THE INVENTOR'S WORKSHOP

Tours of imaginary spaces where 10 world-changing inventions were cooked up.

Thomas’ riveting mix of intricate timelines and broad, high-ceilinged workspaces—both excitingly packed with small but precisely drawn tools, plans, portraits, prototypes, working models on crowded shelves, and bins of bits and pieces waiting for assembly—instantly draw the eye. However, the quick snatches of history and description that Amos, former teen inventor and co-host of the YouTube channel “Kids Invent Stuff,” chucks in amid all the glorious clutter merit attention too. For each of the inventions, which range from clocks to computers, light bulbs and photography to methods of recording and broadcasting sound, the author offers quick overviews of essential components and significant evolutionary leaps on the way to today’s smartphones and TVs, GPS systems, internal combustion engines, and electric bicycles. She skips nearly all mention of negative effects these may have had on people or the environment. Still, with particular attention to female innovators and those of color, she makes the act of invention personal by directing nods to many historical notables: computer pioneers from Ada Lovelace to China’s Xia Peisu; mathematicians such as NASA’s Katherine Johnson and her colleagues; Black Canadian engineer Elijah J. “The Real” McCoy; and Mexican Modernist photographer Lola Álvarez Bravo, to name just a few.

A genial, inclusive ramble through the annals of invention.