If necessity is indeed the mother of invention, then the individuals profiled in this volume should be considered the most laudable of all midwives. They each saw a need and met it. Readers will learn more about the lives and methodologies of well-known inventors such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison, and become familiar with several more whose creations have sometimes outstripped their personal fame.

This book presents biographies of 100 innovators of technology who have affected nearly every facet of life, from transportation and communication to science and entertainment. Their names range from the familiar, such as Thomas Edison, to the more obscure, such as Henrietta Swan Leavitt, but their contributions to today's world are all vital.