The Story of Great Inventions

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[Illustration: MARCONI WIRELESS TELEGRAPH STATION, CLIFDEN, IRELAND]

Photographed at night while sending a message across the Atlantic.

The terrific snapping of the electric discharge is heard by one standing
near the station, but no light is seen. The strange light given out from
the network of wires is invisible to the eye, but is caught by the
photographic plate.

[Illustration: THE SAME STATION PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAYLIGHT]




    THE STORY OF GREAT INVENTIONS

    BY ELMER ELLSWORTH BURNS


    INSTRUCTOR IN PHYSICS IN THE
    JOSEPH MEDILL HIGH SCHOOL, CHICAGO

    WITH MANY ILLUSTRATIONS

    HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
    NEW YORK AND LONDON
    MCMX


    Copyright, 1910, by HARPER & BROTHERS

    Published November, 1910.
    _Printed in the United States of America_




CONTENTS


    CHAPTER I

    THE AGE OF ARCHIMEDES

    Archimedes the first great inventor.--The battle of
    Syracuse.--Archimedes' principle.--Inventions of the ancient
    Greeks


    CHAPTER II

    THE AGE OF GALILEO

    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 T