Engineering

  • The Way Things Work, From Levers to Lasers, Cars to Computers -- A Visual Guide to the World of Machines by David Macaulay. Goofy drawings and informal descriptions of the principles behind the machines we live with.
  • The Encyclopedia of How It's Made, From Antibiotics to Xerography by Donald Clarke, editor. A compendium of industrial processes, simply emplained.
  • Inventing the Modern World, Technology Since 1750 by Bud, Niziol, Boon and Nahum of the Science Museum, London. Lavish pictures illustrate the rise of the modern world as science and an Aristotelean attitude towards life was applied to the problem of creating knowledge, comfort and prosperity. Unfortunately, the book suffers from Marxist and even environmentalist interpretations, so concentrate on the facts presented and the pictures, not on the false explanations.

Links

Thomas Edison

Thomas Edison

Airplane of Ralph Layman Sr. with Propeller in mid-fusilage

Airplane of Ralph Layman Sr. with Propeller in mid-fusilage