Incredible Inventions

Take a lively, sweeping look at some of the most important light-bulb moments in the development of inventions. Find out how one idea often led to another, and revealed something new and exciting about our world. How ancient lighthouses led to 3D movies and 5,000 year old writing led eventually to the internet, roman watermills to flushing toilets and dug-out canoes to space exploration. Take this amazing journey and discover…

• why moviegoers found Cinerama so exciting they screamed
• Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer and other great
• female inventors
• which code took 267 years to crack
• fizzy drinks were sold as brain tonics

…all this and so much more, packed into a trail of discovery with brilliant writing and humorous illustrations. We haven’t forgotten the daft ideas either (spectacles for horses, why not?) and wayward predictions – um, the end of the Internet was going to happen in 1996… (the guy ate his words, literally).

It is all really fascinating stuff!

Matt Turner has authored books on diverse topics including natural history, earth sciences and railways, as well as hundreds of articles for encyclopaedias and artworks, covering everything from elephants to abstract art. He and his family currently live near Auckland, New Zealand, where he volunteers for the local Coastguard unit and dabbles in art and craft

Sarah Conner lives in the lovely English countryside, in a cute cottage with her dogs and a cat. She spends her days sketching and doodling the world around her. She has always been inspired by nature and it influences much of her work.