The great inventions : their history, from the earliest period to the present. Their influence on civilization, accompanied by sketches of lives of the principal inventors; their labors, their hardships and their triumphs
A popular history of inventions and inventors written by journalist Franc B. Wilkie and issued by J. A. Ruth & Co. of Philadelphia and Chicago in 1883 for a general subscription-book audience. The wood engravings show machinery in profile with every gear and linkage drawn, steam vessels under sail, and wide factory interiors where small figures work beside furnaces and rolling mills, giving designers mechanical diagrams, industrial crowd scenes, and period ship silhouettes.
