William Gurstelle - ReMaking History, Volume 1: Early Makers

William Gurstelle

ReMaking History, Volume I

Early Makers

By William Gurstelle

Copyright 2016 William Gurstelle. All rights reserved.

Printed in Canada.

Published by Maker Media, Inc.,
1160 Battery Street East, Suite 125
San Francisco, California 94111

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Publisher: Roger Stewart

Editor: Roger Stewart

Copy Editor: Rebecca Rider, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Proofreader: Elizabeth Welch, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Interior Designer and Compositor: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Illustration: Richard Sheppard, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Cover Designer: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Indexer: Valerie Perry, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

August 2016: First Edition

Revision History for the First Edition

2016-07-15: First Release

See oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781680450606 for release details.

Make:, Maker Shed, and Maker Faire are registered trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. The Maker Media logo is a trademark of Maker Media, Inc. ReMaking History, Volume I: Early Makers and related trade dress are trademarks of Maker Media, Inc.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and Maker Media, Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps.

While the publisher and the author have used good faith efforts to ensure that the information and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the author disclaim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including, without limitation, responsibility for damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the information and instructions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code samples or other technology this work contains or describes is subject to open source licenses or the intellectual property rights of others, it is your responsibility to ensure that your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights.

978-1-680-45060-6

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Make: unites, inspires, informs, and entertains a growing community of resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements, and garages. Make: celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your will. The Make: audience continues to be a growing culture and community that believes in bettering ourselves, our environment, our educational systemour entire world. This is much more than an audience; its a worldwide movement that Make: is leading and we call it the Maker Movement.

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• Maker Shed makershed.com
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Please visit www.ReMakingHistory.info for information including corrections, updates, and further reading recommendations.

William Gurstelle has been writing for Make: magazine pretty much since the beginning. Besides 40 or so ReMaking History columns, his work there has included do-it-yourself pieces on a gravity-powered catapult, a taffy-pulling machine, a Taser-powered potato cannon, and an ornithopter. Hes also a bestselling author, a registered engineer, and a popular speaker on the world of science and technology.

Ive found that history and science are two of my favorite topics. And maybe they are yours as well. If thats the case, you have come to the right place, because youll learn plenty of both in this book. Not only will you read about both subjects, but youll also have opportunities to step out and actually touch history by re-creating, at least after a fashion, some of the great inventions of the past. The way this happens is through something called DIY science. DIY stands for do-it-yourself, and that means you can actually do some of the same things that the great scientists youll read about did.

There are many different ways to study these great inventions from the past. One way is to learn the history of how they were invented. That usually means learning about the people who invented themwhere they lived, how they went about the inventing process, and if youre really a scholar, you will go on to find out how they came up with the idea in the first place.

Another way to study an invention is to learn the scientific principles behind it. For instance, if the invention is a construction crane, it would make sense to understand the physics of simple machines, and the materials science that explains why some materials are stronger and more suited for making such a contraption.

And a third way to study an invention is to re-create the invention yourself. This way gives you an intimate understanding of how and why something works. If you take the time to try a few of the projects in this book, youll get a special type of understanding that can only come to you from doing things yourself.

This book is about using all three wayshistory, science, and building the thing ourselvesto become knowledgeable about many great inventions from the distant past and why they are still relevant today.