Front matter
Reading edition
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.
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 Page 1 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 Page 9 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 Page 34 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 Page 55 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 Page 88 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 Page 173 APPENDIX Brief notes on important inventions Page 237 Index Page 247
ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG. PAGE
MARCONI WIRELESS-TELEGRAPH STATION, CLIFDEN, IRELAND Frontispiece
THE SAME STATION PHOTOGRAPHED BY DAYLIGHT
1–THE BATTLE OF SYRACUSE 3
2–GALILEO'S PENDULUM CLOCK 11
3–AN AIR THERMOMETER 14
4–TORRICELLI'S EXPERIMENT 19
5–GUERICKE'S AIR-PUMP 22
6–GUERICKE'S WATER BAROMETER 24
7–A LIFT-PUMP 25
8–A SIMPLE HYDRAULIC PRESS 26
9–HOW AN HYDRAULIC PRESS WORKS 28
10–AN HYDRAULIC PRESS WITH BELT-DRIVEN PUMP 29
11–NEWTON'S EXPERIMENT WITH THE PRISM 32
12–PAPIN'S ENGINE 36
13–THE NEWCOMEN ENGINE, IN REPAIRING WHICH WATT WAS LED TO HIS GREAT DISCOVERIES 39
14–CYLINDER OF WATT'S STEAM-ENGINE 41
15–A FLY-BALL GOVERNOR 42
16–A LEYDEN JAR 43
17–FRANKLIN'S KITE EXPERIMENT 47
18–VOLTA EXPLAINING HIS ELECTRIC BATTERY TO NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 52
19–THE FIRST ELECTRIC BATTERY 54
20–COUNT RUMFORD'S EXPERIMENT WITH THE CANNON, MAKING WATER BOIL WITHOUT FIRE 60
21–OERSTED'S EXPERIMENT 66
22–A COIL WITH A CURRENT FLOWING THROUGH IT ACTS LIKE A MAGNET 67
23–A BAR OF SOFT IRON WITH A CURRENT FLOWING AROUND IT BECOMES A MAGNET 67
24–TWO COILS WITH CURRENTS FLOWING IN THE SAME DIRECTION ATTRACT EACH OTHER 68
25–TWO COILS WITH CURRENTS FLOWING IN OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS REPEL EACH OTHER 68
26–ARAGO'S EXPERIMENT 70
27–ONE POLE OF A MAGNET SPINS ROUND A WIRE THROUGH WHICH AN ELECTRIC CURRENT FLOWS 71
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 73
29–A COIL OF WIRE AROUND A COMPASS-NEEDLE 74
30–FARADAY'S INDUCTION-COIL 76
31–HISTORICAL APPARATUS OF FARADAY IN THE ROYAL INSTITUTION 77
32–FARADAY'S FIRST DYNAMO 78
33–FARADAY'S LABORATORY, WHERE THE FIRST DYNAMO WAS MADE 79
34–THE FIRST TRANSFORMER 80
35–THE "MAGNETIC FIELD" IS THE SPACE AROUND A MAGNET IN WHICH IT WILL ATTRACT IRON 81
36–MAGNETIC FIELD OF A HORSESHOE MAGNET 81
37–A DANIELL CELL 90
38–A GRAVITY CELL 91
39–SHOWING WHAT IS IN A DRY BATTERY 92
40–A STORAGE BATTERY, SHOWING THE "GRIDS" 94
41–A STORAGE-BATTERY PLATE MADE FROM A SHEET OF LEAD 95
42–STURGEON'S ELECTROMAGNET 97
43–AN ELECTROMAGNET WITH MANY TURNS OF INSULATED WIRE 98
44–AN ELECTROMAGNET LIFTING TWELVE TONS OF IRON 99
45–A DYNAMO WITH SIEMENS' ARMATURE 101
46–RING ARMATURE 102
47–FIRST DYNAMO PATENTED IN THE UNITED STATES 103
48–A DRUM ARMATURE, SHOWING HOW AN ARMATURE OF FOUR COILS IS WOUND 104
49–A SERIES-WOUND DYNAMO 106
50–A SHUNT-WOUND DYNAMO 107
51–A COMPOUND-WOUND DYNAMO 108
52–ONE OF EDISON'S FIRST DYNAMOS 109
53–A DYNAMO MOUNTED ON THE TRUCK OF A RAILWAY CAR 110
54–FIRST ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE 113
55–FIRST EDISON ELECTRIC LOCOMOTIVE 115
56–EDISON'S FIRST PASSENGER LOCOMOTIVE 117
57–FIRST COMMERCIAL ELECTRIC RAILWAY 119
58–EDISON, AMERICA'S GREATEST INVENTOR, AT WORK IN HIS LABORATORY 122
59–EDISON'S FAMOUS HORSESHOE PAPER-FILAMENT LAMP OF 1870 123
60–FIRST COMMERCIAL EDISON ELECTRIC-LIGHTING PLANT; INSTALLED ON THE STEAMSHIP "COLUMBIA" IN MAY, 1880 125
61–A TELEGRAPH SOUNDER 129
62–MORSE'S FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT 131
63–A TELEGRAPHIC CIRCUIT WITH RELAY AND SOUNDER 132
64–A SIMPLE TELEGRAPHIC CIRCUIT 133
65–FIRST TELEGRAPH INSTRUMENT USED FOR COMMERCIAL WORK 135
66–HOW TWO MESSAGES ARE SENT OVER ONE WIRE AT THE SAME TIME 137
67–HOW TWO MESSAGES ARE SENT OVER ONE WIRE AT THE SAME TIME. BRIDGE METHOD 139
68–FIRST BELL TELEPHONE RECEIVER AND TRANSMITTER 142
69–A TELEPHONE RECEIVER 143
70–TWO RECEIVERS USED AS A COMPLETE TELEPHONE 145
71–CARBON-DUST TRANSMITTER 146
72–THE PHONAUTOGRAPH, A FORERUNNER OF THE PHONOGRAPH 149
73–EDISON'S FIRST PHONOGRAPH AND A MODERN INSTRUMENT 150
74 to 77–THE FOUR-CYCLE GAS-ENGINE 152
78–TWO-CYCLE GAS-ENGINE. CRANK AND CONNECTING-ROD ARE ENCLOSED WITH THE PISTON 154
79–SELDEN "EXPLOSION BUGGY," FORERUNNER OF THE MODERN AUTOMOBILE 155
80–SOME EARLY LOCOMOTIVES 158
81–HOW A LOCOMOTIVE WORKS 161
82–HERO'S ENGINE 164
83–AN UNDERSHOT WATER-WHEEL WITH CURVED BLADES 165
84–AN OVERSHOT WATER-WHEEL 166
85–DE LAVAL STEAM-TURBINE 167
86–A MODERN STEAM-TURBINE WITH TOP CASING RAISED SHOWING BLADES 168
87–DIAGRAM OF TURBINE SHOWN IN FIG. 86 169
88–A STEAM-TURBINE THAT RUNS A DYNAMO GENERATING 14,000 ELECTRICAL HORSE-POWER 170
89–BRITISH ARMY AIR-SHIP "NULLI SECUNDUS" READY FOR FLIGHT 176
90–BASKET, MOTOR, AND PROPELLER OF THE BRITISH ARMY AIR-SHIP "NULLI SECUNDUS" 178
91–A ZEPPELIN AIR-SHIP 181
92–COUNT ZEPPELIN'S "DEUTSCHLAND," THE FIRST AIR-SHIP IN REGULAR PASSENGER SERVICE 182
93–THE BALDWIN AIR-SHIP USED IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY 183
94–IN FULL FLIGHT 185
95–WRIGHT AIR-SHIP IN FLIGHT 187
96–HOW THE WRIGHT AIR-SHIP IS KEPT AFLOAT 189
97–THE SEAT AND MOTOR OF THE WRIGHT AEROPLANE 191
98–THE BLÉRIOT MONOPLANE 192
99–THE "PLUNGER" 195
100–U. S. SUBMARINE "SHARK" READY FOR A DIVE 197
101–FIRST SUBMARINE CONSTRUCTED IN THE UNITED STATES. IT WENT TO THE BOTTOM WITH SEVEN MEN, WHO WERE DROWNED 198
102–HOW MEN IN A SUBMARINE SEE WHEN UNDER THE WATER 199
103–A TOP THAT SPINS ON A STRING 200
104–A CAR THAT RUNS ON ONE RAIL 202
105–MANUFACTURING DIAMONDS—FIRST OPERATION 207
106–MANUFACTURING DIAMONDS—SECOND OPERATION 209
107–MANUFACTURING DIAMONDS—THIRD OPERATION 211
108–MARCONI AND HIS WIRELESS-TELEGRAPH SENDING AND RECEIVING INSTRUMENTS 215
109–DIAGRAM OF WIRELESS-TELEGRAPH SENDING APPARATUS 217
110–DIAGRAM OF MARCONI WIRELESS-TELEGRAPH RECEIVING APPARATUS 218
111–RECEIVER OF BELL'S PHOTOPHONE 223
112–A GAS FLAME IS SENSITIVE TO ELECTRIC WAVES 224
113–CAPTAIN INGERSOLL ON BOARD THE U. S. BATTLE-SHIP "CONNECTICUT" USING THE WIRELESS TELEPHONE 226
114–INCANDESCENT ELECTRIC LAMP LIGHTED THOUGH NOT CONNECTED TO ANY BATTERY OR DYNAMO 229
115–AN ELECTRIC DISCHARGE AT A PRESSURE OF 12,000,000 VOLTS, A CURRENT OF 800 AMPERES IN THE SECONDARY COIL 230
116–AN ELECTRIC DISCHARGE SIXTY-FIVE FEET IN LENGTH 231
117–A PHYSICIAN EXAMINING THE BONES OF THE ARM BY MEANS OF X-RAYS 233
118–X-RAY PHOTOGRAPH OF THE EYE 234
119–PHOTOGRAPH MADE WITH RADIUM 235