Amherst Reads White Elephant Technology: 50 Crazy Inventions That Should Never Have Been Built and What We Can Learn From Them

From the publisher:

The majority of commercial ventures might end in failure, but the world would be a poorer place without invention.

This is the story of 50 truly remarkable inventions, from personal helicopters to ‘swimming’ tanks; from flying aircraft carriers (that kept crashing) to a pedal-powered blimp you could barely steer; from an aerial rowing boat you couldn’t navigate to a portable nuclear weapon that killed the men who fired it… these inventions were not only misguided, but demonstrate their inventors’ remarkable gift for out-of-the-box thinking nobody ever asked for. Most importantly, every single one was built, field tested, and worked (more or less) as planned, even when their inventor died in the test phase.

Full of surprises, this is a fun and fast-paced journey through the world of WETech that will make you shake your head in wonder. What in the world were they thinking?

About the author:

John J. Geoghegan' 79 has authored four non-fiction books, served as a Special Correspondent for the New York Times, worked for the Doubleday Publishing Group in New York City, been employed as an editor in the magazine and newspaper businesses, has published over a hundred magazine and newspaper articles, taught freelance writing at Fairfield University, and continues to teach at UC, Berkeley and the University of San Francisco.