“tiny inventions that make our world work”

“Nuts & Bolts”

David Zetland

The one-handed economist

Book Review: I bought this 2023 book by Roma Agrawal after hearing her interviewed on a podcast. I was really excited to read about “tiny inventions that make our world work,” but I was ultimately disappointed.

My main complaint is with Agrawal’s theme of (a) telling stories about how she’s experienced a lens (“to see my baby growing in my womb”) and (b) trying to be inclusive as an apology for the dominance of Western, white, cis-males (she cites “a gender non-conforming artist, performer, poet and author” on the topic of String).

I wanted what was “on the tin” — i.e., a description of those [not-so] small inventions and how they’ve evolved in design and use. Although it’s kinda unfair that most inventors and users have been cis-males, it’s also an historic fact, so I think it would have been fine to spend more time on their ideas and struggles (often with other cis-males!) as well as providing more illustrations and diagrams.

Anyways, I got bored with the book after awhile and skimmed for interesting facts or content. I will give those examples below, with each object’s name linked to the appropriate Wikipedia page, in case you want to ready the neutral history of each invention. The wiki pages also have more diagrams and videos to show how things work.

Hmmm… I just read the first wiki page (for “nail”) and it’s a pretty close match to Agrawal’s chapter on that item. Maybe she started with wikipedia and then went to find a smith to show her how to make a nail? I’m doubting the value-add of this book even more, except for Agrawal’s personal stories (which don’t interest me).

1. Nail: If your nail bends when you hit its head, then hit harder, to force the nail into the wood before it can think of bending (!)
2. Wheel: The “double dish” wire-spoked wheel (like we see on bike tires, but also in early planes) is (a) light and strong and (b) stable because the spokes on both sides balance each other out, in terms of tension against pressure from the side. You need two sides, since one side only would collapse towards that side.
3. Spring: Clocktowers used a spring system to regulate the rate at which a weight fell, thereby powering the gears that told the time. “Clock” comes from the Latin clocca, for bell, as early “clock” towers didn’t have a face to tell the time: they only had bells.
4. Magnet: Natural permanent magnets (“lodestone”) were very rare. The first telephone converted sound into a vibration that created a current in an electro-magnet was carried “down the wire” to the receiving magnet, which then moved a diaphragm [what a crazy word! Oh, it’s Greek for separating two spaces] and reproduced the noise.
5. Lens: Van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723, Delft) invented microscopes that were 30x more powerful than contemporaries, leading to the discovery of red blood cells, spermatozoa and the entire field of microscopic studies.
6. String: Its earliest use predates writing and its fragility means we don’t know when it was “invented” but probably right after the first human wrapped two vines around each other!
7. Pump: We use them everywhere to move liquids and gasses under pressure but our hearts are perhaps the most amazing (and useful!) pumps we have. They pump around 3 billion times in an 80-year lifetime, with the capacity to quadruple flow (rest to running), no need to repair, etc. Evolution is badass.

I’m glad I read the [start of the] wikipedia articles for these important inventions. Don’t bother with the book. TWO STARS.