• Pigeon-Guided Missiles and 49 Other Ideas That Never Took Off (English-Chinese Edition): 50 Forgotten Scientific Dreams
  • Pigeon-Guided Missiles and 49 Other Ideas That Never Took Off (English-Chinese Edition): 50 Forgotten Scientific Dreams
  • Pigeon-Guided Missiles and 49 Other Ideas That Never Took Off (English-Chinese Edition): 50 Forgotten Scientific Dreams
  • Pigeon-Guided Missiles and 49 Other Ideas That Never Took Off (English-Chinese Edition): 50 Forgotten Scientific Dreams
  • Pigeon-Guided Missiles and 49 Other Ideas That Never Took Off (English-Chinese Edition): 50 Forgotten Scientific Dreams
  • Pigeon-Guided Missiles and 49 Other Ideas That Never Took Off (English-Chinese Edition): 50 Forgotten Scientific Dreams
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Pigeon-Guided Missiles and 49 Other Ideas That Never Took Off (English-Chinese Edition): 50 Forgotten Scientific Dreams

Pigeon-Guided Missiles and 49 Other Ideas That Never Took Off (English-Chinese Edition): 50 Forgotten Scientific Dreams

Edison‘s Concrete Furniture, the London Eiffel Tower, Nelson’s Pyramid and Perpetual Motion Machines — A Celebration of the Dreamers Behind the Ideas That Almost Changed the World
This is not a history of successful inventions, and it is not a book about how to fail better. It is a collection of 50 scientific ideas that were once expected to change the world—and then didn‘t. You meet the pigeon-guided missile, the death ray, Edison’s concrete furniture, a plan to build the Eiffel Tower in London, Nelson‘s pyramid, and the eternal dream of perpetual motion. Each idea is examined for what it was, why it seemed plausible at the time, and what happened to the people who believed in it. The authors, both British journalists, are not mocking these dreamers—they are trying to rescue the ideas from the wastebasket of history and give them the serious attention they never got. If you want to read about the strange, ambitious, and ultimately doomed side of scientific imagination—rather than a success story or a textbook—this is it.
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Detail

Did you know that during World War II, an American behavioral psychologist actually trained pigeons to peck at target images inside missile nose cones? It was a real project. It was seriously funded. It seriously failed.

Pigeon-Guided Missiles & 49 Other Ideas That Never Took Off collects 50 stories like this. Authors James Moore and Paul Nero dug through archives to resurrect ideas that were once considered world-changing—Edison's concrete furniture, a London version of the Eiffel Tower, a pyramid-shaped monument to Nelson, and countless attempts at perpetual motion machines.

Who is this for?

  • Readers who loved the "wait, that actually happened?" factor of Sapiens

  • Anyone into invention history, engineering disasters, or obscure trivia

  • People who want a smart but easy book to dip into

  • A great gift—especially for that friend who thinks their ideas are always brilliant

Why buy this edition?

This isn't a recycled listicle. Both authors are established UK science writers. Every chapter has sources, details, and actual human stories. You don't just learn what failed—you learn who believed in it, why it seemed plausible, and how it all fell apart.

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