101 ingenious kiwis : how New Zealanders changed the world / Tony Williams.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 179). - Contents: Ernest Rutherford : father of nuclear physics -- William Butler : house mover -- Harry Higginson : Kawarau Gorge Suspension Bridge -- Robert Denniston : Denniston self-acting incline -- John Rochfort : Main Trunk railway line -- Robert Holmes : Raurimu Spiral -- Arthur Beverly : watchmaker -- John Eustace : airtight lid -- R. J. Dickie, J. H. Brown and W. Andrews : stamp vending machine -- Ernest Godward : hairpin and carburettor -- George Julius : the totaliser -- Cecil Wood : first New Zealand motorbike and built car -- Charles Jones : the motorised toboggan -- Richard Pearse : first to fly? -- Leo and Vivian Walsh : New Zealand's Wright brothers -- Jean Batten : female aviation pioneer -- Peter Button : air ambulance pioneer -- Samuel Parnell : the eight-hour working day -- Elizabeth Yates : world's first voluntarily elected female mayor -- Kate Sheppard : the sensible suffragette -- Emily Siedeberg : first woman doctor -- Ethel Benjamin : first woman lawyer in the British Empire -- John Blake : milking machine -- Sydney Knapp : Knapp sack sprayer -- H. Lamont Murray and Frank S. Board : vacreator -- Bill Gallagher : electric fence -- Alexander Allison, Hayward Wright, Jim McLoughlin : kiwifruit -- John Lambert, Alan Pritchard, Doug Campbell, John Frizzell : aerial top-dressing --Richard Seddon : old age pension -- Elizabeth McCombs : first woman M.P. -- Mabel Howard : first woman cabinet minister -- Jenny Shipley : first woman prime minister -- Helen Clark : first elected woman prime minister -- John Blake : milking machine -- Sydney Knapp : Knapp sack sprayer -- H. Lamont Murray and Frank S. Board : vacreator -- Bill Gallagher : electric fence -- Alexander Allison, Hayward Wright, Jim McLoughlin : kiwifruit -- John Lambert, Alan Pritchard, Doug Campbell, John Frizzell : aerial top-dressing -- James Little : corriedale -- F. W. Dry : drysdale -- Geoffrey Peren : perendale -- Anonymous : wide-guage shears with a curl -- Godfrey and Ivan Bowen : standard shearing technique -- Bill Hamilton : jet boat and lots more -- Francis Delautour : five-cycle combustion engine -- Mick Couper : giant plough -- Charles Crowe : aircraft designer -- Alan Mitchell : world's fastest machine-gun -- Sir Harold Gillies : plastic surgery pioneer -- Archibald McIndoe : plastic surgery pioneer -- Sir Brian Barrett-Boyes : heart surgeon -- William Liley : world's first prenatal blood transfusion -- John Baeyertz : pregnancy tape -- Colin Murdoch : tranquiliser gun and disposable syringe -- Fred Hollows : eyes for the poor -- Leslie Kay : sonic sight for the blind -- Alexander Aitken : maths genius -- Eric Partridge : the word man -- Harold Williams : world's greatest linguist -- William Atack : referee's whistle -- Vic Cavanagh : rucking -- William Whineray : Willie away -- Arthur Lydiard : coaching and jogging -- Geoffrey Orbell : the lost bird -- Joan Wiffen : the dinosaur lady -- William Pickering : father of the Space Age -- Maurice Wilkins : DNA -- Alan McDiarmid : Nobel Prize-winning chemist -- John Hart : thermette -- Morton Coutts : brewing -- Jim McDonald and Bryan Bartley : rock crusher -- Bill Robinson : quake absorbers -- Claudio Petronelli and Gavin Park : childproof pill container -- John Hough : tullen snips -- Murray Barber : securichain -- William Bacon : Yale lock -- Sylvia Ashton-Warner : organic teaching -- Dame Marie Clay : reading recovery programme -- Alan Duff : books in homes -- Burt Munro : world's fastest Indian -- John Britten : Britten bike -- Jack Hinz : the plane that Jack built -- Burton Silver : the atypical inventor -- Steve Gurney : multi-talented multi-sporter -- Barry Brickell : master of fire and steam -- A. J. Hackett : the bungy king -- Kelly Tarlton : Neptune of the underwater world -- Joseph Nathan : the empire that began in Bunnythorpe -- A. H. Reed : publishing pioneer -- Wendy Pye : from redundancy to a fortune -- Stephen Tindall : The Warehouse -- Geoffrey Blackwell : M.I.L.K. -- Peter Leitch : the mad butcher -- John Bedbrook : biochemist -- Steve Outtrim : software programmer -- Peter Jackson : master of the movies.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 179).

This ingenious book captures the very essence of the Kiwi character and is a spectacular celebration of over 100 examples of pioneering Kiwi ingenuity, profiling shed mechanics like Burt Munro and John Britten to those who used overseas resources to win Nobel Prizes like Ernest Rutherford and Alan McDiarmid, or those who earned international success like Peter Jackson and Peter Blake. Other ingenious Kiwis include Jean Batten, Fred Hollows, Steve Gurney, Kate Sheppard and Alan Duff. We follow the inventive process, showing how - lacking resources and facing overwhelming difficulties - Kiwi ingenuity cracked the problem. Inventors and pioneers include Bill Hamilton and his jet boat, Kelly Tarlton and his underwater world (and treasure hunting), Alan Mitchell and the world's fastest machine gun, Harold Gillies and Archie McIndoe's pioneering plastic surgery on wounded fighter pilots, Richard Pearse and his experimental plane (was he the first to fly?), Dame Marie Clay and her literacy programme, William Pickering getting men to the moon and other ingenious Kiwi discoveries such as the tranquiliser gun, the thermette, electric fences, the referee's whistle, dinosaurs and DNA.