The Tinkerers: The Amateurs, DIYers, and Inventors Who Make America Great
The word tinkerer has migrated far from its original definition as a repairer of utensils. In Foege’s formulation, being a tinkerer is as much a state of mind––creative, obsessive, and unorthodox––as being someone who fixes or improves gizmos. Imagining a better gizmo is the tinkerer’s hallmark, and the gizmo in Foege’s demonstrations can be a device, methods of production, interstate highways, financial derivatives, even music. Individuals historical and contemporary furnish facts for Foege’s search for what constitutes tinkering, which he feels is, to America’s economic detriment, in decline and ought to be revived. Via journalistic portraits, including one of tinkerer nonpareil Thomas Edison, Foege extracts traits that cultivate tinkering. Foege’s positive examples include the inventor of the Segway pedestrian vehicle, Dean Kamen, and the more famous Steve Jobs, both of whom characterize Foege’s idea of the tinkerer as someone who doesn’t take to formal education and creates gadgets and, more important, organizations that promote a tinkering spirit. (Ironically, Edison serves Foege as a negative example because of Edison’s failure to commercialize his phonograph.) A lively exploration for those interested in technological innovation. --Gilbert Taylor