Great Inventors and their Inventions

short book. good read to figure out if i wanted to further explore the lives of a few inventors.

I am using this book as part of my homeschool 6th grade science curriculum. This stories in this book give the student an introduction to the lives of several great inventors. I love this book because there is enough information within the stories to give the student a really good understanding of certain concepts (like creating a vacuum seal), but not so much information that it is overwhelming. While there are no specific experimental activities mentioned in this book, I believe that it is written in a way in which children and adults can easily apply some of the scientific concepts to everyday living. For example, the first chapter is about the creation of the steam engine, but after reading the text, my son was able to understand that he could create his very own vacuum in a bottle if he placed hot water in the bottle, sealed it, then placed it in a bowl of ice cold water. I love how he watched patiently for the bottle to begin to pull inward. This book is well written and to be honest, as a science lover, it is a book that I would read even if I weren't using it as part of my son's science curriculum!

At first, I thought this book would be a boring history book, but to my surprise, I actually liked the book! There were some uninteresting parts, but most of the time it was ok. Sometimes there were pictures of the inventions that were being talked about. I also liked the fact it talked about different people.

On the Ambleside online reading list. Some of the books are a battle to get my son to stick with. This one based on the cover, he wasn't interested in... so I read the first half a chapter to him and then he was hooked.

This publisher needs better quality control, this and another book by the same publisher has this same issue where sometimes the pictures will cover paragraphs! Get another version if you can, because these still have kinks to work out. Very disappointed as these are supposed to be school books for my kids.

It is a wonderful book about how we are so blessed with the modern conveniences we have. The information on how things in and outside ours homes have shaped our lives. The book was well priced and I recommend to anyone interested in great inventions.

Great book that gave me enough information on the person of interests to base my report and presentation for school. Highly entertaining read!

Nice concise chapters on each inventor. Good overview.

My nine-year old daughter and I recently read through this book together for her homeschool lessons, and we both quite enjoyed it.This book, published by Yesterday's Classics, was originally published by the American Book Company in 1918. So, you won't find stories of the invention of modern items like television or computers, but rather inventions that changed the world in the 1700's and 1800's, such as the steam engine, the locomotive, the sewing machine, the telegraph, the telephone, etc. You will also find well-written and inspiring stories of the lives of men who struggled to bring their inventions to the world. The author, Frank Backman, focused as much on the toils and perseverance of the inventors, on their personal lives, as he did on the actual scientific explanations of the inventions themselves. The overall message of the book is that nothing good comes without a great deal of hard work.So, although being an old book it will need a little bit of editing here and there while reading aloud--and although sometimes the scientific explanations of the workings of machines is a little hard to visualize--overall I think it is an excellent book to share with my children. It's intelligently written (definitely of a higher literary quality than many science books out there for kids today) and as I previously mentioned, inspiring.