By: Wondrous Contrivances: Technology at the Threshold By Merritt Ierley Clarkson Potter, 2002 320 pages, $21
With technological advances seemingly coming daily, perspective is hard to come by. So it's worthwhile to look at how other technological devices - everything from the typewriter to television - were introduced into, and received by, American society. Historian Ierley does a good job putting each invention into context, with what preceded it and what it replaced. For instance, although we think of the copying machine as a 20th century invention, primitive versions were in place since the 1800s - and the early ads for the machines are fascinating.
