CHAPTER I.

The Perspective View.

CHAPTER II.

Chronology of Leading Inventions of the Nineteenth Century.

CHAPTER III.

The Electric Telegraph.

The Voltaic Pile. Daniell’s Battery. Use of Conducting Wire by Weber. Steinheil Employs Earth as Return Circuit. Prof. Henry’s Electro-Magnet, and First Telegraphic Experiment. Prof. Morse’s Telegraphic Code and Register. First Line Between Washington and Baltimore. Bain’s Chemical Telegraph. Gintl’s Duplex Telegraph. Edison’s Quadruplex. House’s Printing Telegraph. Fac Simile Telegraphs. Channing and Farmer Fire Alarm. Telegraphing by Induction. Wireless Telegraphy by Marconi. Statistics.

CHAPTER IV.

The Atlantic Cable.

Difficulties of Laying. Congratulatory Messages Between Queen Victoria and President Buchanan. The Siphon Recorder. Statistics.

CHAPTER V.

The Dynamo and Its Applications.

Observations of Faraday and Henry. Magneto-Electric Machines of Pixii, and of Saxton. Hjorth’s Dynamo of 1855. Wilde’s Machine of 1866. Siemens’ of 1867. Gramme’s of 1870. Tesla’s Polyphase Currents.

CHAPTER VI.

The Electric Motor.

Barlow’s Spur Wheel. Dal Negro’s Electric Pendulum. Prof. Henry’s Electric Motor. Jacobi’s Electric Boat. Davenport’s Motor. The Neff Motor. Dr. Page’s Electric Locomotive. Dr. Siemens’ First Electric Railway at Berlin, 1879. First Electric Railway in United States, between Baltimore and Hampden, 1885. Third Rail System. Statistics. Electric Railways, and General Electric Company. Distribution Electric Current in Principal Cities.

CHAPTER VII.

The Electric Light.

Voltaic Arc by Sir Humphrey Davy. The Jablochkoff Candle. Patents of Brush, Weston, and Others. Search Lights. Grove’s First Incandescent Lamp. Starr-King Lamp. Moses Farmer Lights First Dwelling with Electric Lamps. Sawyer-Man Lamp. Edison’s Incandescent Lamp. Edison’s Three-Wire System of Circuits. Statistics.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Telephone.

Preliminary Suggestions and Experiments of Bourseul, Reis, and Drawbaugh. First Speaking Telephone by Prof. Bell. Differences between Reis’ and Bell’s Telephones. The Blake Transmitter. Berliner’s Variation of Resistance and Electric Undulations, by Variation of Pressure. Edison’s Carbon Microphone. The Telephone Exchange. Statistics.

CHAPTER IX.

Electricity, Miscellaneous.

Storage Battery. Batteries of PlantÉ, Faure and Brush. Electric Welding. Direct Generation of Electricity by Combustion. Electric Boats. Electro-Plating. Edison’s Electric Pen. Electricity in Medicine. Electric Cautery. Electric Musical Instruments. Electric Blasting.

CHAPTER X.

The Steam Engine.

Hero’s Engine, and Other Early Steam Engines. Watt’s Steam Engine. The Cut-Off. Giffard Injector. Bourdon’s Steam Gauge. Feed Water Heaters, Smoke Consumers, etc. Rotary Engines. Steam Hammer. Steam Fire Engine. Compound Engines. Schlick and Taylor Systems of Balancing Momentum of Moving Parts. Statistics.

CHAPTER XI.

The Steam Railway.

Trevithick’s Steam Carriage. Blenkinsop’s Locomotive. Hedley’s “Puffing Billy.” Stephenson’s Locomotive. The Link Motion. Stockton and Darlington Railway, 1825. Hackworth’s “Royal George.” The “Stourbridge Lion” and “John Bull.” Baldwin’s Locomotives. Westinghouse Air Brakes. Janney Car Coupling. The Woodruff Sleeping Car. Railway Statistics.

CHAPTER XII.

Steam Navigation.

Early Experiments. Symington’s Boat. Col. John Stevens’ Screw Propeller. Robt. Fulton and the “Clermont.” First Trip to Sea by Stevens’ “Phoenix.” “Savannah,” the First Steam Vessel to Cross the Ocean. Ericsson’s Screw Propeller. The “Great Eastern.” The Whale Back Steamers. Ocean Greyhounds. The “Oceanic,” largest Steamship in the World. The “Turbinia.” Fulton’s “Demologos,” First War Vessel. The Turret Monitor. Modern Battleships and Torpedo Boats. Holland Submarine Boat.

CHAPTER XIII.

Printing.

Early Printing Press. Nicholson’s Rotary Press. The Columbian and Washington Presses. KÖnig’s Rotary Steam Press. The Hoe Type Revolving Machine. Color Printing. Stereotyping. Paper Making. Wood Pulp. The Linotype. Plate Printing. Lithography.

CHAPTER XIV.

The Typewriter.

Old English Typewriter of 1714. The Burt Typewriter of 1829. Progin’s French Machine of 1833. Thurber’s Printing Machine of 1843. The Beach Typewriter. The Sholes Typewriter, the First of the Modern Form, Commercially Developed into the Remington. The Caligraph, Smith-Premier, and Others.

CHAPTER XV.

The Sewing Machine.

Embroidery Machine the Forerunner of the Sewing Machine. Sewing Machine of Thomas Saint. The Thimonnier Wooden Machine. Greenough’s Double-Pointed Needle. Bean’s Stationary Needle. The Howe Sewing Machine. Bachelder’s Continuous Feed. Improvements of Singer. Wilson’s Rotary Hook, and Four-Motion Feed. The McKay Shoe Sewing Machine. Button Hole Machines. Carpet Sewing Machine. Statistics.

CHAPTER XVI.

The Reaper.

Early English Machines. Machine of Patrick Bell. The Hussey Reaper. McCormick’s Reaper and Its Great Success. Rivalry Between the Two American Reapers. Self Rakers. Automatic Binders. Combined Steam Reaper and Threshing Machine. Great Wheat Fields of the West. Statistics.

CHAPTER XVII.

Vulcanized Rubber.

Early Use of Caoutchouc by the Indians. Collection of the Gum. Early Experiments Failures. Goodyear’s Persistent Experiments. Nathaniel Hayward’s Application of Sulphur to the Gum. Goodyear’s Process of Vulcanization. Introduction of his Process into Europe. Trials and Imprisonment for Debt. Rubber Shoe Industry. Great Extent and Variety of Applications. Statistics.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Chemistry.

Its Evolution as a Science. The Coal Tar Products. Fermenting and Brewing. Glucose, Gun Cotton, and Nitro-Glycerine. Electro-Chemistry. Fertilizers and Commercial Products. New Elements of the Nineteenth Century.

CHAPTER XIX.

Food and Drink.

The Nature of Food. The Roller Mill. The Middlings Purifier. Culinary Utensils. Bread Machinery. Dairy Appliances. Centrifugal Milk Skimmer. The Canning Industry. Sterilization. Butchering and Dressing Meats. Oleomargarine. Manufacture of Sugar. The Vacuum Pan. Centrifugal Filter. Modern Dietetics and Patented Foods.

CHAPTER XX.

Medicine, Surgery and Sanitation.

Discovery of Circulation of the Blood by Harvey. Vaccination by Jenner. Use of AnÆsthetics the Great Step of Medical Progress of the Century. Materia Medica. Instruments. Schools of Medicine. Dentistry. Artificial Limbs. Digestion. Bacteriology, and Disease Germs. Antiseptic Surgery. House Sanitation.

CHAPTER XXI.

The Bicycle and Automobile.

The Draisine, 1816. Michaux’s Bicycle, 1855. United States Patent to Lallement and Carrol, 1866. Transition from “Vertical Fork” and “Star” to Modern “Safety.” Pneumatic Tire. Automobile the Prototype of the Locomotive. Trevithick’s Steam Road Carriage, 1801. The Locomobile of To-day. Gas Engine Automobiles of Pinkus, 1839; Selden, 1879; Duryea, Winton, and Others. Electric Automobiles a Development of Electric Locomotives as Early as 1836. Grounelle’s Electric Automobile of 1852. The Columbia, Woods, and Riker Electric Carriages. Statistics.

CHAPTER XXII.

The Phonograph.

Invention of Phonograph by Edison. Scott’s Phonautograph. Improvements of Bell and Tainter. The Graphophone. Library of Wax Cylinders. Berliner’s Gramophone.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Optics.

Early Telescopes. The Lick Telescope. The Grande Lunette. The Stereo-Binocular Field Glass. The Microscope. The Spectroscope. Polarization of Light. Kaleidoscope. Stereoscope. Range Finder. Kinetoscope, and Moving Pictures.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Photography.

Experiments of Wedgewood and Davy. NiÉpce’s Heliography. Daguerre and the Daguerreotype. Fox Talbot Makes First Proofs from Negatives. Sir John Herschel Introduces Glass Plates. The Collodion Process. Silver and Carbon Prints. Ambrotypes. Emulsions. Dry Plates. The Kodak Camera. The Platinotype. Photography in Colors. Panorama Cameras. Photo-engraving and Photo-lithography. Half Tone Printing.

CHAPTER XXV.

The Roentgen or X-Rays.

Geissler Tubes. Vacuum Tubes of Crookes, Hittorf, and Lenard. The Cathode Ray. Roentgen’s Great Discovery in 1895. X-Ray Apparatus. Salvioni’s Cryptoscope. Edison’s Fluoroscope. The Fluorometer. Sun-burn from X-Rays. Uses of X-Rays.

CHAPTER XXVI.

Gas Lighting.

Early Use of Natural Gas. Coal Gas Introduced by Murdoch. Winsor Organizes First Gas Company in 1804. Melville in United States Lights Beaver-Tail Lighthouse with Gas in 1817. Lowe’s Process of Making Water Gas. Acetylene Gas. Carburetted Air. Pintsch Gas. Gas Meter. Otto Gas Engine. The Welsbach Burner.

CHAPTER XXVII.

Civil Engineering.

Great Bridges, Pneumatic Caissons, Tunnels. The Beach Tunnel Shield. Suez Canal. Dredges. The Lidgerwood Cable Ways. Canal Locks. Artesian Wells. Compressed-Air Rock Drills. Blasting. Mississippi Jetties. Iron and Steel Buildings. Eiffel Tower. Washington’s Monument. The United States Capitol.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Woodworking.

Early Machines of Sir Samuel Bentham. Evolution of the Saw. Circular Saw. Hammering to Tension. Steam Feed for Saw Mill Carriage. Quarter Sawing. The Band Saw. Planing Machines. The Woodworth Planer. The Woodbury Yielding Pressure Bar. The Universal Woodworker. The Blanchard Lathe. Mortising Machines. Special Woodworking Machines.

CHAPTER XXIX.

Metal Working.

Early Iron Furnace. Operations of Lord Dudley, Abraham Darby, and Henry Cort. Neilson’s Hot Blast. Great Blast Furnaces of Modern Times. The Puddling Furnace. Bessemer Steel and the Converter. Open Hearth Steel. Regenerative Furnace. Siemens-Martin Process. Forging Armor Plate. Making Horse Shoes. Screws and Special Machines. Electric Welding, Annealing and Tempering. Coating with Metal. Metal Founding. Barbed Wire Machines. Making Nails, Pins, etc. Making Shot. Alloys. Making Aluminum, and Metallurgy of Rarer Metals. The Cyanide Process. Electric Concentrator.

CHAPTER XXX.

Fire Arms and Explosives.

The Cannon, the Most Ancient of Fire Arms. Muzzle and Breech Loaders of the Sixteenth Century. The Armstrong Gun. The Rodman, Dahlgren, and Parrott Guns. Breech-Loading Ordnance. Rapid Fire Breech-Loading Rifles. Disappearing Gun. Gatling Gun. Dynamite Gun. The Colt, and Smith & Wesson Revolvers. German Automatic Pistol. Breech-Loading Small Arms. Magazine Guns. The Lee, Krag-Jorgensen, and Mauser Rifles. Hammerless Guns. Rebounding Locks. Gun Cotton. Nitro Glycerine, and Smokeless Powder. Mines and Torpedoes.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Textiles.

Spinning and Weaving an Ancient Art. Hargreaves’ Spinning Jenny. Arkwright’s Roll-Drawing Spinning Machine. Crompton’s Mule Spinner. The Cotton Gin. Ring Spinning. The Rabbeth Spindle. John Kay’s Flying Shuttle and Robt. Kay’s Drop Box. Cartwright’s Power Loom. The Jacquard Loom. Crompton’s Fancy Loom. Bigelow’s Carpet Looms. Lyall Positive Motion Loom. Knitting Machines. Cloth Pressing Machinery. Artificial Silk. Mercerized Cloth.

CHAPTER XXXII.

Ice Machines.

General Principles. Freezing Mixtures. Perkins’ Ice Machine, 1834. Pictet’s Apparatus. CarrÉ’s Ammonia Absorption Process. Direct Compression, and Can System. The Holden Ice Machine. Skating Rinks. Windhausen’s Apparatus for Cooling and Ventilating Ships.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Liquid Air.

Liquefaction of Gases by Northmore—1805, Faraday—1823, Bussy—1824, Thilorier—1834, and others. Liquefaction of Oxygen, Nitrogen and Air, by Pictet and Cailletet in 1877. Self-Intensification of Cold by Siemens in 1857, and Windhausen in 1870. Operations of Dewar, Wroblewski, and Olszewski. Self-Intensifying Processes of Solvay, Tripler, LindÉ, Hampson, and Ostergren and Berger. Liquid Air Experiments and Uses.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Minor Inventions,

and

Patents of Principal Countries of the World.

CHAPTER XXXV.

Epilogue.