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WE HAVE an unfortunate tendency to oversimplify invention to lists of names, dates and other statistics. Look more closely and you’ll find a rich and fascinating ecosystem. It’s not just the idea that counts – the way it is implemented and the context are equally important. As John Lienhard acknowledges in this book, “The steam engine had been ‘invented’ long before [James Watt] arrived.” Lienhard devotes just five pages of his 100-page section on “steam and speed” to Watt and his work. That is not to downplay Watt’s achievements, but to put them into the proper context of others who…