[PDF] The Origins Of Invention eBook

Author : Silvia Ferrara
Publisher : Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Page : 227 pages
File Size : 14,99 MB
Release : 2022-03-01
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN : 0374601631

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In this exhilarating celebration of human ingenuity and perseverance—published all around the world—a trailblazing Italian scholar sifts through our cultural and social behavior in search of the origins of our greatest invention: writing. The L where a tabletop meets the legs, the T between double doors, the D of an armchair’s oval backrest—all around us is an alphabet in things. But how did these shapes make it onto the page, never mind form complex structures such as this sentence? In The Greatest Invention, Silvia Ferrara takes a profound look at how—and how many times—human beings have managed to produce the miracle of written language, traveling back and forth in time and all across the globe to Mesopotamia, Crete, China, Egypt, Central America, Easter Island, and beyond. With Ferrara as our guide, we examine the enigmas of undeciphered scripts, including famous cases like the Phaistos Disk and the Voynich Manuscript; we touch the knotted, colored strings of the Inca quipu; we study the turtle shells and ox scapulae that bear the earliest Chinese inscriptions; we watch in awe as Sequoyah single-handedly invents a script for the Cherokee language; and we venture to the cutting edge of decipherment, in which high-powered laser scanners bring tears to an engineer’s eye. A code-cracking tour around the globe, The Greatest Invention chronicles a previously uncharted journey, one filled with past flashes of brilliance, present-day scientific research, and a faint, fleeting glimpse of writing’s future.

Author : Autumn Stanley
Publisher : Rutgers University Press
Page : 792 pages
File Size : 45,73 MB
Release : 1995
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780813521978

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Stanley traces women's inventions in five vital areas of technology worldwide--agriculture, medicine, reproduction, machines, and computers.

Author : James S. Ackerman
Publisher :
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 42,11 MB
Release : 2016
Category : ARCHITECTURE
ISBN : 9780300218718

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An illuminating collection of essays from the preeminent scholar of architectural history and theory One of the most distinguished scholars in the fields of architectural history and theory today, James Sloss Ackerman is best known for his work on Italian masters such as Palladio and Michelangelo. In this collection of essays, Ackerman offers insight into his formation and development as a scholar, as well as reflections on a range of topics. Concise, lucid, and original, this book presents deep syntheses alongside innovative approaches and a broadening geographical and chronological reach. Ackerman's enduring fascination with architecture was one unforeseen consequence of his military service in World War II, and the collection includes a revealing account of his part in the liberation of Milan as a soldier in the Fifth American Regiment. These essays represent a unique, personal journey--from the Italian Renaissance to the classical architecture of India and the work of Frank Gehry at the new museum of the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.

Author : Otis Tufton Mason
Publisher : Forgotten Books
Page : 454 pages
File Size : 28,66 MB
Release : 2017-06-15
Category : Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN : 9780282478094

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Excerpt from The Origins of Invention: A Study of Industry Among Primitive Peoples From the point of view here assumed, every change in human activity, made designedly and systematically, appears to be an invention. Not only mechanical devices, whose working models might have been stored in the vaults of prehistoric patent offices and the relics of which fill our museums, were inventions; but the processes of life, language, fine art, Social structures and functions, philo sophies, formulated creeds and cults, - all these involve over and over again the same activities of mind. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Author : Otis Tufton Mason
Publisher : Palala Press
Page : 452 pages
File Size : 17,51 MB
Release : 2015-09-02
Category :
ISBN : 9781341211935

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.