Great inventions, historical biographies, strong morals, and the godly character traits necessary for success are highlighted in this collection of stories. From the steam engine and the printing press to television and computers, a wide range of inventions is covered in short chapters that include reading comprehension questions. For older elementary students. 354 pages, softcover from Christian Liberty Press.
Victorian Internet, The: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century’s On-line Pioneers
A new paperback edition of the first book by the bestselling author of A History of the World in 6 Glasses—the fascinating story of the telegraph, the world’s first “Internet,” which revolutionized the nineteenth century even more than the Internet has the twentieth and twenty first.
The Victorian Internet tells the colorful story of the telegraph’s creation and remarkable impact, and of the visionaries, oddballs, and eccentrics who pioneered it, from the eighteenth-century French scientist Jean-Antoine Nollet to Samuel F. B. Morse and Thomas Edison. The electric telegraph nullified distance and shrank the world quicker and further than ever before or since, and its story mirrors and predicts that of the Internet in numerous ways.
Boy Who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth
An inspiring true story of a boy genius.
Plowing a potato field in 1920, a 14-year-old farm boy from Idaho saw in the parallel rows of overturned earth a way to “make pictures fly through the air.” This boy was not a magician; he was a scientific genius and just eight years later he made his brainstorm in the potato field a reality by transmitting the world’s first television image. This fascinating picture-book biography of Philo Farnsworth covers his early interest in machines and electricity, leading up to how he put it all together in one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. The author’s afterword discusses the lawsuit Farnsworth waged and won against RCA when his high school science teacher testified that Philo’s invention of television was years before RCA’s.
Michael Faraday: Spiritual Dynamo (Trailblazers)
Every time you switch on a light, start up a computer or turn on a television, you do it because of discoveries related to the work of Michael Faraday. In a swimming pool you will be guarded from disease because of liquid chlorine in the water: this is because Michael Faraday first liquefied chlorine.
Faraday built the very first electric motor and later the first generator and transformer of electricity. This was to change long distance communication across the earth leading to the ability to talk to astronauts far out in space. His work on electromagnetism is included in Melvyn Braggs’ book on 12 books that changed the World.
But Michael Faraday also suffered from a disorder known as dyslexia. This meant that he had difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols. Faraday however, overcame this problem to become one of the greatest public lecturers in history.
The interesting thing is that alongside all the amazing discoveries and brilliant experiments there was something more important in Michael’s life. He deeply loved and followed the Lord Jesus. On one occasion after a brilliant public lecture he had given at the Royal Institution, the house “rocked” with enthusiastic applause. The Prince of Wales rose to congratulate the great Professor. The thunders of applause however, were followed by a strange silence. Everybody waited for Michael Faraday’s reply, but the lecturer had vanished! Where was he? Faraday had slipped away to a prayer meeting.
Faraday believed that his great purpose in life was to read, as he put it, “the book of nature … written by the finger of God”. Few people in history have read that book more accurately and applied it more helpfully.
Who in the World Was the Secretive Printer?: The Story of Johannes Gutenberg
Johannes Gutenberg spent his days shut away, working on a mysterious project. His neighbors wondered what he was doing in his metal shop. Why did he need so much money? Was he making expensive gold jewelry? Weapons? Armor? What project could possibly take up so many hours of Johannes’s time? And how did his invention change the world?
James Watt
James Watt, born in Greenock, January 19, 1736, had the advantage, so highly prized in Scotland, of being of good kith and kin. He had indeed come from a good nest. His great-grandfather, a stern Covenanter, was killed at Bridge of Dee, September 12, 1644, in one of the battles which Graham of Claverhouse fought against the Scotch. He was a farmer in Aberdeenshire, and upon his death the family was driven out of its homestead and forced to leave the district.
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James Watt (Famous People, Famous Lives #14)
In this book, the reader learns that James Watt was a scientific instrument maker who was asked to repair a working model of an early type of steam engine used to pump water out of Cornish tin mines. It was when he set about improving the design, so it would exert more power but use less fuel, and teamed up with a mine owner from Birmingham, that his machines became popular. Despite illness and heartbreak, Watt went on to modify his engine so it could power machines in factories that produced goods, such as cotton. The narrative shows how this ushered in the era of mass-production, while accurate illustration show how Watt’s engines work.
Hydrofoil Mystery
It is 1915 and 13-year old William is sent by his mother to spend the summer working with an eccentric inventor – Alexander Graham Bell – and his crew in a tiny Nova Scotia town. They are hard at work designing and building a hydrofoil boat that they hope will help the allies defend themselves from the German U-boats that are sinking ships and threatening coastal towns during the war. William’s mom is hoping that the hard work and close community will keep William, who has developed a taste for gambling and tough ways, out of trouble. But the sleeping village life William thinks he has been sentenced to turns out to be something quite different as the young boy finds himself embroiled in a deadly mystery that is plaguing the hydrofoil and its builders.
Steam Engine (Great Inventions)
The book also does a great job of explaining the history of the steam engine, from its first creation to its replacement by other engine types, as well as giving a basic summary of how steam engines work.Half the book is rather beautiful pictures that show significant engines, trains, ships, and people in the story, so the book is only about 45 pages of actual text.