Great Inventors and Their InventionsAmerican Book Company, 1918 - 272 pages Nine remarkable men produced inventions that changed the world. The printing press, the telephone, powered flight, recording and others have made the modern world what it is. But who were the men who had these ideas and made reality of them? As David Angus shows, they were very different quiet, boisterous, confident, withdrawn but all had a moment of vision allied to single-minded determination to battle through numerous prototypes and produced something that really worked. It is a fascinating account for younger listeners. |
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Arkwright battery became Beelzebub Bell Bessemer block books boat Boulton and Watt built Clermont cloth copper cost cotton Crompton cylinder Cyrus disk dynamo Edison electric current electric telegraph electromagnet England factory farm farmers fastened father feet Fulton furnace gave George Stephenson grain Gutenberg hand Hargreaves harvest horses Howe's hundred idea improved inches instrument invention inventor Killingworth labor learned letters lock stitch locomotive magnet McCormick messages metal miles an hour mills mold Morse motor moved multiple telegraph needle patent phonautograph pig iron pounds printed propel railroad reaper Robert Fulton rollers rovings sent sewing machine sickle signal sound spindle spinning jenny spinning wheel steam engine steamboat steel Stephenson stitch submarine success telephone things thought thousand dollars thread to-day took trial turned twenty type metal water frame Watt Watt's wheat Whitney Whitney's wire yarn
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Page 29 - And how touching is the sentiment found in one of his journals : " the day will come when some more powerful man will get fame and riches from my invention ; but nobody will believe that poor John Fitch can do anything worthy of attention.
Page 24 - THOSE WHO BEST DESERVE THEIR GRATITUDE, THE KING HIS MINISTERS, AND MANY OF THE NOBLES AND COMMONERS OF THE REALM RAISED THIS MONUMENT TO JAMES WATT, WHO DIRECTING THE FORCE OF AN ORIGINAL GENIUS, EARLY EXERCISED IN PHILOSOPHIC RESEARCH TO THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE...
Page 253 - We soon or late shall navigate The azure as now we sail the sea. The thing looks simple enough to me; And, if you doubt it, Hear how Darius reasoned about it.
Page 43 - They were silent, sad, and weary. I read in their looks nothing but disaster, and almost repented of my efforts. The signal was given, and the boat moved on a short distance, and then stopped, and became immovable. To the silence of the preceding moment now succeeded murmurs of discontent and agitation, and whispers and shrugs. I could hear distinctly repeated, ' I told you so, — it is a foolish scheme. I wish we were well out of it.
Page 43 - ... the fair city of New York ; we passed through the romantic and ever-varying scenery of the highlands ; we descried the clustering houses of Albany ; we reached its shores ; and then, even then, when all seemed achieved, I was the victim of disappointment. Imagination superseded the influence of fact. It was then doubted, if it could be done again ; or if done, it was doubted if it could be made of any great value.
Page 44 - The power of propelling boats by steam is now fully proved. The morning I left New York, there were not perhaps thirty persons in the city who believed that the boat would ever move...
Page 43 - The moment arrived, in which the word was to be given for the vessel to move. My friends were in groups on the deck.
Page 240 - Good ... is unfortunately one of the cui ~bono people, and is too much in the habit of looking at the dark side of things. Such a chimerical idea as telegraphing vocal sounds would indeed, to most minds, seem scarcely feasible enough to spend time in working over. I believe, however, that it is feasible, and that I have got the clue to the solution of the problem.
Page 103 - But a few months reduced me to the cruel necessity" either of destroying my machine altogether, or giving it up to the public. To destroy it I could not think of; to give up that for which I had laboured so long was cruel. I had no patent, nor the means of purchasing one. In preference to destroying it, I gave it to the public.
Page 225 - Oh! no, my young friend, you are mistaken; I was in the Senate chamber till after the lamps were lighted, and my senatorial friends assured me there was no chance for me." "But," she replied, "it is you that are mistaken. Father was there at the adjournment at midnight and saw the President put his name to your bill, and I asked Father...