Shapers of Our Age

Book excerpt: Marconi didn't invent radio, Westinghouse didn't invent alternating current, Talbot didn't invent photography and Edward Jenner didn't invent vaccination. Innovators and inventors are wonderful thinkers but they are often poor communicators and business people. Thus, even if the change that they brought about altered or enhanced society, oftentimes they were forgotten, they did not receive public recognition or some other person took their credit. Sometimes the true innovators are not recognized for hundreds of years and, perhaps never.This book tells the story of a number of these people in a way that illustrates their lives as well as their achievements. It is meant to be entertaining and somewhat illuminating about the times in which these people lived.These tales are not definitive reference biographies of the personalities involved. They are tales of people with the same name in whose lives most of the events were identical to those of the personality.