Taking Milton’s line that peace has victories no less renowned than war, this 1871 book tells the stories behind great inventions and the people who made them. It begins with printing, from Gutenberg and Caxton to the printing machine, moves to the steam engine, and recounts engineers labouring season after season to raise a lighthouse on a sea-swept rock.
Victorian popular history of technology, still pleasant reading for anyone who loves stories of inventors. Download the free EPUB.