Not even geniuses get it right the first time . . . An “entertaining” look at the failures of great inventors (Booklist)

From Alexander Graham Bell’s multi-nippled sheep to Leonardo da Vinci’s walk-on-water shoes, these ludicrous ideas and faulty designs will leave you with a smile on your face, and the reminder that even the very best of us make mistakes

To achieve great things, you have to be willing to take risks — and as Edison’s Concrete Piano reveals, some of the most famous names in history experienced plenty of flops and face-plants in the course of their careers. Thomas Edison, for example, not only revolutionized the world with the light bulb, but also designed a concrete piano, a nonoperational helicopter made from box kites and piano wire, and a machine to speak to the dead. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, actually devoted most of his time to his sheep farm in Nova Scotia — devising a multi-nippled sheep somewhere along the way. You’ll also read about Leonardo da Vinci’s walk-on-water shoes, George Washington Carver’s miracle peanut cure, and much more. The ludicrous ideas, faulty designs, and offbeat hobbies in this volume will inspire laughs — and serve as a reminder that even the very best minds make mistakes.

Judy Wearing's profile page

Judy Wearing is an award-winning educator and author with a PhD in biology from Oxford University. She works as a science education consultant and develops activities and books for children. This is her first popular science book. She lives in Newburgh, Ontario.

“This book sparkles with heaps of ideas, some plain bonkers, others, like the car, more pedestrian.…this book is fun and full of quirks…a fine yarn.” — The Waikato Times

“The popular science is fun and easily accessible, and there’s more to the inventors experiments than the title can contain.” — Los Angeles Times

“[Wearing’s] background as a science educator is advantageous in this entertaining piece of popular science: she portrays lively personalities and eccentric projects in concrete prose.” — Booklist

“Captivating … This book is full of lessons for inventors and non-inventors alike.” — Henry Petroski, author of Success through Failure