Hucksters and pioneers

摘要

FIFTY years in the making, this encyclopedia of "firsts" is a gem of a book, amusing and informative. Patrick Robertson, a former bbc cuttings librarian, started work on the project in 1961 when he was 14. He travelled the world to pursue his eccentric obsession, collecting stories and trivia as if filling an enormous curio cabinet. We are lucky he did. From the first false eyelashes (1916), public lavatory (1852) and sliced bread (1912), Mr Robertson takes readers on an alphabetical romp through history's innovations and innovators. He wisely concentrates on the people behind these inventions, rather than the concepts themselves. A natural storyteller, he injects life and humanity into what might have otherwise been a dull list. Thus we meet 21-year-old John Curtis who produced the first commercial chewing gum in his home kitchen in Maine in 1848. At a penny for two sticks, he made $5,000 in his first year and established the world's first chewing-gum factory in Portland in 1850. Still barely literate, he died a multimillionaire in 1897. The chewing-gum industry is worth around $20 billion today.