"From codes and signals to social media, communication inventions advance the ways we interact with one another. Humorous text follows these inventions throughout history, showing how one invention often led to another--or how some inventions didn't turn out so well."--

Printing words in books originated in China with the invention of movable type. But books aren't the only way we've communicated throughout history. Find out who invented the first radio, which complicated code took 267 years to crack, and how cloth weaving inspired computer programs. Fact-packed text and fun illustrations reveal wacky inventions (a machine that translates your dog's barks!) and wayward predictions (the Internet was supposed to collapse in 1996). Learn more about the methods and machines people have used to communicate—from cave paintings and the earliest written alphabets to TVs and computers.

Presents information about the inventions that have enabled people to see everything from distant stars to tiny cells.

Tin cans were first produced in London in 1813. But they had to be opened with a hammer and chisel, because the can opener wasn't invented until 1855! Check out other amazing engineering innovations, such as a popular soft drink originally sold as a "brain tonic," an 18th-century battery called a voltaic pile, and a design from 1596 for the first flushing toilet. Fact-packed text and fun illustrations reveal clever discoveries that changed the world--and weird ideas that didn't (like Nikola Tesla's earthquake machine or Thomas Edison's giant singing dolls). Learn how wonders of engineering have helped us improve our lives--from growing food to powering machinery.

"From early engines to powerful spacecraft, transportation inventions keep moving society forward. Humorous text follows these inventions throughout history, showing how one invention often led to another--or how some inventions didn't turn out so well"--Provided by publisher.

Takes young readers inside the lives and minds of the greatest inventors in history Genius! tells the stories behind the amazing inventions that helped shape our modern world. Young readers are introduced to the technologies developed by thinkers and inventors such as Archimedes, Leonardo da Vinci, Gutenberg, James Watt, the Wright brothers, and Tim Berners-Lee, and the creativity and determination behind their discoveries. The book is divided into five key thematic sections: Pioneers, Communication, Technology, Transport, and Into Space. Read about how the innovators who brought us today’s world of communications, the Internet, fast travel, space exploration, and entertainment faced challenges and dangers as they dared to create new machines and technologies. Combining lively, entertaining stories with well-illustrated information on the inventions and their implications, as well as an activities section with mini-experiments for the budding inventor, Genius! brings all the excitement of scientific invention alive for children growing up in an increasingly technology-oriented world.

Explores the life of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of numerous devices, including the telephone.