invention
Discoverers who found light in urine and hydrogen in the air.
The Tidy Man
Who lobbies the League of Nations, twice, to adopt a calendar he designed himself?
The Man Without a Face
How do you lose the face of the man who coined the word cell, wrote a law of physics, and rebuilt half of London?
The Wash-and-Be-Clean Man
What did Victorian surgeons do when one quiet Quaker suggested they stop wearing coats stiffened with old blood?
The Woman Who Stole the Car
Why did a woman in 1888 push an automobile down an alley at dawn while her husband slept upstairs?
The Thrupenny Fix
What happens when the Air Ministry is years from a fix, pilots are dying in stalls, and a five-foot carburetor researcher has a home workshop and a motorcycle?
The Ghost Portrait
What kind of inventor dies with $275.05, an unmarked grave, and no verified photograph — but a machine the world still uses 150 years later?
The Dog Got Clean Too
What happens when a woman who holds thirty-six patents and hates cleaning drags a garden hose into her kitchen?
The Viking of Sixth Avenue
What happens when a blind composer in a Viking helmet stands on the same Manhattan corner for thirty years and becomes more famous silent than playing?
The Man Who Built a Robot Band
He invented the crankshaft to water a garden, then spent the rest of his career building a programmable robot drummer for palace drinking parties.
The Paper Men Who Launched a Barnyard Into the Sky
The king suggested testing the balloon on condemned prisoners. The Montgolfiers had a better idea.
The Man Who Boiled His Own Urine and Found Light
He boiled 1,500 gallons of urine looking for gold and accidentally discovered the first new element since antiquity.
The Movie Star Who Invented Your Wi-Fi
The Navy told Hedy Lamarr she'd be more useful selling kisses than inventing torpedo guidance systems.