Twentieth-century inventors
By: Nathan Aaseng
Series: American profiles; American profiles (Facts on File, Inc.)
Publisher: Facts on File
Published: 1991
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 132
ISBN-13: 9780816024858
Subjects: Juvenile literature; Biography; Inventors
Other titles: 20th century inventors.
Description: Combines historical perspective with personal profiles of inventors to explain the events that influenced the development of such items as plastic, rockets, & television. Provides accounts of ten significant twentieth-century inventions and the people behind them, including the Wright brothers and their airplane, Robert Goddard and his rocket, and Gordon Gould and his laser. Each volume in the American Profiles series provides middle and high school students with concise information on eight to thirteen important and influential figures in a particular field of endeavor. Profiles are organized around a movement, event, or profession that has had a significant, lasting impact on American history and contemporary life. Essential biographical information is included for each figure, but the heart of each profile describes the critical achievements and contributions of the individual under consideration and assesses the subject's significance, not only in the context of the person's own lifetime, but in the broader sweep of American history. Placing each figure's achievements and contributions in a historical context makes each profile the ideal source for preparing reports. Students can use this framework as a basis for comparisons and contrasts, which will give them a better understanding of how individuals shape, and are shaped by, the times in which they live. Profiles: The Wright Brothers; Leo Baekeland; Robert Hutchings Goddard; Vladimir Zworykin; Chester Carlson; Howard Aiken; Gordon Gould; Ernest Lawrence; William Shockley; and Wilson Greatbatch.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Wright brothers & the airplane; title: Leo Baekeland & plastic; title: Robert Goddard & the rocket; title: Vladimir Zworykin & the television; title: Ernest Lawrence & the cyclotron; title: Chester Carlson & xerography; title: Howard Aiken & the computer; title: William Shockley & the transistor; title: Wilson Greatbatch & the implantable pacemaker; title: Gordon Gould & the laser.