Pigeon Guided Missiles: And 49 Other Ideas That Never Took Off By: James Moore and Paul Nero

This new Hardback book highlights those brilliant ideas that have for one reason or another never quite made it to being successful. All fifty of the concepts here border on the bizarre and laughable.

The Pigeon-Guided Missiles title is drawn from the story of the WWII American psychologist who made the amazing discovery that pigeons could be trained to track objects and, when loaded into the nose cone of a missile, guide the weapon to its target - a one way trip for the pigeon! The book also contains details of British Rail's plan for a spaceship, how Nelson nearly got a pyramid instead of a column, the scheme to cover Manhattan in a glass dome, and why the Victorian Channel Tunnel hit a dead end. From nuclear-powered cars to Thomas Edison's concrete furniture you will find exciting ideas that either became victims of the eccentric figures behind them, succumbed to financial and political misfortune, or were simply just too far ahead of their time.

Pigeon-Guided Missiles is full of fascinating stories of daring plans from history that could have radically changed the world - yet somehow failed to take off. Full of humour and detail this book is a delight.

Size: 124x200mm 256 page Hardback ISBN: 9780 7524 5990 5