Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)I'm not into reviewing. I've bought many books from Amazon over the years, ranging from worthy-of-a-book-award down to boring. But this is the first time I feel like writing a review. This book is a must for any collector of anything electrical. It is spectacular in every respect. A readable balance of clear but authoritative text and a huge number of magnificent photographs, most in color, of real antique electrical items, many of them very rare, on heavy glossy paper. The main sections are:
The Dawn of the Electrical Age: Very early artifacts of electricity and magnetism.
Electricity Sparks Invention: From Galvani in 1780 to Faraday in 1831 to Morse in 1837 to Alexander Graham Bell in 1875 to Edison and Tesla in the eighteen-seventies and beyond, with great heavily illustrated sections on incendescent lighting, electric motors, electrical measuring instruments, the telegraph, the telephone, and even many electro-therapeutic quackery devices such as the electro-magnetic hairbrush and the bi-polar electric belt with suspensory pouch (I presume for men).
The Wireless Age: Again heavily illustrated, with sections on the electromagnetic spectrum, the discovery of radio waves, early detection of radio waves, Marconi and his many early wireless devices, vacuum tubes, and early radio including military radio in World War One.
Radio Enters the Home: With a huge number of illustrations of radios from the 1920s and 1930s.
The Golden Age of Radio: With an equally huge number of illustrations of radios from the 1930s and 1940s.
The Jones Gallery: About vacuum tubes, ranging from early ones to the one used on the Lunar Orbiter III to photograph the dark side of the moon in 1968.
All profits go to the American Museum of Radio and Electricity, a non-profit organization. I hope I've convinced you to click on the "ADD TO CART" button and then the "PLACE YOUR ORDER" button.
Full disclosure: I'm an avid collector of some items of early incandescent lighting and original documentation about them, and I like to think that I'm somewhat of a historian of some aspects of very early electric incandescent lighting. In that connection, I've corresponded with the author on occasion and we have exchanged some information, but I have no involvement with the American Museum of Radio and Electricity or any other organization of the author.
Click Here to see more reviews about: Where Discovery Sparks Imagination: A Pictorial History of Radio and Electricity
In Where Discovery Sparks Imagination, Jenkins examines the early history of electricity and radio, presented via a marvelous collection of over 600 stunning photographs of actual apparatus, many of which have never before been published. Beginning with the rise of electricity in the 17th century, the book follows a continuous thread of discovery and invention through electric motors, electric light, the telegraph, telephone and ultimately radio. Anyone who appreciates the amazing workmanship and artistry of old technology will love this book!
