies such as Herceptin. The text is illustrated with drawings adapted from the original patent documents. Patent numbers are included to allow interested readers to trace the documents. Inventions described in the patents are placed in historical perspective.

For example, the book discusses the role of the cavity magnetron and radar in World War II, and the influence of the diode on the development of broadcasting at the beginning of the 20th century.

For the curious and the creators, Ingenious Patents tells the fascinating history of the inventors and their creations that have changed our world. Discover some of the most innovative of the 6.5 million patents that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has granted since Thomas Jefferson issued the first one in 1790. Revised and reformatted from the original 2004 edition, Ingenious Patents presents each device along with background about the inventor, interesting sidebars and history, and an excerpt from the original patent application. Author Jay Bennet has also written 15 new entries, everything from iPhones to 3G wireless to CRISPR gene editing. Liberally sprinkled throughout are patent diagrams created by the inventors annotated to show exactly how each item works. Entries include creative commercial successes in fields as diverse as medicine, aeronautics, computing, agriculture, and consumer goods. Readers are certain to find a topic of interest here, whether it is the history behind the patent for a Pez dispenser, cathode ray tube, kitty litter, DNA fingerprinting, or the design of a Fender Stratocaster guitar.

See Chapter 1 and the Chronology of the Atomic Age