FN: the act of creating a new device or process for some useful endHis knowledge of airships was at a premium , and his reputation had been enhanced by his patented invention of a carburettor that could burn hydrogen which was otherwise wasted on airship operations . Both these obsessions were based on Mr Carter 's invention of the ` alarm clock bed " . The grunge and grime of pub rock has been credited with many things , including the invention of punk rock , but being remotely fashionable is n't one of them . Only a year after the invention of balloons , a book was written describing a voyage , by balloon , to the newly discovered planet Uranus . The invention of writing and particularly the attempt to create autonomous text has resulted in a realignment of the two primary functions of language . After all , one feels , Mrs Washington was surely a thrifty housewife ; had the invention of margarine occurred a century sooner than it did , no doubt she would have taken advantage of the development . The invention of printing in Europe in the sixteenth century soon brought with it a number of books offering dream-interpretations for ordinary people . The technical invention of rolling long continuous sheets of steel caused about 70 small works to close . Though father William probably invented the technique , it was his son James who , in 1785 , took out a patent for his ` new invention of Embellishing books bound in vellum , by making drawings on the vellum which are not liable to be defaced but by destroying the vellum itself . ` It was conceived after the invention of " talkies " .