Before Their Time: 200 Inventions That Were Too Early

About the Author: Lester Wells

I grew up in San Francisco. I have resided in Taiwan for more than 50 years. I have a Bachelor's Degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages and a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics. I have taught at 2 universities here, and continue to teach graduate students at Buddhist Tzu Chi University (in Hualien).

Step Back in Time to Discover the Future

Imagine a world where Da Vinci's robots roamed the Renaissance, where ancient skies were cut by wings far before the Wright brothers took flight, and where the hum of electricity powered cities long before it was a reality. "Before Their Time: 200 Inventions That Were Too Early" opens a captivating window into the audacious human spirit—the dreamers and thinkers who dared to envision beyond the limitations of their epochs.

Dive into tales of flush toilets that arrived before their sewers, high-speed travel concepts that outpaced society's pace, and mechanical wonders that forecasted the digital age in an era of iron and steam. Each chapter in this mesmerizing book explores the breadth of human ingenuity through the lens of those whose visions were so advanced, they sparked transformations far beyond their lifetimes.

Chapter by chapter, witness the fates of these visionary inventions: from telecommunications that nearly preempted the age of the smartphone to medical breakthroughs that could have rewritten history itself. You'll be transported into the lives of legendary and lesser-known inventors alike, whose forward-thinking creations posed questions society wasn’t ready to answer.

Through the accounts of the "Prophets of the Practical" and "Visionaries of Velocity," experience the exhilarating rush of ideas that could have propelled our ancestors into a different modern age—if only they had succeeded. What could our world have been if the practical application had met their pioneering potential? This is the question that lingers in the echoes of each "what if" scenario presented within the pages of this compelling narrative.

With stunning detail and a storyteller’s touch, "Before Their Time: 200 Inventions That Were Too Early" is not merely a historical account but a journey through an alternate reality of technological advancement. It's a call to the curious, the inventors, and the dreamers of today to leap boldly towards the future. Uncover where we’ve come from to envision where we could go next—your ticket to the past, rewriting the present, awaits.