Build a Better Mousetrap
Make Classic Inventions, Discover Your Problem-Solving Genius, and Take the Inventor's Challenge
Chapter One
Spectacles
The Problem
You are a glassmaker on the island city of Venice (in what is today Italy) in the
late 1200s. You and your fellow craftspeople at the Venetian glass factories are
renowned throughout Europe for the beautiful, light, transparent blown-glass
objects you make. You love your work and are expert in decorating glass with
intricate patterns of gold, silver, and enamel threads melted on its surface.
You are now 45 years old and, unfortunately, your eyesight is declining. In
order to clearly see the object you are working on, you need to hold it almost
at arm's length. Soon, your arms won't be long enough! You don't want to give
up your craft. What can you do?
Glass is made from sand, sodium carbonate
(a chemical found in the ashes of burned
vegetation or as deposits in the earth), and
lime, which is chalk. The ingredient ... read full excerpt from Build a Better Mousetrap: Make Classic Inventions, Discover Your Problem-Solving Genius, and Take the Inventor's Challenge ebook
