Making of the Modern World

This work presents the development of science and technology through the study of 100 key inventions (selected from the Science Museum Collections), each one a milestone of industrial history. All the objects are illustrated in full colour, backed up in many instances by historical pictures in black and white. Together with the illustrations is an informative and easily understandable text placing each object in its historical context and explaining its function and workings. These texts are by experts in their fields and there is also an introduction by Neil Cossons, Director of the Science Museum. Between them they give a detailed overview of the way we arrived at our modern world.;The aim of this book is to present the developments in science technology and medicine to as wide a readership as possible, including the younger reader on whom the future of technology depends.;
Among the 100 objects included in the book are: Huygen's aerial telescope; Hauksbee's air pump; Arkwright's spinning machine; Boulton and Watt's rotative engine; Ramsden's three-foot theodolite; Trevithick's high-pressure engine; Stephenson's Rocket; Parson's steam turbine; Babbage's difference engine; Bell's Osborne telephone; the Kodak camera; Marconi's transmitter; the Benz car; Baird's TV apparatus; the safety bicycle; the Merlin aircraft engine; the first hovercraft; the original radar receiver; the supersonic airliner, Concorde; and the first brain scanner.