This is a fascinating collection of sometimes brilliant, often unlucky, and occasionally downright daft inventions, all of which, for various reasons, fell at the first fence - or maybe the second. Since time began, people have been singled out by their need to invent things. "Eurekaaargh!" delves into the thinking and working of some of the greatest, most creative and craziest inventors in our history and reveals why it was they got so far but no further with their creations. Cyclists will undoubtedly be intrigued by one patentee's velocipede seat with an inflated cushion to protect the "organic parts", but may draw the line at mounting Paul Herrmann's cycle made entirely of cane lashed together with string - even the wheels. Balloonists may not be queuing up for Herr Rudolph Diesel's invention for supplying electrical power to balloons, and sailors would do well to avoid Sir Henry Bessemer's anti-seasickness boat, which proved so unmanageable on her maiden voyage that she demolished the pier at Calais. Beautifully illustrated with original drawings, and with over a hundred stories of weird and wonderful bicycles, boats, flying machines, engines, medical marvels and domestic appliances, "Eurekaaargh!" is a tribute to the tireless inventiveness of man, and to the triumph of hope over experience.