The Tale of the Scale: An Odyssey of Invention

By Solly Angel

In the mid-1980s, Solly Angel had a technological mini-vision. He saw in his mind's eye a quarter-inch thick personal scale weighing a pound--a travel scale--and he decided to make it a reality, to bring it to market.
The Tale of the Scale is a rare first-person account of the process of invention and design as it unfolds in the remaking of the familiar bathroom scale. It is rare because inventors seldom have the inclination to articulate their thought processes and to recount their experiences in great detail. Written by an inventor, the book stands apart from recent books about inventors.
Angel, an urban planner by profession, had no mechanical skills as he embarked on his journey. The Tale records his transformation, over the course of a decade, from a bungling ignoramus to an expert on thin scales. Readers know as much about scales--or about invention for that matter--as Angel does at the beginning of the journey. Listening to Angel's unfolding story, they learn about the intricacies of invention and design as Angel finds out about them.
The Tale of the Scale is truly an odyssey of invention. The pursuit of the thin scale takes readers to fascinating places--from Bangkok to Rolling Hills, California, from Groningen in the Netherlands to Murrhardt in Germany, and from New York to Tokyo. But the places Angel explores are not only visually different. They are realms of knowledge inhabited by people with diverse yet complementary outlooks on the invention process--engineers, designers, lawyers, product development specialists, corporate functionaries, and friends who philosophize on the deeper meanings of one's life pursuits.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0195158687
• ISBN13: 9780195158687
• Release Date: February 2004
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.37 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

He should have written a different book!!!

I read this book awhile ago, and have since come to realize that he should have written a different book. In one chapter he talks about how he is sidetracked into doing some Contract work for the United Nations to make some money. He is running low on funds while trying to design this new bathroom scale, and returns to his previous job with the United Nations. He goes to work defining the Low-income housing policy for a single African country. In a matter of months he went in and discarded the existing housing policy, (which was huge, bureaucratic, and ineffective), and put into its place a simple policy that moved most of this effort into the private sector. It defined the government's role to support the private sector such as protecting private ownership, enforcing contracts, subsidizing rent, all to support the private sector. The end result was the United Nations accepted the proposal, not only for that country, but as its world wide policy for government assisted housing! In a few months Solly Angel had crafted a policy that will (most likely) positively affect millions of lives all around the world. Instead of horrible government tenements (of the sort that large American cities are tearing down because they are so awful for the poor that live in them), the private sector would be encouraged to provide affordable and quality housing for the world's poor because experience has shown that the private sector is better at providing housing than the government. That should have been the topic for this book. Amazing how he had world wide influence and he wrote a book about trying to build a bathroom scale!!! I still enjoyed the book..... Pat Robinson

Unique and rewarding reading

Author Solly Angel envisioned a travel scale weighing a pound back in the mid-1980s - and decided to bring it to market as a reality. His evolution from idea to invention to marketing and design follows his thought processes in an unusual series of insights into the inventor's mind and achievements. Angel had no mechanical skills to aid him in realizing his vision, which makes his story of an inventor's achievement truly a remarkable series of insights. The Tale Of The Scale: An Odyssey Of Invention is unique and rewarding reading -- especially for anyone who has ever wondered about taking their own ideas, concepts and inventions into the marketplace.