The Story of Great Inventions

Galileo and the battle for truth.--The pendulum clock.--Galileo's experiment with falling shot.--The telescope.--Galileo's struggle.--Torricelli and the barometer.--Otto von Guericke and the air-pump.--Robert Boyle and the pressure of air and steam.--Pascal and the hydraulic press.--Newton.--Gravitation.--Colors in sunlight

CHAPTER III

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

James Watt and the steam-engine.--The first steam-engine with a piston.--Newcomen's engine.--Watt's engine.--Horse-power of an engine.--The Leyden jar.--Conductors and insulators.--Two kinds of electric charge.--Franklin's kite experiment.--The lightning-rod.--Galvani and the electric current.--Volta and the electric battery

CHAPTER IV

FARADAY AND THE FIRST DYNAMO

Count Rumford.--Count Rumford's experiment with the cannon.--Davy.--Faraday's electrical discoveries.--Oersted and electromagnetism.--Ampère.--Arago.--Faraday's first electric motor.--An electric current produced by a magnet.--Detecting and measuring an electric current.--An electric current produced by the magnetic field of another current.--Faraday's dynamo.--A wonderful law of nature

CHAPTER V

GREAT INVENTIONS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

Electric batteries.--The dry battery.--The storage battery.--The dynamo.--Siemens' dynamo.--The drum armature.--Edison's compound-wound dynamo.--Electric power.--The first electric railway.--Electric lighting.--The telegraph.--Duplex telegraphy.--The telephone.--The phonograph.--Gas-engines.--The steam locomotive.--How a locomotive works.--The turbine

CHAPTER VI

THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY OUTLOOK

Air-ships.--The aeroplane.--How the Wright aeroplane is kept afloat.--Submarines.--Some spinning tops that are useful.--The monorail-car.--Liquid air and the greatest cold.--The electric furnace and the greatest heat.--The wireless telegraph.--The wireless telephone.--Wonders of the alternating current.--X-rays and radium

APPENDIX

Brief notes on important inventions

INDEX

ILLUSTRATIONS

FIG.

MARCONI WIRELESS-TELEGRAPH STATION, CLIFDEN, IRELAND THE SAME STATION PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAYLIGHT

1--THE BATTLE OF SYRACUSE

2--GALILEO'S PENDULUM CLOCK

3--AN AIR THERMOMETER

4--TORRICELLI'S EXPERIMENT

5--GUERICKE'S AIR-PUMP

6--GUERICKE'S WATER BAROMETER

7--A LIFT-PUMP

8--A SIMPLE HYDRAULIC PRESS

9--HOW AN HYDRAULIC PRESS WORKS

10--AN HYDRAULIC PRESS WITH BELT-DRIVEN PUMP

11--NEWTON'S EXPERIMENT WITH THE PRISM

12--PAPIN'S ENGINE

13--THE NEWCOMEN ENGINE, IN REPAIRING WHICH WATT WAS LED TO HIS GREAT DISCOVERIES

14--CYLINDER OF WATT'S STEAM-ENGINE

15--A FLY-BALL GOVERNOR

16--A LEYDEN JAR

17--FRANKLIN'S KITE EXPERIMENT

18--VOLTA EXPLAINING HIS ELECTRIC BATTERY TO NAPOLEON BONAPARTE

19--THE FIRST ELECTRIC BATTERY

20--COUNT RUMFORD'S EXPERIMENT WITH THE CANNON, MAKING WATER BOIL WITHOUT FIRE

21--OERSTED'S EXPERIMENT

22--A COIL WITH A CURRENT FLOWING THROUGH IT ACTS LIKE A MAGNET

23--A BAR OF SOFT IRON WITH A CURRENT FLOWING AROUND IT BECOMES A MAGNET

24--TWO COILS WITH CURRENTS FLOWING IN THE SAME DIRECTION ATTRACT EACH OTHER

25--TWO COILS WITH CURRENTS FLOWING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS REPEL EACH OTHER

26--ARAGO'S EXPERIMENT

27--ONE POLE OF A MAGNET SPINS ROUND A WIRE THROUGH WHICH AN ELECTRIC CURRENT FLOWS

28--WHEN A MAGNET IS THRUST INTO A COIL OF WIRE IT CAUSES A CURRENT TO FLOW IN THE COIL, BUT THE CURRENT FLOWS ONLY WHILE THE MAGNET IS MOVING

29--A COIL OF WIRE AROUND A COMPASS-NEEDLE

30--FARADAY'S INDUCTION-COIL

31--HISTORICAL APPARATUS OF FARADAY IN THE ROYAL INSTITUTION

32--FARADAY'S FIRST DYNAMO