@article{12908,
      author = {Lindsay, David,},
      url = {http://tind.wipo.int/record/12908},
      title = {House of invention : the secret life of everyday products  /},
      abstract = {David Lindsay shares the most fascinating stories in the  obsessive history of invention, all within the typical  American home. He stops in each room to examine the most  taken-for-granted objects, and finds eccentric inventors  lurking within every delightfully bizarre story of  invention. The bathroom, for example, is a hotbed of  innovation. We meet Gillette of disposable razor fame, who  had grandiose utopian plans; the inventor of Vaseline -- he  actually ate a spoonful of the stuff each day; and the  first woman millionaire. A visit to the kitchen takes us to  the frigid North, where Clarence Birdseye was inspired, and  into the odd psyches of the Kellogg brothers. In the foyer,  we find the magical history of the intercom, the piratical  origins of paper money, and the Houdini-like ascension of  the king of locks. The office yields the origins of  pencils; the roots of Muzak technology; and the debt we owe  to Nikola Tesla. The garage shows us the genius of the  standard screw thread, the patent-stealing of intermittent  windshield wipers, and the rags-to-riches-to-rags story of  the woman who invented the flat-bottomed paper bag. In the  family room, we learn of the race for television's patent,  about the violent inventor of the Nautilus machine, and of  the pacifism that inspired solitaire. The bedroom boasts  more personal inventions as we unravel the histories of the  brassiere and even the condom. There is intrigue, suspense,  fraud, rebellion, and more. No house should be without  House of Invention, and no one interested in stories of  genius and ingenuity and the extraordinary creation of  ordinary objects should miss it.},
      recid = {12908},
      pages = {xi, 179 pages ;},
}