Front matter

Transcriber's Note:

The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.

PLATE I. THE GREAT WHEEL IN ACTION.

DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS

OF THE

NINETEENTH CENTURY

Who saw what ferns and palms were pressed

Under the tumbling mountain’s breast,

In the safe herbal of the coal?

But when the quarried means were piled,

All is waste and worthless, till

Arrives the wise selecting Will,

And, out of slime and chaos, Wit

Draws the threads of fair and fit.

Then temples rose, and towns, and marts,

The shop of toil, the hall of arts;

Then flew the sail across the seas

To feed the North from tropic trees;

The storm-wind wove, the torrent span,

Where they were bid the rivers ran;

New slaves fulfilled the poet’s dream,

Galvanic wire, strong-shouldered steam.

Emerson.

DISCOVERIES AND INVENTIONS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

BY

ROBERT ROUTLEDGE, B.Sc.,

SOMETIME ASSISTANT EXAMINER IN CHEMISTRY AND IN NATURAL PHILOSOPHY TO THE UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

THIRTEENTH EDITION

Revised and Partly Re-written, with Additions

CONTAINING FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS

LONDON

GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS, Limited

BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL

1900

v