Inventors, Invention, and Innovation: Reference and Introductory Works

Two three-volume sets of encyclopedias are among the valuable introductory works: Technical Innovation in American History: An Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, edited by Rosanne Welch and Peg Lamphier, covering the period from 1865 to 2019, and Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship, edited by Ilias Carayannis, now in its second edition, which includes more than 400 entries by a global network of some 250 authors. Released in the “Very Short Introductions” series, Mark Dodgson and David Gann’s Innovation: A Very Short Introduction focuses on the social-economic aspects and impact of innovation—that is, how it is evolving in the digital era, how in a global economy it has become international phenomenon, and the increasing importance of knowledge and service sectors in the 21st century. A useful recent introductory volume is Gary Bergreen’s Revolutionary Technologies: Educational Perspectives of Technology. Though the writing is uneven, the volume will be helpful for those looking for either historical or contemporary inventions and biopics of inventors, including women and minorities often overlooked. The internet offers numerous resources on inventors, invention, and innovation, and many of these could serve as basic reference sources. Among these are “Important Innovations and Inventions, Past and Present,” by Mary Bellis, on the ThoughtCo website. Bellis provides an alphabetical list of prominent inventions (from “Adhesives/Glue” to “Writing Implements”), with links to encyclopedic-style articles. This site also includes subject sections on historical inventors, patents and trademarks, and international issues. Also valuable is Greta Keenan and Kate Whiting’s “Emerging Technology: 10 Years of Top Tech Trends and How They’ve Changed the World,” published by the World Economic Forum and based on the previous ten years of technology trend predictions made by experts convened by the WEF and Scientific American.2

2. Among the useful periodical sources is “The 65 Best Inventions of the Past 65 Years,” published in Popular Mechanics, which lists prominent inventions (including in medicine and transportation) from 1954 to 2022.