Years ago in one summer I read SALT (about the history of salt across the world), LONGITUDE (about the invention of a clock that worked at sea), and THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN (about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary). Around that time there were lots of single-topic origin-story books. I'm looking for any recently published books in the same vein. Any area of invention is good, but particularly interested in inventions in the film industry.
by BanDelayEnt
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– *A Place for Everything: The Curious History of Alphabetical Order* by Judith Flanders – about how alphabetical order came to be used as a primary organizational tool
– *The Paper Trail* by Alexander Monro – a history of paper, both its invention and early uses
_Sextant_ by David Barrie
Not exactly new, but 1981s Soul of a New Machine is a classic about a team designing a new computer.
Not an invention, but *T Rex and the Crater of Doom* is about how they developed and proved the theory that the dinosaurs were killed off by a meteor impact.
It’s written by Walter Alvarez, who was part of the team that made the discovery.