Britannica Educational Publishing 
100 Most Influential Inventors of All Time [PDF ebook] 

If necessity is indeed the mother of invention, then the individuals profiled in this volume should be considered the most laudable of all midwives. They each saw a need and met it. Readers will learn more about the lives and methodologies of well-known inventors such as Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison, and become familiar with several more whose creations have sometimes outstripped their personal fame.