Inventors of Communications Technology

Gr 6–8—Overall, these collective biographies offer satisfyingly detailed pictures of significant and little-known inventors' lives and gadgetry, as well as the widespread effects of said gadgetry. Each volume profiles over a dozen people (including collaborations). Despite opening historical overviews, plus an entry for Archimedes in Industrial Technology, the focus of this set is on figures from the past few centuries: everyone from Johannes Gutenberg to Skype cofounders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennström in Communications Technology, for instance, and in Everyday Technology, from Ben Franklin to Earl Tupper (inventor of Tupperware) and Lonnie Johnson (who created the Super Soaker). Women and minority inventors are well represented in Health and Medical Technology but are thin on the ground elsewhere—particularly in Computer Technology, which contains a sidebar survey of "Women and Computers" but provides a full entry for only Grace Hopper. The profiles are arranged in alphabetical order, and each includes one or two small photos and a time line.