The Pinball Effect: How Renaissance Water Gardens Made the Carburetor Possible - and Other Journeys

The Pinball Effect: How Renaissance Water Gardens Made the Carburetor Possible - and Other Journeys
by James Burke

The Pinball Effect: How Renaissance Water Gardens Made the Carburetor Possible - and Other Journeys
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Book Summary Information

Author: James Burke
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1997-08-01
ISBN: 0316116106
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Product features:
  • ISBN13: 9780316116107
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of The Pinball Effect: How Renaissance Water Gardens Made the Carburetor Possible - and Other Journeys

Book Review: A fascinating read.
Summary: 5 Stars

A previous reviewer has pointed out that much of what is described in the book is coincidence. This is true but misses the point entirely. The author does not mean to imply cause and effect; the world is too complex for that. The point is that there are several sets of scattered events that can be joined together; the fascinating thing is that such events and connections exist in the first place. Burke gives examples of such, and does so in such a way that you know he is only sampling from a much larger collection of them.


For example, the following sequence of events comes from the first chapter of the book:


Rowland Hill is best known for introducing the idea of postage stamps. The first printer that the British government hired was an American named Jacob Perkins, who later turned his new printing techniques to the problem of mass producing printed cotton cloth. For this he used a special gum imported from West Africa called Senegal gum. This was made possible by the French who had colonized that part of the world. That in turn was made possible by the 17th century statesman called Jean-Baptiste Colbert, who modernized much of France and in particular its navy. He was responsible for the building of the Canal du Midi that cut a swathe in France from the Atlantic to the Med. One of the engineers who worked on this massive undertaking was Sebastien Vauban, a brilliant inventor who also came up with a new method of siege warfare that was used by French and American troops to defeat the British at Yorktown. The American victory led to a huge number of loyalists fleeing to Nova Scotia. One of them was Abraham Kunders, who saw an opportunity in transporting the other group of refugees sweeping into that part of the world, namely Scots who had been kicked off their lands. After some time this transatlantic traffic was beginning to wane. Meanwhile, Hill's Penny Post had just begun, and Kunders was quick to realize that this would mean a huge amount of mail requiring transportation across the Atlantic, and made sure his company was there to ship a good deal of it. This made him rich, and started a successful family business which by the twentieth century and a clerical error was the Cunard shipping company, that built such well known liners as the Lustiania and the Queen Elizabeth II.


And that's just part of the first chapter, remember.

Summary of The Pinball Effect: How Renaissance Water Gardens Made the Carburetor Possible - and Other Journeys

Using 100s of fascinating examples, James Burke shows how old established ideas in science and technology often lead to serendipitous and amazing modern discoveries and innovations.
Follow the bouncing ball, James Burke-style: spice trading in the Middle Ages leads to the European tea-drinking craze, which helps instigate the development of the science of natural history, which in turns inspires the creation of the coal miner's safety lamp, which is somehow related to the battle between the Monitor and the Merrimack. From there we go to North Carolina cotton industry, Thomas Edison's very first electric power station, air conditioning, glass manufacturing, and laser beams. The end result? The smart bombs used during the Gulf War. Burke, who wrote Connections (the book and the television show), revels--or better, wallows--in the accidental nature of the march of discovery. Despite a penchant for playing it loose and free with scientific and historical accuracy, Burke has compiled a fascinating look at the great matrix of change and transformation that humans have created for themselves.

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