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.

Introduction to communications technology -- Alexander Graham Bell: inventor of the telephone -- Louis Braille: inventor of the Braille alphabet -- Giovanni Caselli: inventor of the fax machine -- Martin Cooper: developer of the cell phone -- Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom: cofounders of Skype -- Charles Ginsburg: developer of the videotape recorder -- Johannes Gutenberg: inventor of modern printing -- Narinder Kapany: inventor of fiber optics -- Hedy Lamarr: inventor of radio frequency-hopping technology -- Auguste Lumiere and Louis Lumiere: inventors of motion pictures -- Guglielmo Marconi: inventor of the radio -- Akio Morita: developer of the walkman -- Samuel Morse: inventor of the electric telegraph -- Christopher Latham Sholes: inventor of the typewriter.