"Asimov's Biographical Encyclopedia of Science and Technology is a history of science by Isaac Asimov, written as the biographies of over 1500 scientists."<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimov's_Biographical_Encyclopedia_of_Science_and_Technology" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asimov's_Biographical_Encyclop...</a><p>fuzz
Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is pretty spectacular. He takes a travel writer's eye to the history of science and puts together an incredibly accessible and compelling tour.
An unusually good read - James Dyson's quest to reinvent, build, and then successfully market his vacuum cleaner > <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/955045.Against_the_Odds" rel="nofollow">http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/955045.Against_the_Odds</a>
I read <i>The Most Powerful Idea in the World</i> by William Rosen last year and really enjoyed it.<p>Ostensibly its about the steam engine, but the idea referenced in the title is really patents.