Invention : the care and feeding of ideas /

Wiener considers the historical, political, and social climates that affect invention and discusses them as they pertain to invention, its relation to science, and the effect they have on the individual element in invention and discovery. He shows how these climates produce deterrents to further scientific discovery and contends that there are four important moments that arise in the process of invention: (1) the need for a proper original mind at the beginning and the need for preservation of ideas in accessible records--the intellectual climate; (2) the need for proper materials or techniques--technical climate; (3) communications between artisan and philosopher--social climate; and (4) the necessity of having a way to promote the invention--economic climate. Actual cases of invention are used; these, together with the examples of political and social climates, are, of necessity, dated, but the discussions of problems and conclusions drawn apply with equal legitimacy to those existing today, such as the subordination of scholarship to other interests--social, political, or economic. The book is very clearly written and can be read with little effort by anyone interested in scientific and technological development. It should be required reading for business excutives and politicians. All levels. P. R. Douville; emeritus, Central Connecticut State University

Introduced by science historian Steve Heims, this manuscript--written by a noted mathematician in the 1950s, with the latest revision dated June 1954--was discovered among Wiener's papers in the Institute Archives of the MIT Libraries. It was originally commissioned by Doubleday, but Wiener returned their $500 advance and subsequently turned his attention to other works. Although Invention has interesting sections, it rambles in parts and has a preachy tone in others. The first few chapters on the history of technology are interesting, primarily for the breadth of the author's understanding, but his views of research styles and his criticism of ``big science'' seem outdated and unduly negative. This book will appeal to a limited audience.-- Hilary D. Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Livermore, Cal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.