Necessity's Child

Résumé du livre

If the sewing machine was the greatest of Walter Hunt's inventions, close behind were the safety pin and the fountain pen. In 1829 he patented a knife sharpener still manufactured and widely used today. Among his hundreds of inventions, many still in use, are a restaurant steam table, a tree-felling saw, a ship's ice-breaker, inkstands, a rifle, a cartridge, a shoe heel, and a ceiling-walking circus device. He earned, however, only a meager living, instead devoting his life to others. After 65 years of an almost unparalleled act of sustained research--in original documents, 19th century newspaper accounts, court papers, patent files, and Hunt's and his descendant's family papers--Joe Kane has at last completed his astonishingly detailed story of this unsung craftsman.