Kevin Desmond: 6 books

As the world’s demand for electrical energy increases, it will be the ingenuity and skill of brilliant electrochemists that enable us to utilize the planet’s mineral reserves responsibly. This biographical dictionary profiles 95 electrochemists from 19 nations who during the past 270 years have...

In the latter half of the 19th century, Gustave Pierre Trouvé, a modest but brilliant Parisian electrical engineer, conceived and patented some 75 inventions, including the endoscope, the electric car and the frontal headlamp. He also designed an electric boat—complete with outboard motor, headlight...

Protecting the planet is everyone's work. But we all have our own heroes in whatever area we are working. Planet Savers brings together the varied stories of the hundreds of movers and shakers that have spoken up throughout history and taken action to defend the world from pollution, deforestation,...

Electric propulsion for boats was developed in the early 19th century and—despite the advent of the internal combustion engine—continued with the perfecting of the modern turbo-electric ship. Sustainable and hybrid technologies, pioneered in small inland watercraft toward the end of the 20th century,...

Beginning in 1881, isolated prototypes of electric tricycles and bicycles were patented and sometimes tested. Limited editions followed in the 1940s, but it was not until the lithium-ion battery became available in the first decade of this century that urban pedelecs and more powerful open-road motorcycles—sometimes...

Attempts at electric powered flight date to well before the 19th century. Battery weight and low energy output made it impractical until the 1990s, when the advent of lightweight materials, more efficient solar power, improved engines and the Li-Po (lithium polymer) battery opened the skies to a wide...