Transcribers' Note:
Greek transliterations were added by the transcribers andenclosed in {curly braces.}
GREAT FACTS.
GREAT FACTS:
A
POPULAR HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
OF THE MOST
REMARKABLE INVENTIONS
DURING THE PRESENT CENTURY.
BY
FREDERICK C. BAKEWELL,
AUTHOR OF
"PHILOSOPHICAL CONVERSATIONS," "MANUAL OF ELECTRICITY," ETC.
ILLUSTRATED WITH NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
346 & 348 BROADWAY.
1860.
PREFACE.
The conveniences, the comforts, and luxuries conferredon Society by the many important Inventionsof the present century, must naturally excite a desireto know the origin and progress of the application ofscientific principles, by which such advantages havebeen gained.
Practically considered, those Inventions are ofmuch greater value than the discoveries of Scienceon which most of them depend; and the scientific inquirerwho confines his views to abstract principles,without looking beyond them to the varied methodsof their application to useful purposes, may be comparedto a traveller who, having toiled arduously togain the top of a mountain, then shuts his eyes onthe prospect that lies before him.
viiiTo the inquiring youth, more particularly, it isdesirable that he should be enabled to satisfy his wishto know by what means such wonders as Steam Navigation,Locomotion on Railways, the Electric Telegraph,and Photography have been gradually developed;and in becoming acquainted with the successivesteps by which they have advanced towards theirpresent perfection, he will at the same time learn auseful lesson of perseverance under difficulties, andwill have his mind impressed with many valuablescientific truths. The knowledge to be gained by suchinquiry is eminently practical, and of a kind whichthose engaged in any of the pursuits of life canscarcely fail to require.
A History of Inventions almost necessarily impliesa description of the mechanisms and processes bywhich they are effected; so far, at least, as to renderthe principles on which their actions depend understood.It would be impossible, however, in a workof this limited size to enter minutely into explanationsof mechanisms, and into the applications of scientificdiscoveries, which would require a separate treatisefor each; but it has been the Author's endeavour togive a succinct, intelligible account, free from technicalities,of the manner in which they operate, so as tobe comprehensible to all classes of readers.
ixBy thus giving a popular character to the work,to make it acceptable to the young, it is hoped thatit will not be found less worthy, on that account, theperusal of those more advanced in life.
When Beckman wrote his History of Inventions,towards the close of last century, scarcely