Includes bibliographical references and index.

Intro; Contents; Preface (by Lillian Hoddeson); Acknowledgments; Image Credits; Introduction; Becoming an Inventor; Inventing with Others; The Intuitive Mind; Stan the Man; A Long Trajectory; I Becoming an Inventor; 1 Young Years (1920s-1930s); Ben Ovshinsky; Bertha Munitz; Ben and Bertha Ovshinsky; The Birth of Mashie, Stan, and Herb; Early High School Years; 2 Passion for Machines (1940-1944); Akron Standard Mold; Senior Year; Goodrich Rubber; Imperial Electric; Attempts to Enlist; Marriage to Norma Rifkin; Arizona; Herb's Visit to Stan and Norma; Stan's Return to Akron.

3 Smarter Machines (1944-1952)Working at the Airdock; Exchange Auto Parts; Benjamin Ovshinsky's Death; The Barn on Chaffin; The First Invention; Stanford Roberts in Dover; Moving Back to Akron; Machine Intelligence; Building Lathes in New Britain; The Automatic Tractor and the Industrial Computer; Leaving New Britain; 4 Love Story (1950s); Arrival in the Motor City; Ralph Geddes Redux; Smarter Cars; Hupp and General Automation; Cone Company and the Programmable Automatic Lathe; Leaving Hupp; Tann and the Multiple-Ball Switch; Iris Dibner; Stan and Iris; Schizophrenia and Epilepsy.

Neurophysiology at Wayne StateThe Ovitron: A Turning Point; Support for the Ovitron; 5 New Beginnings in the Storefront (1960-1964); A New Family; Nurturing Invention: The Storefront; Early Energy Conversion Work; The Early ECL Family; Family Life; The Search for New Switching Materials; Early Promotional Efforts; Leaving Birmingham, the Storefront, and Wayne State; II Inventing with Others; 6 The Birth of ECD: An Invention Factory (1965-1979); Physical Review Letters and the New York Times; Creating a Research Laboratory; Optical Phase-Change Memory; Growth of the Physics Department.

Theories and Models of Chalcogenide SemiconductorsOIS and OMI; The Beginning of ECD's Photovoltaic Program; A Bold Concept and Major New Funding; The UNC Suit; Expansion; 7 The ECD Community: A Social Invention (1965-2007); The Research Community; The Consultants; The Institute for Amorphous Studies; Changing Lives; Shadows; Family; 8 Solar Energy: Working at the Edge of Feasibility (1979-2007); ARCO (1979-1983); Sohio and Sharp (Early to Mid-1980s); Canon: Creating United Solar Systems (1990-2000); Sovlux (1990-1996); Bekaert (2000-2005).

9 Hydrogen and Batteries: The Genie and the Bottle (1980-2007)A Discovery in the Hydrogen Research Group; The Ovonic Battery Company; GM-Ovonic and the EV1; Battery Litigation; Baotou; Hydrogen Cars; Texaco; Chevron; The Akron Hydrogen Dream; 10 Information: Displays and Memory Devices (1981-2007); Flat Panel Displays; Losing Control of OIS; Phase-Change Memory; Ovonyx (Ovonic Unified Memory); Envisioning a Cognitive Computer; Interlude: Science, Art, and Creativity; Drawings and Paintings; Toys and Models; Writing; Science and Art: An Analogy; Cosmology; III Later Years.

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The first full-length biography of a brilliant, self-taught inventor whose innovations in information and energy technology continue to shape our world.

Also available in print.

Mode of access: World Wide Web

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