CHAPTER I

THE CONQUEST OF THE ZONES

Geographical knowledge of the ancient Egyptians, p.5—The mariner's compass, p.7—Reference to the thirty-two points of the compass by Chaucer, p.9—Halley's observations on the changes in the direction of the compass in a century, p.10—Deviation of the compass, p.11—The voyage of the Carnegie, the non-magnetic ship, p.12—The "dip of the needle" first observed by Robert Norman, p.13—The modern compass invented by Lord Kelvin, p.14—Sailing by dead reckoning, p.14—The invention of the "log," p.15—The modern log, p.17—The development of the sextant, p.18—The astrolabe, p.19—The quadrant invented by Hadley, p.20—The perfected sextant, p.21—Perfecting the chronometer, p.23—The timepieces invented by the British carpenter, John Harrison, p.25—The prize won by Harrison, p.27—Finding time without a chronometer, p.28—The Nautical Almanac, p.30—Ascertaining the ship's longitude, p.31—Difficulties of "taking the sun" at noon, p.33—Measuring a degree of latitude, p.34—The observations of Robert Norman, p.35—The function of the Nautical Almanac, p.37—Soundings and charts, p.41—Mercator's projection, p.44—The lure of the unknown, p.45—The quest of the Pole, p.47—Commander Peary's achievement, p.49—How observations are made in arctic regions, p.50—Making observations at the Pole, p.52—Difficulties as to direction at the Pole, p.54.

CHAPTER II

THE HIGHWAY OF THE WATERS

Use of sails in ancient times, p.56—Ships with many banks of oars, p.57—MediÆval ships, p.59—Modern sailing ships, p.60—The sailing record of The Sovereign of the Seas, p.60—Early attempts to invent a steamboat, p.63—Robert Fulton's Clermont, p.64—The steamboat of Blasco de Gary, p.66—The Charlotte Dundas, p.67—The steamboat invented by Col. John Stevens, p.68—Fulton designs the Clermont, p.71—The historic trip of the Clermont up the Hudson, p.71—Sea-going steamships, p.73—Ships built of iron and steel, p.74—The Great Eastern, p.76—Principal dimensions of the Great Eastern, p.78—Twin-screw vessels, p.80—The triumph of the turbine, p.81—The Lusitania and Mauretania, p.82—Submarine signalling, p.83—The rescue of the Republic, p.84—How the submarine signalling device works, p.86—The Olympic and Titanic, p.90—Liquid fuel, p.90—Advantages and disadvantages of liquid fuel, p.91.

CHAPTER III

SUBMARINE VESSELS

Slow development of submarine navigation, p.93—The first submarine, p.94—Description of David Bushnell's boat, p.94—Attempts to sink a war vessel during the American Revolution, p.97—Robert Fulton's experiments, p.98—The attack on the Argus by Fulton's submarine, p.100—The attack upon the Ramilles in 1813, p.102—A successful diving boat, p.103—The sinking of the Housatonic, p.104—Recent submarines and submersibles, p.105—The Holland, p.106—The Lake type of boat, p.108—Problems to be overcome in submarine navigation, p.109—Present status of submarine boats, p.111—The problem of seeing without being seen, p.113—The experimental attacks upon the cruiser Yankee in 1908, p.115—The possibility of using aeroplanes for detecting the presence of submarines, p.117.

CHAPTER IV

THE STEAM LOCOMOTIVE

The earliest railroad, p.119—The substitution of flanged wheels for flanged rails, p.120—The locomotive of Richard Trevithick, p.121—The cable road of Chapman, p.123—Stephenson solves the problem, p.124—Versatility of Stephenson, p.125—His early locomotives, p.126—Stephenson's locomotive of 1825, p.127—The first passenger coach, p.128—The Liverpool and Manchester Railway projected, p.129—Conditions named for testing the competing locomotives, p.130—The Rocket and other contestants, p.132—Description of the Rocket, p.133—Improvements on the construction of the Rocket, p.134—Improvements in locomotives in recent years, p.135—The compound locomotive, p.137—Advantages of compound locomotives, p.138—The Westinghouse air brake, p.141—The "straight air brake," p.143—The automatic air brake, p.144—The high-speed air brake, p.146—Automatic couplings, p.147—Principle of the Janney coupling, p.149—A comparison—the old and the new, p.150.

CHAPTER V

FROM CART TO AUTOMOBILE

When were carts first used? p.152—The development of the bicycle, p.154—The pneumatic tire introduced, p.155—The coming of the automobile, p.156—The gas engine of Dr. Otto, p.157—Cugnot's automobile, p.158—The automobile of William Murdoch, 1785, p.158—Opposition in England to the introduction of automobiles, p.159—An extraordinary piece of legislation, p.161—Scientific aspects of automobile racing, p.164—Some records made at Ormonde, p.165—Records made by Oldfield in 1910, p.166—Comparative speeds of various vehicles and animals, p.167—Speed of birds in flight, p.168—A miraculous transformation of energy, p.170—Electrical timing device for measuring automobile speeds, p.171.

CHAPTER VI

THE DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRIC RAILWAYS

New York the first city to have a street railway, p.175—Cable systems, p.177—Early self-sustained systems, p.178—The electro-magnetic locomotive of Moses G. Farmer, p.179—The efforts of Professor Page to produce a storage battery car, p.180—The experiments of Siemens and Halske with electric motors, p.181—The Edison electric locomotive, p.182—Third rails and trolleys, p.184—The inventions of Daft and Van Depoele, p.185—The work of Frank J. Sprague in developing electric railways, p.186—How the word "trolley" was coined, p.187—Storage battery systems, p.188—The Edison storage battery car of 1910, p.189—Monorail systems, p.191—Electric aerial monorail systems, p.193.

CHAPTER VII

THE GYROCAR

Mr. Louis Brennan's car exhibited before the Royal Society in London, p.195—How the gyroscope is installed on this car, p.196—Gyroscopic action explained, p.197—Why does the spinning wheel exert gyroscopic power? p.199—Mr. Brennan's model car, p.200—The "wabble" of the gyroscope explained, p.202—How the Brennan gyroscopes work, p.203—Technical explanation of the gyroscope, p.204—The evolution of an idea, p.213—Sir Henry Bessemer's experiment, p.214—What may be expected of the gyrocar, p.215.

CHAPTER VIII

THE GYROSCOPE AND OCEAN TRAVEL

Bessemer's costly experiment, p.217—Dr. Schlick's successful experiment, p.219—The action of Dr. Schlick's invention explained, p.220—Did gyroscopic action wreck the Viper? p.222—Theoretical dangers of the gyroscope, p.223—Probable use of the gyroscope on battleships, p.225.

CHAPTER IX

NAVIGATING THE AIR

Some mediÆval traditions about airships, p.266—The flying machines devised by Leonardo da Vinci, p.277—The flying machine of Besnier, p.228—The discovery of hydrogen gas and its effect upon aeronautics, p.230—The balloon invented, p.231—The first successful balloon ascension, p.232—Rozier, the first man to make an ascent in a balloon, p.235—Blanchard's attempt to produce a dirigible balloon, p.238—Hot-air balloons and hydrogen-gas balloons, p.240—Rozier, the first victim of ballooning, p.241—Progress in mechanical flight, p.244—Cocking's parachute, p.245—Henson's studies of the lifting power of plane surfaces, p.246—The flying machine of Captain Le Bris, p.248—Giffard "the Fulton of aerial navigation," p.251—The flights of the Giant, p.252—The record flight of John Wise in 1859, p.256—Early war balloons and dirigible balloons, p.257—The use of balloons during the Franco-Prussian war, p.258—The dirigible balloon achieved, p.262—The dirigible balloon of Dupuy de Lome, p.263—The aluminum balloon of Herr Schwartz, p.264—The dirigible balloons of Count Zeppelin, p.266—Early experiments of Santos-Dumont, p.267.

CHAPTER X

THE TRIUMPH OF THE AEROPLANE

Balloon versus aeroplane, p.272—The kite as a flying machine, p.273—How the air sustains a heavier-than-air mechanism, p.274—Langley's early experiments, p.275—Experiments in soaring, p.277—Lilienthal's imitation of the soaring bird, p.279—Sir Hiram Maxim's flying machine, p.283—Langley's successful aerodrome, p.284—The failure of Langley's larger aerodrome, p.287—Wilbur and Orville Wright accomplish the impossible, p.288—The first public demonstration by the Wright brothers, p.290—The Wright aeroplane described, p.291—A host of imitators, p.292—Mr. Henry Farman's successful flights, p.293—Public demonstrations by the Wright brothers in America and France, p.293—The English Channel crossed by BlÉriot, p.294—Orville Wright fulfils the Government tests, p.295—Spectacular cross-country flights, p.296—The Wright brothers the true pioneers, p.300.